James Smithson Quotes

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds.

You move forward through knowledge. You prevail through knowledge. I love the word 'prevail.' Prevail!

What's the third metric beyond money and power? I think it's a combination of wellbeing and wisdom. Because the problem also with defining success just in terms of money and power means that people feel that they have to work around the clock, burn out, and the result is people making terrible decisions.

If we cannot learn wisdom from experience, it is hard to say where it is to be found.

Seek wisdom. Wisdom waits to be gathered. She cannot be bartered or sold. She is a fight for the diligent. And only the diligent will find her. The lazy man - the stupid man - never even looks. Though wisdom is available to many, she is found by few. Seek wisdom. Find her, and you will find success and contentment.

We have everything we need to be happy but we aren't happy. Something is missing... It is not books you need, it's some of the things that are in books. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.

I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.

The more one knows, the luckier he is, for knowledge is the greatest gift in life.

Knowledge is our ultimate good.

Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing the full meaning of what you have been given.

Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great.

There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.

Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply be what is generally called a 'success.'

Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed.

There is no knowledge and science like pondering and thought; and there is no prosperity and advancement like knowledge and science.

It’s ever been the way of the man of science or philosophy. Most folks stay in the dark and then complain they can’t see nothing.” – Snipes (185)

The ignorant man never enjoys.

Here's conventional wisdom: Success makes you happy. Happiness permits you to be generous. In fact, it actually works like this: Generosity makes you happy. Happy people are more likely to be successful.

Without knowledge there can be no sure progress. Vice and barbarism are the inseparable companions of ignorance. Nor is it too much to say that, except in rare instances, the highest virtue is attained only through intelligence.

Real success is finding your life work in the work that you love. That's it. Don't worry about making a living, don't worry about popularity or fame. Make what you do ... count more than what you own.