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Wisdom   /wˈɪzdəm/   Listen
Wisdom

noun
1.
Accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment.
2.
The trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight.  Synonym: wiseness.
3.
Ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight.  Synonym: sapience.
4.
The quality of being prudent and sensible.  Synonyms: soundness, wiseness.
5.
An Apocryphal book consisting mainly of a meditation on wisdom; although ascribed to Solomon it was probably written in the first century BC.  Synonym: Wisdom of Solomon.



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"Wisdom" Quotes from Famous Books



... more wisdom in the management of his greater province of New York. In 1683 he instructed his governor, Thomas Dongan, to call a representative assembly, which met in the fort at New York. The assembly adopted an act called "The Charter of Liberties and Franchises," which was approved, ...
— The Land We Live In - The Story of Our Country • Henry Mann

... may be among that class who think the "family physician" the embodiment of medical wisdom, and that if he has failed to cure the case or pooh-poohed it away, there is no hope. But no one M.D., however learned, knows all about the ills of flesh. In this, as in the legal and other learned professions, a man may practice ...
— Manhood Perfectly Restored • Unknown

... the word of God. But remember it is not by merely reading it that you are to look for a blessing to your soul. You must pray for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who alone can open your understanding, and incline your heart to heavenly wisdom, that you may not ...
— Aunt Harding's Keepsakes - The Two Bibles • Anonymous

... Goethe's or Emerson's, an expression of intuition and faith. Properly, the literary essay is a distinct artistic genre—the expression of a concrete thinking personality, and its value consists in the living wisdom it contains. Such essays as those of a Montaigne or a La Rochefoucauld make excellent materials for the social sciences, and can never be displaced by them as sources ...
— The Principles Of Aesthetics • Dewitt H. Parker

... we should not fear to question the wisdom of our fathers, but conclusions they have arrived at in matters of government after long study, observation, and actual experience should not be disregarded unless their ...
— Concerning Justice • Lucilius A. Emery

... was two stories high, with fluted walls and no windows. Obviously the size was to impress interviewees. But why should they have to be impressed? Wasn't the wisdom of the five tech doctors sufficient by ...
— DP • Arthur Dekker Savage

... as an accepted institution, as a part of the established order, and public sentiment on the slave trade was not much more emphatic and positive than it is now on cruelty to animals. As Ellsworth said, "The morality or wisdom of slavery are considerations belonging to the States themselves," and the compromise was nothing more or less than ...
— The Fathers of the Constitution - Volume 13 in The Chronicles Of America Series • Max Farrand

... Medica is familiar to students and visitors of old Rome;[39] but the monument which bears it, a nymphaeum of the gardens of the Licinii, near the Porta Maggiore, has no connection whatever with the goddess of wisdom. Minerva Medica was the name of a street on the Esquiline, so called from a shrine which stood at the crossing, or near the crossing, with the Via Merulana, not far from the church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino. ...
— Pagan and Christian Rome • Rodolfo Lanciani

... bree; Though good ye may think it, I 'll never mair drink it— The bucket, the bucket, the bucket for me! There 's health in the bucket, there 's wealth in the bucket, There 's mair i' the bucket than mony can see; An' aye whan I leuk in 't, I find there 's a beuk in 't That teaches the essence o' wisdom ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... controlling, or, at least, concurrent power with the dangerous chief, while ostensibly he should act only in subordination to him. The person selected for this delicate mission, was the Licentiate Vaca de Castro, a member of the Royal Audience of Valladolid. He was a learned judge, a man of integrity and wisdom, and, though not bred to arms, had so much address, and such knowledge of character, as would enable him readily to turn the resources of ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... august Prince Royal has conducted himself in such a manner as to leave your excellency no cause to repent of that which some people were pleased to call "credulity," but which events have proved to be wisdom. ...
— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II • Sir John Ross

... when, by the wise liberality of the Government, our ships are furnished with useful and interesting books, none need of necessity be deprived of the exquisite pleasure which is to be derived from visiting scenes which have been 'dignified either by wisdom, bravery, or virtue.' We are constantly reminded that 'knowledge is power;' but it might be well to impress upon youngsters, that 'knowledge is enjoyment.' There is, indeed, no acquirement in literature or science that will not at some time ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly

