101 Words of Wisdom

There are phrases that are often repeated that have information that make us wonder why we do things when we do them, and these are called words of wisdom. Here is a collection of such phrases in several categories that were gathered by the staff of this website for your interest.  See also One Hundred and One Words of Wisdom, Again.

For a more Holiday oriented versions- see The 12 Days of Christmas Wisdom  and The 12 Days of Christmas Wisdom-2.  

1.    Change is the law of life. Those who only look only to the past or the present are certainly to miss the future.
2.    Change… I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out.
3.    Wisdom is knowing what to do next, and virtue is doing it.
4     Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere.
5.    If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more
6.    Experience is yesterday’s answer to today’s problems.
7.    Every problem is a possibility in disguise.
8.    Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
9.     We are the facilitators of our own creative revolution.
10.    Adaptability is not imitation.  It means power of resistance and assimilation.
11.    Civilization is the encouragement of differences.
12.    Just about the time you finally learn all the answers, they change the questions.
13.    Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal
14.    The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
15.    If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never plant anything and never harvest anything.
16.    In the book of Life, the answers are not in the back.
17.    The best way to kill a good idea is to get a committee to work on it.
18.    It is more important to know where you are going that to see how fast you can get there. 19.    The distance is nothing; the first step is the most difficult.
20.    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

1.    Success that goes to a person’s head usually pays a very short visit.
2.    Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
3.    Excellence is not a skill, but an attitude.
4.    Aim for the moon, and even if you miss you’ll be among stars.
5     When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
6     Being truly successful means having the freedom and time to be able to enjoy the company of the people you care about.
7.     The lesson is in the struggle, not the victory.
8.     Love only what you do, not what you have done.
9.     Where there is risk, there is also reward.
10.    The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.
11.    The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
12.    One half of responsibility is ability, the other is response.
13.    The best way to predict your future is create it.
14.    The door of opportunity won’t open unless you do some pushing.
15.    If you take no chance, you have no chance.
16.    Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
17.    In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
18.    Eighty percent of success is showing up.
19.    Your dreams come true when you act to turn them into realities.
20.    Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
21.    Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so some people miss them.

1.     Love all, trust a few, and do no wrong.
2.     Love only what you do, not what you have done.
3.     Everybody wants to live how they want to live, and love how they want to love.
4.     To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
5.     When a person is in love for the first time, they think they invented it.

1.    The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
2.     Don’t count the days; make the days count.
3.     Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
4.     Enjoy the little things, for someday you may realize they were big things.
5.     Time spent speculating about another’s actions is time well wasted.
6.     A man who dares to waste one hours of life has not discovered the value of it.
7.     No one can lose what is already past, nor what is yet to come.
8.     Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
9.     The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time.
10.   To plant a tree is to believe in tomorrow.

1.     The road to a friend’s house is never long.
2.     There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
3.     Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
4.     Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
5.     You can fix anything but a broken promise.
6.     Take care of your character, and your reputation will take care of itself.
7.     Small acts of care and grace can mean more than you dare to think.
8.     Enemies will see through you;  friends wills see you through.
9.     No person was ever honored for what he received.  Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
10.    Do more than listen, understand.
11.    Another way to get rid of an enemy is to turn him into a friend.
12.    You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon will be too late.
13.    Good advice is no better than poor advice, unless you follow it.
14.    All that is worth cherishing in this world begins in the heart, not the head.
15.    Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

1.    Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.
2.    Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
3.    Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds.
4.    Fear is simply unbelief in disguise.
5.    People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
6.    We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.
7.    The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
8     We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it.
9.    Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life.
10.   Style has less to do with what your wear and more to do with who you are.
11.    If you can’t laugh at yourself, someone will do it for you.
12.    A smile is a curve to help set things straight.
13.    The great person is the one who never loses their inner child.
14.    Now and then it is good to pause and just be happy in our pursuit of happiness.
15.    Peace is more than a season.  It is a way of life.
16.    If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it.
17.    Challenges make you discover things about yourself you never really knew
18.    Some people like to understand what they believe in, while others believe in what they understand.
19.    Happiness is a way station between too much and too little.
20.    Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.

1.     Courage is nor the towering oak tree that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom from the acorn that opens in the snow.
2.    The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.
3.    Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
4.    Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
5.    Patriotism is not just waving the flag, but it is striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.
6.    If our country is worth dying for in time of war, let us resolve that it is truly worth living in time of peace.
7.    Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
8.    We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
9.    We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much our freedom cost.
10.   Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.