Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, lived in northern India around the fifth century BC. By tradition he gave up a privileged life to pursue the question of suffering. The teachings attributed to him were transmitted orally for several generations before being written down, so his original words cannot be reliably separated from later layers.
About this theme: Wisdom
In the Western tradition wisdom is almost always defined by what it is not. Socrates is famous for claiming to know that he knew nothing; that was not modesty but method. Knowledge is a set of facts, wisdom is knowing what to do with them — and, more often, knowing when there are not enough of them.
More by Buddha
More on Wisdom
- Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.— Lao Tzu
- An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.— Benjamin Franklin
- Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.— Arthur Schopenhauer
- He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.— Lao Tzu
- Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.— Baruch Spinoza