... one can say with security whether such apparition be angel or devil; because St. Paul says (2 Cor. xi. 14), that 'Satan often changes himself into an angel of light;' and respecting the ghost of your mother, in my opinion, it was a devil sent to tempt your dear little daughter; for it is written (Wisdom xxxi.), 'The just are in the hand of God, and ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... they had found lots of pepper, and had been impressed by the magnificence and the wisdom of the Sultan; but somehow, after a century of chequered intercourse, the country seems to drop gradually out of the trade. Perhaps the pepper had given out. Be it as it may, nobody cares for it now; the ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... soon become well established. In the most favourable portions of the State farmers are able to depend almost solely on the grazing qualities of their farms, although the experts of the Department strongly assert the wisdom of growing winter feed. ...
— Australia The Dairy Country • Australia Department of External Affairs

... quoth Gourlay with pompous wisdom; "they'll maybe find, or a's by, that the auld way wasna the warst way. There was to be a great boom, as they ca't, but I see few ...
— The House with the Green Shutters • George Douglas Brown

... I had the wisdom—I can say it now that my hair is white—not to let one of those happy moments pass without amply profiting by it, and really I did well. Pity the fathers who do not know how to be papas as often as possible, who do not know ...
— Monsieur, Madame and Bebe, Complete • Gustave Droz

... libation They poured to the God she knew, Such wine as ageless heavens And lonely wisdom brew. ...
— ANTHOLOGY OF MASSACHUSETTS POETS • WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE

... the main fork of Clark's River (sometimes called the Bitter Root), to Ross's Hole, and then strike over the great continental divide at that point by way of the pass which he discovered and which was named for him; thence he was to strike the headwaters of Wisdom River, a stream which this generation of men knows by the vulgar name of Big Hole River; from this point he was to go by the way of Willard's Creek to Shoshonee Cove and the Two Forks of the Jefferson, and thence down that stream to the Three Forks of the Missouri, up the Gallatin, ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks

... after dinner, when we were cleared up and alone in quiet, I told mother. She was of course covered with surprise, but her words came in wisdom ...
— The Harvest of Years • Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell

... moisture, but not of a stagnant character; between large stones, at the base of rockwork, suits it in every way; it may also be grown by the side of the larger kinds of snowdrops for contrast and effect. Impatient of being disturbed, it is not wisdom to lift it for any purpose, provided it is making progress, or until it has formed strong tufts; when, if it is desirable to increase it, and during early autumn, the long roots should be got well under, and taken out of the ground as entire as possible; from their wiry nature they are ...
— Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers - Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, - Rockeries, and Shrubberies. • John Wood

... intellect, as that age understood it. Every one knows the legend of Abelard, a legend hardly less passionate, certainly not less characteristic of the middle age, than the legend of Tannhaeuser; how the famous and comely clerk, in whom Wisdom herself, self-possessed, pleasant, and discreet, seemed to sit enthroned, came to live in the house of a canon of the church of Notre-Dame, where dwelt a girl Heloise, believed to be the old priest's orphan niece, ...
— The Renaissance - Studies in Art and Poetry • Walter Pater

... that, as an uneven mirrour distorts the rays of objects according to its own figure and section, so the mind ... cannot be trusted." And Hugh of St. Victor himself, had written, even in the days of Abelard: "There was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became presumptuous and boasted it would attain the highest ...
— Historia Calamitatum • Peter Abelard

... rounds of the village. Mrs. White was so sorry for the Jamesons in their dilemma of ignorance of our rural wisdom that she begged Sim to go over and persuade them that cows were created without teeth in their upper jaw, and that the cheating, if cheating there were, was done by Nature, and all men alike were victimized. I ...
— The Jamesons • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... incapacity and want of judgment. I tell you this plainly, for with one who has perhaps but a few days to live, there is no use of deception. I wish you more happiness than has fallen to my lot, and hope that your misfortunes and disappointments may teach you to act with more wisdom and judgment where matters of importance are concerned. Many of the painful events I now look forward to, I ascribe to you. You and your children will suffer from their results much more than myself. Be assured that I have always loved you, and will continue to ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

