Wisdom Quotes
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Fun fact: Owls represent wisdom in pop culture because in ancient Greece, they were sidekicks to Athena, goddess of wisdom. Click on any wisdom quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who said it, when they said it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to say it.
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"'Cause you know I love the players, and you love the game."Source: Blank Space | Speaker: Taylor Swift

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"Source: Jeremiah 29:10-14 | Speaker: The Prophet Jeremiah

"A bit of talcum is always walcum."Source: Reflection on Babies | Author: Ogden Nash



"A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as clear as the nose on your face."Source: Pinocchio | Speaker: The Blue Fairy



"A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth"Source: The Great Gatsby | Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"A Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere."Source: Red River | Speaker: Cherry Valance



"All monsters are human."Source: American Horror Story: Asylum | Speaker: Sister Jude Martin


"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."Source: Misquote | Speaker: Mahatma Gandhi

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."Source: None. | Speaker: Edward Murphy

"Baby, you got a stew going."Source: Arrested Development | Speaker: Carl Weathers

"Be a philosopher, but amidst all your philosophy be still a man."Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding | Author: David Hume

"Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly."Source: And the Mountains Echoed | Author: Khaled Hosseini


"Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."Source: The Alchemist | Author: Paulo Coelho


"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."Source: Matthew 7:15 | Speaker: Jesus

"Bread makes you fat?"Source: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Speaker: Scott Pilgrim

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was."Source: Luke 10:30, 33-34 | Author: Luke

"But it does move."Source: Unknown | Speaker: Galileo Galilei

"But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee


"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."Source: "Loving Your Enemies" Sermon, Christmas Day 1957 | Speaker: Martin Luther King Jr.

"Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour."Source: Ecclesiastes 10:1 | Author: Narrator

"Dear frozen yogurt: you are the celery of desserts. Be ice cream or nothing. Zero stars."Source: Parks and Recreation | Speaker: Ron Swanson


"Do not call for Black power or green power. Call for brain power."Source: Campus Speeches, Quoted in the Chicago Tribune | Author: Barbara Jordan


"Don't mess with the bull, young man."Source: The Breakfast Club | Speaker: Mr. Vernon

"Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy."Source: The Outlaw Josey Wales | Speaker: Josey Wales

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."Source: Poor Richard's Almanack | Author: Benjamin Franklin


"Everybody lies."Source: House M.D. | Speaker: Dr. Gregory House


"Face it, girls. I'm older and I have more insurance."Source: Fried Green Tomatoes | Speaker: Evelyn Couch

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."Source: Coraline | Author: Neil Gaiman & G.K. Chesterton

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."Source: National Lampoon's Animal House | Speaker: Dean Vernon Wormer




"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."Source: The Great Gatsby | Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald


"Get busy living or get busy dying."Source: The Shawshank Redemption | Speaker: Andy Dufresne and "Red" Redding

"God doesn't play dice with the world."Source: Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man | Speaker: Albert Einstein





"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."Source: Wall Street | Speaker: Gordon Gekko

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."Source: Anna Karenina | Author: Leo Tolstoy

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."Source: The Gospel of John | Speaker: Jesus of Nazareth


"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."Source: The Mourning Bride | Author: William Congreve

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."Source: The Diary of Anne Frank | Author: Anne Frank

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful."Source: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci | Author: Leonardo da Vinci

"Hurt no living thing."Source: Hurt No Living Thing | Author: Christina Rossetti

"I ain't so tough."Source: The Public Enemy | Speaker: Tom Powers

"I am not an animal!"Source: Elephant Man | Speaker: John Merrick

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."Source: The Remarkable Rocket | Author: Oscar Wilde



"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."Speaker: Voltaire

"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."Source: Green Eggs and Ham | Author: Dr. Seuss

"I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing."Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Author: Mark Twain



"I love mankind… It's people I can't stand."Source: Peanuts (comic) | Author: Charles M. Schulz

