#Discernment Quotes

“Water the fruit trees and don’t water the thorns.”

“If you do not possess the staff of caution and discrimination, use the eyes of him who sees. If there is no staff of caution and discrimination, do not wander on the road without a guide.”

“To be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false,--this is the mark and character of intelligence.”

“When the remedy you have offered only increases the disease, then leave him who will not be cured, and tell your story to someone who seeks the truth.”

“Be suspicious of what you want.”

“I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.”

“To know how to distinguish the agitation arising from covetousness, from the agitation arising from principles, to fight the one and aid the other, in this lies the genius and the power of great revolutionary leaders.”

“The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what is bad is well nigh as dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad.”

“Be with those who help your being. Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath comes cold out of their mouths.”

“If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you.”

“Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.”

“Do not sit long with a sad friend. When you go to a garden do you look at the weeds? Spend more time with the roses and jasmines.”

“A SEEING eye is better than three hundred blind men's: The eye can distinguish pearls from pebbles.”

“Each and every part of the world is a snare for the fool and a means of deliverance for the wise.”

“Do not believe in an absurdity no matter who says it.”

“This phantom world gave you false signs But you turned from the illusion and journeyed to the land of truth.”

“Revile those who flatter you.”

“It is salutary for us to learn to hold cheap such things, be they good or evil, as attach indifferently to good men and bad, and to covet those good things which belong only to good men, and flee those evils which belong only to evil men.”

“Friendship of the wise is good; a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.”

“You've got to love what's lovable, and hate what's hateable. It takes brains to see the difference.”

“Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.”

“Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.”

“Wisdom consists in knowing what not to want as well as what to want.”

“Since all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.”

“Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting or other crazes like that.”

“The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.”

“Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.”

“If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.”

“Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”

“Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.”

“He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.”

“An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer”

“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.”

“When a new idea comes our way, we must put it on our mental scales and weigh it carefully before deciding its value.”

“Smart leaders believe only half of what theyhear. Discerning leaders know which haveto believe.”

“Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge - broad, deep knowledge - is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low.”

“Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins that may buy you just a moment of pleasure,But then drag you for days like a broken man behind a farting camel.”

“In order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in, shockproof crap detector.”

“Develop a built-in bullshit detector.”

“The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth”

“Sound judgement, with discernment is the best of seers”

“Criticism ... makes very little dent upon me, unless I think there is some real justification and something should be done.”

“The superior man is intelligently, not blindly, faithful.”

“Not to converse with a man worthy of conversation is to waste the man. To converse with a man not worthy of conversation is to waste words. The wise waste neither men nor words.”

“Do not let a leader lead you on a bad path.”

“If I were travelling with two partners, one virtuous and one dishonest, both would be useful as teachers. I would perceive what's good of the first one and I would imitate him whereas I would try to correct in me the defects I may see in the second one.”

“Look closely into his aims, observe the means by which he pursues them, discover what brings him content - and can the man's real worth remain hidden from you?”

“[A]s you partake of the world's bill of fare,that's darned good advice to follow.Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.And be careful what you swallow.”

“I used to take on trust a man's deeds after having listened to his words. Now having listened to a man's words I go on to observe his deeds.”