A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.
Louis L'Amour

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No man was ever wise by chance.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Education, n.: That which discloses the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
Ambrose Bierce

Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.
Ambrose Bierce

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.
William Wordsworth

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Francis Bacon

It is impossible to love and to be wise.
Francis Bacon

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Francis Bacon

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
Hippocrates

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
Eric Hoffer

It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
Victor Hugo

The wise man does not grow old, but ripens.
Victor Hugo

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
Alexander Pope

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
Alexander Pope