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."Source: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul | Author: Douglas Adams

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."Source: 1780 Letter | Author: John Adams

"I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes."Source: "The Sign" | Speaker: Ace of Base

"I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys."Source: A Supermarket in California | Author: Allen Ginsberg

"I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice. Of a generation."Source: Girls | Speaker: Hannah Horvath


"I wanna really really really wanna zig-a-zig ha."Source: "Wannabe" | Speaker: The Spice Girls

"I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules."Source: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Speaker: Jefferson Smith

"I'd like to buy a vowel."Source: Wheel of Fortune | Speaker: Contestants

"I'm an adult, and I'm responsible. Let's go get some candy."Source: Broad City | Speaker: Abbi Jacobson

"I'm no hero. I put my bra on one boob at a time like everyone else."Source: Bob's Burgers | Speaker: Tina Belcher

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV."Source: Vicks Formula 44 | Speaker: Chris Robinson


"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."Source: Letter to Robert Hooke | Author: Sir Isaac Newton

"If it doesn't have meat, it's a snack."Source: Parks and Recreation | Speaker: Ron Swanson

"If no one fought except on his own conviction, there would be no wars."Source: War and Peace | Author: Leo Tolstoy

"If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another."Source: Mansfield Park | Author: Jane Austen

"If you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth."Source: Gandhi | Speaker: Gandhi

"If you build it, they will come."Source: Field of Dreams | Speaker: Ray Kinsella

"If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best"Source: Marilyn Monroe | Speaker: Marilyn Monroe

"If you don't like how the table is set, turn over the table."Source: House of Cards | Speaker: Frank Underwood


"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."Source: Misquote | Speaker: Joseph Goebbels

"If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change."Source: "Man in the Mirror" | Speaker: Michael Jackson

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."Source: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Author: J. K. Rowling

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."Source: Proverbs 3:6 | Author: King Solomon

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."Source: Furman v. Georgia | Author: Thurgood Marshall

"In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, and they had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."Source: The Third Man | Speaker: Harry Lime

"Is that your final answer?"Source: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | Speaker: Regis Philbin

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."Source: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Author: J. K. Rowling



"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."Source: The Origin of the Species | Speaker: Charles Darwin

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."Source: Star Trek: The Next Generation | Speaker: Jean-Luc Picard


"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."Source: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Author: J.K. Rowling

"It's a hell of a thing killing a man."Source: Unforgiven | Speaker: William Munny

"It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you."Source: Ghost | Speaker: Sam Wheat

"It's not about the money, money, money."Source: Price Tag | Speaker: Jessie J

"It's not the men in your life that counts. It's the life in your men."Source: I'm No Angel | Speaker: Tira

"Just one more thing..."Source: Columbo | Speaker: Lieutenant Columbo


"Just the facts, ma'am."Source: Dragnet | Speaker: Sgt. Joe Friday

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."Source: The Godfather: Part II | Speaker: Michael Corleone


"Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try."Source: The Simpsons | Speaker: Homer Simpson


"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."Source: Trade Mart speech (undelivered) | Speaker: John F. Kennedy

"Let's face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short."Source: Animal Farm | Author: George Orwell


"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."Source: Forrest Gump | Speaker: Forrest Gump

"Life moves pretty fast."Source: Ferris Bueller's Day Off | Speaker: Ferris Bueller

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."Source: The Declaration of Independence | Author: Thomas Jefferson


"Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities."Source: Bare Necessities | Speaker: Baloo

"Love fades away. But things...things are forever."Source: Parks and Recreation | Speaker: Tom Haverford

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."Source: Love Story | Speaker: Jenny

"Love the sinner and hate the sin."Source: Letters of Saint Augustine (#211) | Author: Augustine of Hippo


"Mama says, "Stupid is as stupid does.""Source: Forrest Gump | Speaker: Forrest Gump