... mass of gold. He took up a book from the table. At his first touch, it assumed the appearance of such a splendidly bound and gilt-edged volume as one often meets with, nowadays; but, on running his fingers through the leaves, behold! it was a bundle of thin golden plates, in which all the wisdom of the book had grown illegible. He hurriedly put on his clothes, and was enraptured to see himself in a magnificent suit of gold cloth, which retained its flexibility and softness, although it burdened him a little with ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... speechless for a moment, recovering himself. Wisdom is conceived in silence, and he knew this. Vagabond or gentleman, he ...
— Beverly of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... from the excellent and authoritative translations of Chinese classics by Professor Giles in his "Chinese Literature" and from "The Lute of Jude" and "The Mastersingers of Japan," two books in the "Wisdom of the East" series edited by L. Cranmer-Byng and S. A. Kapadia (E. P. Dutton and Company). These translators have loved the songs of the ancient poets of China and Japan and caught with sympathetic appreciation, in their translations, ...
— My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard • Elizabeth Cooper

... the flood tide. St. Aldegonde and Hohenlohe, instead of remaining to animate the industry of the workmen by their personal presence, left the scene of action at the decisive moment, in order, by sailing to the town with a corn vessel, to win encomiums on their wisdom ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... is one of those beautiful gems which sparkle all through Bunyan's works, 'As the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... as if some one was trying to make sport of his wisdom and he was about to lose his temper, when he realized that it was all a mistake. The wind was beginning to rage, and he had been standing there getting so sleepy that he mistook the howling of the wind in the chimney for ...
— The Wonderful Adventures of Nils • Selma Lagerlof

... Desertions were frequent, as they always are in civil war, and the scouts in their eagerness to discover the enemy's plans always failed to conceal their own. Caecina and Valens, counting on the fatal impatience of the enemy, remained quietly on their guard to see what they would do: for it is always wisdom to profit by another's folly. Feigning an intention of crossing the Po, they began to construct a bridge, partly as a demonstration against the gladiators[289] on the opposite bank, partly to find something for their idle ...
— Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II • Caius Cornelius Tacitus

... Oblivion here thy wisdom is, Thy thrift the sleep of cares; For a proud idleness like this Crowns all life's ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 12, October, 1858 • Various

... Mysie's mother would remonstrate with him, reminding him with wifely wisdom of his family responsibilities; but under all her admonishings Matthew's only ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh

... leniency. Failure to arrest means dismissal from the service and punishment as an ill-wisher. Oldest and most experienced, the greatest number of prisoners is to be expected at your hands. Shu[u]zen shows mercy. Your age remits the punishment, but dismissal shall afford example to the rest as to the wisdom of showing energy." Thus he cast forth without pity an ageing officer whose only offense was an experience which sought the mission of the night straggler, and allowed the harmless to go free. Ryu[u]suke went forth from the office of the bugyo[u] stripped of the means of ...
— Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House) - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... consternation is, as yet, too great to let us judge of the issue. It will probably ripen the public mind to the necessity of a change in their constitution, and to the substituting the collected wisdom of the whole, in place of a single will, by which they have been hitherto governed. It is a remarkable proof of the total incompetency of a single head to govern a nation well, when, with a revenue of six hundred millions, they are ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... public by name would mean an increase in the box-office receipts, and they began to give out fictitious names for such favorites as Mary Pickford, Florence Turner, and Mary Fuller. This opened the eyes of some of the manufacturers to the wisdom of giving on the films the names of the players as well as the names of the characters represented by them, and the Edison studio, of which Mr. Horace G. Plimpton was then manager, was one of the first American concerns to ...
— Writing the Photoplay • J. Berg Esenwein and Arthur Leeds

... sorry to hear about Lincoln's assassination. At that time Jefferson Davis was considered the greatest man that ever lived, but the effect of Lincoln's life and deeds will live on forever. His life grows greater in reputation with the years and his wisdom more apparent. ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 4 • Works Projects Administration

... jaw and the alveolar border is less open, and therefore more like the human subject, than in the Chimpanzee, and what is still more remarkable, the fossil, a young but adult individual, had all its milk teeth replaced by the second set, while its last true molar (or wisdom-tooth) was still undeveloped, or only existed as a germ in the jaw-bone. In the mode, therefore, of the succession of its teeth (which, as in all the old-World apes, exactly agree in number with those in man) ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell

... girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within. Nay, if obvious practical difficulties can be overcome, let those women who feel inclined to do so descend into the gladiatorial arena of life, not merely ...
— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley

