Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it.

Don't let your heart get big because of your knowledge. Take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the scholar.

A foolish man thinks he knows everything. A wise man knows he doesn't.

A fool who recognises his own ignorance is thereby in fact a wise man, but a fool who considers himself wise - that is what one really calls a fool.

The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward knowledge.

I have thousands of opinions still - but that is down from millions - and, as always, I know nothing.

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

The learned man knows that he is ignorant.

I'm not very wise to many things.

I've reached the age of self-knowledge, so I don't know anything. People who claim that they know something are responsible for most of the fuss in the world.

No one but a fool is always right.

Those who realize their folly are not true fools.

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.