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."Source: The Social Contract | Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Man is the measure of all things."Source: Truth | Author: Protagoras

"Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing."Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Author: Ken Kesey

"Maybe Christmas, perhaps...means a little bit more!"Source: How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Author: Dr. Seuss


"Molly, you in danger, girl."Source: Ghost | Speaker: Oda Mae Brown


"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast."Source: The Mourning Bride | Author: William Congreve

"My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time."Source: David Copperfield | Author: Charles Dickens


"My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind."Source: Declaration of Sentiments, The Liberator Magazine | Author: William Lloyd Garrison


"Nice guys finish last."Source: Leo Durocher | Speaker: Leo Durocher

"No arts; no letters; no society."Source: Leviathan | Author: Thomas Hobbes



"Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople."Source: Istanbul (Not Constantinople) | Speaker: They Might Be Giants


"One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them"Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee


"Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."Source: Mildred Pierce | Speaker: Ida Corwin


"Plastics."Source: The Graduate | Speaker: Mr. McGuire


"Put the lime in the coconut."Source: "Coconut" | Speaker: Harry Nilsson


"Religion is the opium of the people."Source: A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (Unfinished) | Author: Karl Marx

"Right is right, and wrong is wrong."Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Author: Mark Twain

"Seize the moment. 'Cause tomorrow you might be dead."Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Speaker: Buffy Summers

"Shake it off."Source: Shake It Off | Speaker: Taylor Swift

"So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away"Source: Television | Author: Roald Dahl



"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."Source: The Fault in Our Stars | Author: John Green

"Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need. I say love, it is a flower and you its only seed."Source: The Rose | Speaker: Bette Midler


"Sometimes being stuck inside my own head is so exhausting it makes me want to cry."Source: Girls | Speaker: Marnie Michaels

"Starve a cold, feed a fever."Source: Medieval Reference Manual | Author: John Withals

"Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation."Source: My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. | Author: Coretta Scott King

"Survey says!"Source: Family Feud | Speaker: Family Feud Hosts

"That man lives badly who does not know how to die well."Source: On Tranquility of Mind | Author: Seneca

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."Source: March from Selma, 1965 | Speaker: Martin Luther King, Jr.


"The Brain—is wider than the Sky—"Source: The Brain—is wider than the Sky— | Author: Emily Dickinson

"The Christian religion cannot be believed by any reasonable person."Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding | Author: David Hume

"The Dude abides."Source: The Big Lebowski | Speaker: Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski

"The gift of a good liar is making people believe you lack a talent for lying."Source: House of Cards | Speaker: Frank Underwood

"The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."Source: Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil | Author: Thomas Hobbes


"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."Source: I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! | Author: Dr. Seuss

"The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution."Source: The New Yorker | Author: Hannah Arendt

"The most savage controversies are about those matters as to which there is no good evidence either way."Source: An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish | Author: Bertrand Russell

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."Source: What is Called Thinking? | Author: Martin Heidegger

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience."Source: Dune | Author: Frank Herbert

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee


"The proof is in the pudding."Source: Proverb | Speaker: Unknown

"The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake."Source: The Little Mermaid | Speaker: Sebastian

"The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it."Source: The Second Treatise on Civil Government | Author: John Locke

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."Source: Diggers (The Bromeliad Trilogy) | Author: Terry Pratchett

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."Source: Unknown | Speaker: Albert Einstein

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."Source: The Importance of Being Earnest | Author: Oscar Wilde

"The way up and the way down are one and the same."Source: Refutations by Hippolytus | Author: Heraclitus

"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places."Source: A Farewell to Arms | Author: Ernest Hemingway

"The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away."Source: Lord of the Flies | Author: William Golding

"There are few people whom I really love and still fewer of whom I think well."Source: Pride and Prejudice | Author: Jane Austen

"There are just some kind of men who—who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one"Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee





"There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee

"There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind."Source: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater | Author: Kurt Vonnegut