... points of which I have spoken as claimed by the Calixtines, were debated. But for the present, no results ensued. The papists would yield nothing, and John and his brother delegates returned home. But the popish party, taught wisdom by experience, abstained from a renewed appeal to the sword till they had thrown the apple of discord among their adversaries, and weakened by dividing them. In this, however, they succeeded only in part; so that ultimately, that is, in 1436, the use ...
— Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II • G. R. Gleig

... reverie of Senancour, on the bank of the Lake of Bienne, quoted by Matthew Arnold, reveals the same emotion: "Vast consciousness of a nature everywhere greater than we are, and everywhere impenetrable; all-embracing passion, ripened wisdom, delicious self-abandonment." In the coincidence of outer circumstance— the lake, the North Sea, night, the attitude of repose—may we not trace a dissolution of the self-background, similar to that of the mystic worshiper? And in the Infinite, no less than ...
— The Psychology of Beauty • Ethel D. Puffer

... private papers he had learned much of her history that he had before been ignorant of. She had never spoken to him very freely of the past. She knew how proud and high his temper was, and acted with wisdom in burying the story of her wrongs in her ...
— The Fatal Glove • Clara Augusta Jones Trask

... Prim's wisdom, as Alberto was careful to observe, for King Amadeo was soon convinced of the unfitness of his people for even a constitutional monarchy, told them so, resigned his throne, and bade them farewell. Then came a republic marked by excesses such as even the worst ...
— Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot • Austin Craig

... of wisdom, was the daughter of Jupiter. She, they say, sprang forth from his brain full grown and clad in complete armor. She presided over the useful and ornamental arts, both those of men, such as agriculture and navigation, ...
— TITLE • AUTHOR

... wicked fairy. This, as the bishop ascertained by a casual question, was Mother Jael, the gipsy friend of Jentham, and the knowledge of her identity did not make him the easier in his mind. He could not conceive what she meant by her constant attendance on him; and but that he believed in the wisdom of letting sleeping dogs lie, he would have resented her pertinacity. The sight of her became ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume

... fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best not only for the superior race, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the laws of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His plans, or to question them. For His own good purposes He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

... uncle. Providence seems to have preserved in this immense conservatory the antediluvian plants which the wisdom of philosophers has so sagaciously put ...
— A Journey to the Interior of the Earth • Jules Verne

... du Plessis, where a great many other young courtiers were being educated. The school taught him very little of history, of foreign languages, or sciences, but a great deal about riding and fencing and dancing, and how to write a letter which should be full of worldly wisdom. At about the same time his grandfather died, and he inherited a very large fortune, so that the small boy bore not only one of the oldest titles in the kingdom but possessed enough money to do exactly as he pleased. There was only one course open to him—the ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland

... with efficiency. She became acquainted with some of the girls, and changed to a better boarding house. She still cried over the wooh-wooh and the little garments, but she did not cry so often, nor did she buy so many headache tablets. She was learning the futility of grief and the wisdom of turning her back upon sorrow when she could. The sight of a two-year-old baby boy would still bring tears to her eyes, and she could not sit through a picture show that had scenes of children and happy married couples, but she fought the pain of it as a weakness ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower

... itself (though that was out of the question), was held to be preferable. I need not dwell on this mixture of deceit and fear; in short, as they would do nothing themselves, they expected us to do nothing: and without the courage to carry on the war, they had not either wisdom or sorcery to bring ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... these things: joint enters into joint, in the world of spirits, as well as in the materially created world; the eye of wisdom—the all-seeing eye—encompasses the whole! And should we then not be able, in our heart's distress, to pray to this Father with confidence—to pray as the Saviour prayed: "If it be possible, let this ...
— Pictures of Sweden • Hans Christian Andersen

... gracefulness of his deportment, impart a strong impression of that dignity and grandeur, which are his peculiar characteristics, and no one can stand in his presence without feeling the ascendancy of his mind, and associating with his countenance the idea of wisdom, philanthropy, magnanimity and patriotism. There is a fine symmetry in the features of his face, indicative of a benign and dignified spirit. His nose is straight, and his eye inclined to blue. He wears his hair in a becoming cue, and from his forehead it is turned ...
— The True George Washington [10th Ed.] • Paul Leicester Ford

... some wisdom in applying to a younger man, like Zuan Venier, who had nothing at stake, and since Venier had come to visit him, there could be nothing strange in his returning the courtesy as ...
— Marietta - A Maid of Venice • F. Marion Crawford

