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.

-Dryden,John
  Epistle,'To my honoured kinsman  John Driden', l.92^5.

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

-Eisenhower, Dwight D(avid)
  In Time, 6 Oct.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds; and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitute a man's critical actions, it will be better not to thinkourselves wise about his character.

-Eliot, George pseudonym of  MaryAnn Evans
  Adam Bede, ch.29.

   None wise dares hopeless venture.

-Euripides
Helena, l.811 (translated by A S  Way,1959).

   For thof ye had as wise a snout on As Shakespeare or Sir Isaac Newton, Your judgement fouk wou'd hae a doubt on, I'll tak myaith, Till they cou'd see ye wi'a suit on O'gude Braid Claith.

-Fergusson, Robert
  'Braid Claith', stanza 9.

And if youare wise you will never pity thepast for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.

-Fowles,John Robert
  The Magus, ch.24.

The silver swan, who living had no note, When death approached, unlocked her silent throat; Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more: 'Farewell, all joys; Oh death, come close mine eyes; More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.'

-Gibbons, Orlando
  TheFirst Set of Madrigals and Motets of Five Parts,'The Silver Swan'.

Il n'est pas tre'  s prudent d'avoir des dieux et des le¤  gumes trop dore¤  s. It isnot wise to have either yourgods or your vegetables too gilded.

-Giraudoux, (Hippolyte) Jean
  La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu, act 2, sc.13.

To each his suff'rings, all are men, Condemned alike to groan; The tender for another's pain, Th'unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies. Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.

-Gray,Thomas
  Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (published1747), l.91^100.

Hay hombres que de su ciencia tienen la cabeza llena; hay sabios de todas menas, mas digo, sin ser muy ducho: es mejor que aprender mucho el aprender cosas buenas. There are some men who have their heads full up with the things they know. Wise men come in all sizes, but I don't need so much sense to say

-Herna¤ n dez,Jose¤

When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, 'Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies, But keep your fancy free.' But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me.

-Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)
  A Shropshire Lad, no.13.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

-Hume, David
  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section10, pt.1.

Factsareventriloquist'sdummies. Sittingonawiseman's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere they say nothing, or talk nonsense.

-Huxley, Aldous Leonard
  Time Must Have a Stop.

Flertallet har aldrig retten pafi   sin side. Aldrig, siger jeg! Det er en af disse samfundslÖgnere, som en fri, t½nkende mand mafi   gÖre oprÖr imod. Hvem er det, som udgÖr flertallet af beboerne i et land? Er det de kloge folk, eller er det de'   dumme? Jeg t½nker, vi fafi  r vaere enige om, at dumme mennesker er tilstede i en ganske forskr½kkelig overv½ldende majoritet rundt omkring pafi   den hele vide jord. The majority never has right on its side.Never,I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.Who makes up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible overwhelming majority, all the wide world over.

-Ibsen, HenrikJohan
  En folkefiende (An Enemy of  the People), act 4.

As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) isthe art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

-James,William
  The Principles of Psychology, ch.22.

A wiseToryand a wise Whig, I believe, will agree. Their principles are the same, though their modes of thinking are different.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Written note given to Boswell, May. Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.4.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dreamöand not make dreams your master; If you can thinköand not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet withTriumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  Rewards and Fairies,'Ifö'.

More childish valorous than manly wise.

-Marlowe, Christopher
  Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.2, l.3690.

The days that make us happy make us wise.

-Masefield,John Edward
  'Biography'.

Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being. Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree, Contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of earth only but of highest heav'n.

-Milton,John
  Raphael to  Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.172^8.