Ali ibn Abi Talib Quotes about Wisdom

Your Remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. Your Sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it. You Presume you are a small entity, But within you is enfolded the entire universe. You are indeed the evident book, By whose alphabet the hidden becomes the manifest. Therefore, you have no need to look beyond yourself, What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.

A friend cannot be considered a friend until he is tested in three occasions: in timeof need, behind your back, and after your death.

When proven wrong, the wise man will correct himself and the ignorant will keep arguing.

Do not be too hard, lest you be broken; do not be too soft, lest you be squeezed.

Put aside your pride, Set down your arrogance, And remember your grave.

The world is darkness; knowledge is light; but knowledge without truth is a mere shadow.

Stubbornness destroys good advice.

Patience is of two kinds: patience over what pains you, and patience against what you covet.

A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.

The wiser a man is, the less talkative will he be.

Everyone who is taken by death asks for more time, while everyone who still has time makes excuses for procrastination.

Your souls are precious and can only be equal to the price of Paradise, therefore sell them only at that price

Greed is permanent slavery

Knowledge is of two kinds: that which is absorbed and that which is heard. And that which is heard does not profit if it is not absorbed.

I wonder at a man who loses hope of salvation when the door of repentance is open for him.

How many lessons there are and how little they are taken

Of all the follies the greatest is to love the world.

He who is greedy is disgraced; he who discloses his hardship will always be humiliated; he who has no control over his tongue will often have to face discomfort.

Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests wordly life; and whoever recognises the worldly life, the trials and tribulations (of life) become slight for him.

Oh writer! An Angel watches over all you write. Make your writing meaningful for it will eventually return to you and you will be questioned about what you wrote.

Know you that Allah has made Islam the most sublime path for attainment of His supreme pleasure and the highest standards of his worship and obedience. He has favoured it with noble precepts, exalted principles, undoubtable arguments, unchallengeable supremacy and undeniable wisdom. It is up to you to maintain the eminence and dignity granted to it by the Lord, to follow it sincerely, to do justice to its articles of faith and belief, to obey implicitly its tenets and orders and to give it the proper place in your lives.

The highest person is he who is of most use to humankind.

Beware of the flight of Blessings, For nothing that runs away is returned.

Many a spoken word is more piercing than an attack.

Had there not been five bad qualities, all the people would have been righteous. Contentment with ignorance; love for worldly life; miserliness inspite of much wealth; ostentation in (good) deeds; and pride in their own intelligence.