... whose wisdom was more to be trusted than his general morality, "It is strange that most men think not enough of themselves till a woman shows them how. But it is the great wonder that the woman does not despise him for it. Quel caractere! ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... its material civilisation. And the pillars on which this incomparable structure of happiness rests—like pillars of light supporting the light—are formed of ideas of justice so exquisitely delicate, counsels of wisdom so deeply penetrating, that we of to-day, being less fine in grain, less eager and buoyant, have lost the power to formulate, or to discern, them. And for all that, this abode of felicity, that harbours a moral life so active and vigorous, so graciously grave, so noble—this palace, ...
— The Buried Temple • Maurice Maeterlinck

... interest of these corn-dealers, instead of being in accordance with the interests of the people, are entirely opposed to them; and conclude that, whenever grain becomes dear, they have a right to make them open their granaries, and sell their grain at such price as they, in their wisdom, may deem reasonable. If they cannot make them do this by persuasion, fine, or imprisonment, they cause their pits to be opened by their own soldiers or native officers, and the grain to be sold at an ...
— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... the hunter. Capotes were there—loose, flowing, and picturesque; and broad-cloth tail-coats were there, of the last century, tight-fitting, angular—in a word, detestable; verifying the truth of the proverb that extremes meet, by showing that the cut which all the wisdom of tailors and scientific fops, after centuries of study, had laboriously wrought out and foisted upon the poor civilised world as perfectly sublime, appeared in the eyes of backwoodsmen and Indians utterly ridiculous. No wonder that Harry, under the circumstances, became quietly insane, ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... he remained so; and for twenty days and twenty nights his "man," Baptist Lefloch, who had caught the murderer, was by his bedside, watching his slightest movement, and ever bending over him tenderly. Not one of those noble daughters of divine wisdom, whom we meet in every part of the globe, wherever there is a sick man to nurse, could have been more patient, more attentive, or more ingenious, than this common sailor. He had put off his shoes, so as to walk more softly; and he came and went on tiptoe, his face full of care and anxiety, ...
— The Clique of Gold • Emile Gaboriau

... welcomed into Paradise, welcome Thou me. But we pray for our dear ones. May they recover! Make this beloved one who now lies unknowing among us to come back into the universe of sense and sound, to know us and smile upon us again. We say, 'Thy will be done.' Grant wisdom, for Thou knowest best; only our hearts will cry out for help, and Thou knowest our hearts better than anyone else. Bless me this night as I stand before the people. This is no selfish prayer, dear Lord. I desire only Thy glory; ...
— Robert Hardy's Seven Days - A Dream and Its Consequences • Charles Monroe Sheldon

... improperly, unbelief, is connected with any bad qualities either of mind or heart. The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments—of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue—are complete sceptics in religion; many of them refraining from avowal, less from personal considerations than from a conscientious, though now in my opinion a most mistaken, apprehension, lest by speaking out what would tend to weaken existing beliefs, ...
— Autobiography • John Stuart Mill

... the Protector and of Charles II. It is not impossible, therefore, that some of the regulations of this famous act may have proceeded from national animosity. They are as wise, however, as if they had all been dictated by the most deliberate wisdom. National animosity, at that particular time, aimed at the very same object which the most deliberate wisdom would have recommended, the diminution of the naval power of Holland, the only naval power which could endanger the security ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... the high renown of Solomon's miraculous wisdom being bruited abroad well nigh throughout the whole world, no less than the liberality with which he dispensed it unto whoso would fain be certified thereof by experience, there flocked many to him from divers parts of the world for counsel in their straitest and most urgent ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... a space over this, but as it was completely beyond his comprehension, he gave the matter up and changed the subject. His respect for the Stork's wisdom was vastly increased by such conversations, for one often takes for wisdom ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various

... said: "You are by your birth, and by your wisdom, monseigneur, the natural chief of the Holy Union, and we ought to learn from you what our conduct should be with regard to the false friends of his majesty of whom you just ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas

... even now, to hold fast his determination to go to New Spain. He had reached his limit. He had a fund of that most useful of all wisdom, knowledge of self, and knew his limitations; a little matter concerning which nine men out of ten go all ...
— When Knighthood Was in Flower • Charles Major