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."Source: The Second Coming | Author: William Butler Yeats

"This is a man's world. But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl."Source: It's a Man's Man's Man's World | Speaker: James Brown

"This is the people's war!"Source: Mrs. Miniver | Speaker: The Vicar

"This whole court's out of order!"Source: …And Justice for All | Speaker: Arthur Kirkland

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."Source: Reason in Common Sense | Author: George Santayana

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."Source: Pennsylvania Assembly | Author: Benjamin Franklin


"Time is a flat circle."Source: True Detective | Speaker: Rust Cohle

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."Source: In Memoriam | Author: Alfred, Lord Tennyson


"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism | Author: Oscar Wilde






"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."Source: The Road Not Taken | Author: Robert Frost

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."Source: 1984 | Author: George Orwell

"Very superstitious, writing's on the wall. Very superstitious, ladder's 'bout to fall."Source: Superstition | Speaker: Stevie Wonder


"War—huh yeah—what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"Source: War | Speaker: Edwin Starr

"Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."Source: The Thing from Another World | Speaker: Ned "Scotty" Scott

"Wax on, wax off."Source: The Karate Kid | Speaker: Mr. Miyagi

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."Source: Lady Windermere's Fan | Author: Oscar Wilde

"We are not makers of history; we are made by history."Source: Strength to Love | Author: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful what we pretend to be."Source: Mother Night | Author: Kurt Vonnegut

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."Source: Seduction of the Minotaur | Author: Anaïs Nin



"We'll never be royals."Source: "Royals" | Speaker: Lorde


"Well-behaved women rarely make history."Source: Marilyn Monroe | Author: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"What is the point of worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took?"Source: The Remains of the Day | Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

"What you see is what you get!"Source: The Flip Wilson Show | Speaker: Geraldine Jones

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?"Source: "Peace, Love, and Understanding" | Speaker: Elvis Costello

"When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee

"Whenever you're wrong, admit it Whenever you're right, shut up."Source: A Word to Husbands | Author: Ogden Nash

"Wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there."Source: The Grapes of Wrath | Speaker: Tom Joad

"Whisper words of wisdom, let it be."Source: "Let It Be" | Speaker: The Beatles

"Why are there beings at all, instead of nothing?"Source: Introduction to Metaphysics | Author: Martin Heidegger

"With great power comes great responsibility."Source: Spider-Man | Speaker: Ben Parker

"Words can be like X-Rays if you use them properly – they'll go through anything."Source: Brave New World | Author: Aldous Huxley



"You are from New York; therefore, you are just naturally interesting."Source: Girls | Speaker: Hannah Horvath

"You can never step into the same river twice."Source: Cratylus by Plato | Author: Heraclitus

"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need."Source: You Can't Always Get What You Want | Speaker: The Rolling Stones

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."Source: 1946 Letter | Author: Albert Einstein

"You don't have to live forever. You just have to live."Source: Tuck Everlasting | Speaker: The Narrator

"You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee

"You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good."Source: Men in Black | Speaker: J

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."Source: Unknown | Author: Mahatma Gandhi

"You must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."Source: Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer | Author: Ogden Nash

"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."Source: No Country for Old Men | Author: Cormac McCarthy

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee

"You should never assume."Source: The Odd Couple | Speaker: Felix Unger

"You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked."Source: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Speaker: Jefferson Smith

"You very bad man, Jerry."Source: Seinfeld | Speaker: Babu

"You want weapons. We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world."Source: Doctor Who | Speaker: Tenth Doctor

"You're a heartbreaker."Source: Heartbreaker | Speaker: Pat Benatar

"You're so money and you don't even know it."Source: Swingers | Speaker: Trent Walker

"You're the sanest man that ever walked into this courtroom."Source: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | Speaker: Judge May

"Your whole generation, you drink for the wrong reasons."Source: Mad Men | Speaker: Roger Sterling