O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul's invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.

What is the part of wisdom? To dream with one eye open; to be detatched from the world without being hostile to it; to welcome fugitive beauties and pity fugitive sufferings, without forgetting for a moment how fugitive they are.

Why should you,
Because the world is foolish, not be wise?

There is a wisdom of the head, and... there is a wisdom of the heart.

Cling not to one mood,
And deemed not thou art right, all others wrong.
For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him,
That he alone can speak or think alright,
Such oracles are empty breath when tried.
The wisest man will let himself be swayed
By other's wisdom and relax in time.

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.

The better part of wisdom is a sublime prudence, a pure and patient truth that will receive nothing it is not sure it can permanently lay to heart. Of our study there should be in proportion two-thirds of rejection to one of acceptance. And, amid the manifold infatuations and illusions of this world of emotion, a being capable of clear intelligence can do no better service than to hold himself upright, avoid nonsense, and do what chores lie in his way, acknowledging every moment that primal truth, which no fact exhibits, nor, if pressed by too warm a hope, will even indicate. I think, indeed, it is part of our lesson to give a formal consent to what is farcical, and to pick up our living and our virtue amid what is so ridiculous, hardly deigning a smile, and certainly not vexed. The work is done through all, if not by every one.

2168. 'Tis better for thee to be wise and not seem so, than to seem wise and not be so: Yet Men, for the most Part, desire and endeavor the contrary.

But who, alas! can love, and then be wise?

Don't Gain The World & Lose Your Soul, Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold.

Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise.

The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.