... not all please me) I can still leave it be for it does me no particular harm as far as the document is concerned. That is why I never intended to write in opposition to it. But I did have a laugh at the great wisdom that so terribly slandered, condemned and forbade my New Testament, when it was published under my name, but required its reading when published under an other's name! What type of virtue is this that slanders and heaps shame on someone else's work, and then steals ...
— An Open Letter on Translating • Gary Mann

... impressed by Colonel Seymour's wisdom, for two months later they granted him a pass to return home. His liberty was, however, very much clipped, and rather more than two years later the following 'parole' was exacted of him: 'Undertaking to remain at the dwelling-house of Mr Holt in Exeter, and when required ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote

... his hand, and went to Jamnia to Rabban Gamaliel on the day when the atonement began, according to his reckoning. Rabban Gamaliel stood up and kissed him on his head, saying to him, "come in peace, my master and disciple—my master in wisdom, my disciple ...
— Hebrew Literature

... use making enemies, when you can have 'em for friends just as easily as not," Dresser retorted, with an air of superior worldly wisdom. ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... prayer is ended. I know that she has also a certain veneration for her Ottokes (the spirits of her ancestors), whose rather sumptuous altar is set up at the house of her mother, Madame Renoncule. She asks for their blessings, for fortune and wisdom. ...
— Madame Chrysantheme Complete • Pierre Loti

... were kept in confinement for, as we were unable to assign any reason for it ourselves. He answered, with great solemnity, that we ought not to ask of God or the King reasons for what they did; as all their actions emanated from wisdom and justice. We replied that we were not persons to be treated like those shut up in the Inquisition, who are left to guess at the cause of ...
— Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Complete • Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre

... fifteen, but hard work and much responsibility had added to him wisdom and understanding beyond his years. His frank, serious face could at times assume the look of a man of ripened experience. At Lyman's words it burned scarlet. "Ach, go on," he said quietly; "it'd do you good if you had ...
— Amanda - A Daughter of the Mennonites • Anna Balmer Myers

... that in accusing me of not having a cent you're being guilty of the worst possible taste. Children should always assume that their fathers have mysterious stores of money, and that nothing is beyond their resources, and if they don't rise to every demand it's only because in their inscrutable wisdom they deem it better not to. Or it may ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett

... ride, though this pleasure-ride was at the same time a separation from you? Oh how cold and selfish are women's hearts! Were I a woman, I would never depart from your side, I would covert no greater happiness than to be near you, and to listen to that high and exalted wisdom which pours from your inspired lips. Were ...
— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach

... pronouns," is not only badly expressed, but is pointedly at variance with their previous doctrine, that, "Conjunctions very often unite sentences, when they appear to unite only words; as in the following instances: 'Duty and interest forbid vicious indulgences;' 'Wisdom or folly governs us.' Each of these forms of expression," they absurdly say, "contains two sentences."—Murray's Gram., p. 124; Smith's, 95; Fisk's, 84; Ingersoll's, 81. By "the same moods, tenses, ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... committee is beyond our ken. What Socrates and Solomon would have come to if they had only had the advantage of conventions it would be hard to say; but in these days, when the excursion train is applied to wisdom; when, having little enough, we try to make it more by pulling it about; when secretaries urge us, treasurers dun us, programs unfold out of every mail—where is the man who, guileless-eyed, can look in his brother's ...
— Crowds - A Moving-Picture of Democracy • Gerald Stanley Lee

... first, dear—yes, from the very first summer twilight in which I saw your pale, pensive face in the dusky little garden at Wandsworth. The tender interest which I then felt in you was the first mysterious dawn of love, though I, in my infinite wisdom, put it down to an artistic admiration for your peculiar beauty. It was love, Margaret; and it has grown and strengthened in my heart ever since that summer evening, until it leads me here to-night to tell you all, and to ask you if there is any ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... 4th, 1863. The crucial battle of the war, Gettysburg, was being fought. Meade had just succeeded Hooker in command of the army. Anxiously the wisdom of the change was being watched by every soldier. It was my fortune to be detailed as officer of the guard at Fort McHenry that day. Guardmount is always an inspiring exercise, for then troops are carefully inspected ...
— Between the Lines - Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After • Henry Bascom Smith

... going to write about them, of course. That's why the Reds kidnapped Keeling, and the Whites W.T. Goode. They were quite right, too—except that they didn't go far enough and make a job of them. Suppose they've learnt wisdom by now, and make ...
— Potterism - A Tragi-Farcical Tract • Rose Macaulay

