Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquillity and peace.
Yonge’s Cicero.—De Finibus, Book I. Div. 14; Proverbs, Chap. viii. and ix.
Wisdom is oft concealed in mean attire.
Cœcilius.—Yonge, supra.
Full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
Shakespeare.—All’s Well that Ends Well, Act I. Scene 1. (Helena, as Parolles enters.)
Folly clapp’d her hands, and Wisdom stared.
Churchill.—The Rosciad, Line 68.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm xc. Ver. 12.
Teach me my days to number, and apply
My trembling heart to wisdom.
Dr. Young.—Night IX. Line 1314.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. I. Line 113.
Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.
Solomon.—Ecclesiastes, Chap. vii. Ver. 10.
Vain man would trace the mystic maze
With foolish wisdom, arguing, charge his God,
His balance hold, and guide his angry rod;
New-mould the spheres, and mend the skies’ design,
And sound th’ immense with his short scanty line.
Do thou, my soul, the destin’d period wait,
When God shall solve the dark decrees of fate,
His now unequal dispensation clear,
And make all wise and beautiful appear.
Tickell.—Thoughts on King Charles’s Picture.
All human wisdom to divine is folly;
This truth, the wisest man made melancholy.
Denham.—Progress of Learning.
How ill agree the views of vain mankind,
And the wise counsels of th’ eternal mind!
Pope.—The Iliad, Book X. Line 116.
Thy form benign, O goddess! wear,
Thy milder influence impart,
Thy philosophic train be there,
To soften, not to wound, my heart:
The generous spark extinct revive;
Teach me to love and to forgive;
Exact my own defects to scan;
What others are to feel, and know myself a man.
Gray.—Hymn to Adversity, Verse 6.
Wisdom begins at the end; remember it.
Webster.—The Duchess of Malfi, Act I. Scene 1. (Duchess, Cardinal, and Coriola.)