Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.
We must be patient if we would act wisely. What we do today may bear fruit long after we are dead, for no good work is ever really lost. The important thing is to get the tendency right. We should think of all these subjects in terms not of brief individual life, but long continued national life.
Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
Revolution is man's normal activity, and if he is wise he will grade it slowly so that it may be almost imperceptible - otherwise it will jerk in fits and starts and cause discomfort.
Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.
He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise.
It is only the young and callow and ignorant that admire rashness. Think before you speak. Know your subject.
Nothing is impossible for those who act after wise counsel and careful thought.
Some Christians need encouragement to think before they act. Others need encouragement to act after they think.
They make their fortune who are stout and wise, Wit rules the heavens, discretion guides the skies. [Lat., Che sovente addivien che'l saggio e'l forte. Fabro a se stesso e di beata sorte.]
Heaven sends down its good and evil symbols and wise men act accordingly.
When trouble comes, wise men take to their work; weak men take to the woods.
Listen widely to remove your doubts and be careful when speaking about the rest and your mistakes will be few. See much and get rid of what is dangerous and be careful in acting on the rest and your causes for regret will be few. Speaking without fault, acting without causing regret: 'upgrading' consists in this.
Send a wise man on an errand, and say nothing unto him. [Send a wise man on an errand, and say nothing to him.]
The essence of wisdom, from a practical standpoint, is pausing long enough to look at our lives-invitations, opportunities, relationships-from God's perspective. And then acting on it
Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom.
The Way of the Sage is to act but not to compete.
If the advice of a fool for once happens to be good, it requires a wise man to carry it out.
I give culture this meaning: exercise of thought, acquisition of general ideas, habit of connecting causes and effects ... I believe that it means thinking well, whatever one thinks, and therefore acting well, whatever one does.
How little can we foresee the consequences either of wise or unwise action, of virtue or of malice. Without this measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
To some extent we are all the prisoners of stereotypes; we see each other in terms of distorted and oversimplified images. Better communication in the realm of ideas, of the arts, and of science can help refashion these false images. And by seeing more clearly we may act more wisely.
Don't try to be brave when it is enough to be intelligent.
Of all the paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path .. A thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do .. To find this path, and walk in it, is the one thing needful for him.
Whosoever wisely examines the works of God will speedily discover what is next to be done.
The most important thing is to stay smart and patient.