... into exile. The wish was earnestly expressed that Napoleon would promptly punish them by his own dictatorial power. Napoleon had, in fact, acquired such unbounded popularity, and the nation was so thoroughly impressed with a sense of his justice, and his wisdom, the whatever he said was done. He, however, insisted that the business should be conducted by the constituted tribunals and under the regular forms of law. "The responsibility of this measure," ...
— Napoleon Bonaparte • John S. C. Abbott

... blood of dead men are commonly eaten and drunk to inspire bravery, wisdom, or other qualities for which the men themselves were remarkable, or which are supposed to have their special seat in the particular part eaten. Thus among the mountain tribes of South-Eastern ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... who entertain it I cherish the profoundest respect but this does not lessen my obligation to lay before you a photographic copy of my mind on this important subject. It is well known that I have never been impressed with the wisdom of or the necessity for woman suffrage in North Carolina." After a long speech setting forth the arguments in opposition and quoting poetry he said: "But in the words of Grover Cleveland, a condition not a theory confronts ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various

... place to a night of delights, which we sanctify by enjoying with due relish that sweetest of all pleasures, which Faraki has so wisely attached to the reproduction of our species. We reverently admire the wisdom and the goodness of Faraki, who, desiring to secure to the world a continued population, has implanted in the sexes an invincible mutual attraction, which constantly draws them towards each other. Fecundity is the end he proposes, and he rewards with intoxicating delights those ...
— The Secret Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, Complete • Madame du Hausset, an "Unknown English Girl" and the Princess Lamballe

... of evolution. Evolution is a process, not a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases; only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception of Him who ...
— The Whence and the Whither of Man • John Mason Tyler

... injustice, drive her like an angel with a flaming sword against customs regarded, consciously or unconsciously, as the very buttresses of social distinction. Anything but a wise woman, she had yet so much in her of what is essential to all wisdom— love to her kind, that, if as yet she had done little but blunder, she had at least blundered beautifully. On every society that had for its declared end the setting right of wrong or the alleviation of misery, she lavished, and mostly wasted, her money. Every misery took to her the shape ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... Further, it is written (Dan. 1:17) that "to the children" who abstained, "God gave knowledge, and understanding in every book, and wisdom." Now the observances of the magic art consist in certain fasts and abstinences. Therefore it seems that this art achieves its results through God: and consequently it is not unlawful to ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... at times—for wisdom fails Where martyrdom breeds doubt— The soul should ever arm it to complain Suddenly from each reinless rude desire Her smile recalls, and razes from my heart Every rash enterprise, while all disdain Is soften'd ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

... looked white," I said, remembering how we had discussed for a week the wisdom of giving Dick the coddled white of an egg at ...
— One Way Out - A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America • William Carleton

... for a while with her hands listlessly clasped, trying to disentangle the puzzling web of her thoughts. Her most immediate sensation was delight at the departure of Diogenes. The warm, fair day seemed to have grown old and cold with his world wisdom, a wisdom so different from all that she had ever been taught to venerate ...
— The Proud Prince • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... many internal Enemies, hath been a sufficient Caution against receiving into her own Bosom, those who have withdrawn their Persons and their Aid in the Time of Danger & Distress; & there is less Reason for others to expect Favor and Forgiveness, who having basely betrayed such a Diffidence in the Wisdom and Fortitude of their Country and the righteous Cause she is contending for, have imagind themselves more secure, under the Power of its Invaders, and ...
— The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 • Samuel Adams

... King, which induced him to retract his consent, breaking off thus the marriage. Mademoiselle made a terrible uproar, but Puyguilhem, who since the death of his father had taken the name of Comte de Lauzun, made this great sacrifice with good grace, and with more wisdom than belonged to him. He had the company of the hundred gentlemen, with battle-axes, of the King's household, which his father had had, and he had just ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... account of the superior energy, resolution, and tact which he evinced, even in this early period of his life. His brothers, though they retained the scepter, as it fell successively into their hands, relied mainly on his wisdom and courage in all their efforts to defend it, and Ethelred may have been somewhat more at his ease, in listening to the priest's prayers in his tent, from knowing that the arrangements for marshaling and directing a large part of the force were in ...
— King Alfred of England - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... outlook upon life is, first, the idea of mankind as a brotherhood transcending racial and political divisions, united in a common quest for truth, filled with the spirit of mutual charity and mutual helpfulness, and endowed with a higher will and wisdom than that of the individuals who belong to it; secondly, a profound belief in the superiority of right over might, of spirit over matter, of the eternal interests of humanity over the ambitions and the passions of the passing hour. Without ...
— Medieval Europe • H. W. C. Davis

