Be lowly wise:

Think only what concerns thee and thy being.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 173.

Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Emblems. Book ii. Emblem 2.

Modest doubt is call'd

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches

To the bottom of the worst.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Troilus and Cressida. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Coffee, which makes the politician wise,

And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Rape of the Lock. Canto iii. Line 117.

Defer not till to-morrow to be wise,

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.

William Congreve (1670-1729): Letter to Cobham.

So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Fly, dotard, fly!

With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book ii. Line 207.

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;

Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;

Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,

But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel,

Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

Sheffield, Duke Of Buckinghamshire (1649-1720): Essay on Poetry.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!

From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,

And Swift expires, a driv'ler and a show.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 316.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,

Thou tamer of the human breast,

Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour

The bad affright, afflict the best!

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Hymn to Adversity.

Better to hunt in fields for health unbought

Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.

The wise for cure on exercise depend;

God never made his work for man to mend.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Epistle to John Dryden of Chesterton. Line 92.

Good to be merie and wise.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.

It's guid to be merry and wise,

It's guid to be honest and true,

It's guid to support Caledonia's cause,

And bide by the buff and the blue.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Here's a Health to Them that's Awa'.

Early to bed and early to rise,

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard's Almanac, 1757.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xiii. Line 375.

For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains,

And disapproves that care, though wise in show,

That with superfluous burden loads the day,

And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

John Milton (1608-1674): Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner.

Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.

Who are a little wise the best fools be.

Dr John Donne (1573-1631): The Triple Fool.

A little too wise, they say, do ne'er live long.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): The Phoenix. Act i. Sc. 1.

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give,

And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ode to Duty.

A wise man poor

Is like a sacred book that's never read,—

To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead.

This age thinks better of a gilded fool

Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.

Thomas Dekker (1572-1632): Old Fortunatus.

Journeys end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Nor less I deem that there are Powers

Which of themselves our minds impress;

That we can feed this mind of ours

In a wise passiveness.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Expostulation and Reply.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.

So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 1.

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,

And to be swift is less than to be wise.

'T is more by art than force of num'rous strokes.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xxiii. Line 383.

When love could teach a monarch to be wise,

And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune;

He had not the method of making a fortune.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On his own Character.

From ignorance our comfort flows.

The only wretched are the wise.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): To the Hon. Charles Montague.

The tall, the wise, the reverend head

Must lie as low as ours.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748): Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 63.

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage,

But wise through time, and narrative with age,

In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,—

A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book iii. Line 199.

Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book iv. Line 372.

'T is greatly wise to talk with our past hours,

And ask them what report they bore to heaven.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 376.

Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night i. Line 390.

Type of the wise who soar but never roam,

True to the kindred points of heaven and home.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): To a Skylark.

'T is well to be merry and wise,

'T is well to be honest and true;

'T is well to be off with the old love

Before you are on with the new.

Lines used by Maturin as the motto to "Bertram," produced at Drury Lane, 1816.

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.

One self-approving hour whole years outweighs

Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;

And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels

Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.

In parts superior what advantage lies?

Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?

'T is but to know how little can be known;

To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 254.

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,

Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xiv. Line 520.

Be wise with speed;

A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 282.