... of hers, which could have no longer life nor any more lasting root than the flowering creeper born of a summer's sun, and gorgeous as the sunset's hues, and clinging about a ruin-mantling decay. Oh yes, no doubt. But I am only weak, and of little wisdom, and never certain that the laws and ways of the world are just, and never capable of long giving pain to any harmless creature, ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida

... our government, it would be impertinent to praise it; all mankind allow it to be the master-piece of human wisdom. ...
— The History of Emily Montague • Frances Brooke

... perhaps, called by other names just then. He probably could not have remembered a moment in his whole life at which he had not believed himself the master of his own future, with full power to do this, or that, or to leave it undone. And now he was quite sure that he was choosing the part of wisdom in resisting the strong temptation to do something rash, which made it a physical effort to sit still and keep his eyes on his book. He held the volume firmly with both hands as if he were clinging to something fixed which secured ...
— Fair Margaret - A Portrait • Francis Marion Crawford

... the site of the present city of Fort Wayne they destroyed a number of Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But in a series of scattered encounters the white men were defeated, with a loss of nearly two hundred killed; and Harmar thought it the part of wisdom to retreat. He had gained nothing by the expedition; on the contrary, he had stirred the redskins to fresh aggressions, and his retreating forces were closely followed by bands ...
— The Old Northwest - A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond, Volume 19 In - The Chronicles Of America Series • Frederic Austin Ogg

... happy in this goodly world, though the bank account may be small, or there be no bank account in the case. The Ways and Means Committee of which Mrs. Hawthorne was chairman in her day could impart a world of wisdom to the fretful and ambitious wives of a generation of young men now upon the stage of action, who strive so hard to live like the people who have wealth at their command that they spoil the beautiful homes they might enjoy by an unceasing strife ...
— Home Life of Great Authors • Hattie Tyng Griswold

... as the effect of instinct, are none the less wonderful on that account. I am not sure but the display of wisdom is even greater than if the power of planning their own operations had been ...
— Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained • M. Quinby

... people. He had, indeed, a difficult part to play. He could not join the murderers of his uncle; and yet Antony, their greatest enemy, was also his most dangerous foe. In these difficult circumstances the youth displayed a prudence and a wisdom which baffled the most experienced politicians. Without committing himself to any party, he professed a warm attachment to the Senate. Cicero had once more taken an active part in public affairs; ...
— A Smaller History of Rome • William Smith and Eugene Lawrence

... me, were it possible to see such a gesture in these rushing times. The photograph before me as I write proves that my father was a handsome man, but it does not show the air of distinction which I am assured was his. And, let me record here the fact that, whatever might be thought of the wisdom or otherwise of his views or actions, I never once knew him to be guilty of an act of vulgar discourtesy, nor ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

... augment our naval force, which, Pitt said, was the only method of putting an end to the rebellion. Ships built a year hence to suppress an army of Highlanders, now marching through England! My uncle attacked him, and congratulated his country on the wisdom of the modern young men; and said he had a son of two-and-twenty, who, he did not doubt, would come over wiser than any of them. Pitt was provoked, and retorted on his negotiations and greyheaded experience. At those words, ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... was a presence not to be forgotten. His "shining morning face" was round as a baby's, and talked as pleasantly as his voice did, with smiles for accents and dimples for punctuation. Mr. Ticknor speaks of his sermons as "full of intellectual wealth and practical wisdom, with sometimes a quaintness that bordered on humor." It was of him that the story was always told,—it may be as old as the invention of printing,—that he threw his sermons into a barrel, where they went to pieces and got mixed up, and ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)



Words linked to "Wisdom" :   sapiential book, unsoundness, knowledgeability, astuteness, statesmanship, knowledgeableness, mental object, book, initiation, discretion, judiciousness, cognitive content, folly, statecraft, profoundness, diplomacy, judgement, judgment, depth, content, goodness, discernment, know-how, Apocrypha, abstrusity, advisability, abstruseness, good, reasonableness, profundity, sagaciousness, deepness, trait, reconditeness, sagacity



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