Prudence Quotes

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

Benjamin Franklin

Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.

Aesop

Do not spend the day in gathering flowers by the way side, lest night come upon you before you arrive at your journey's end, and then you will not reach it.

Isaac Watts

The prudent man is always sincere, and feels horror at the very thought of exposing himself to the disgrace which attends upon the detection of falsehood. But though always sincere, he is not always frank and open; and though he never tells any thing but the truth, he does not always think himself bound, when not properly called upon, to tell the whole truth. As he is cautious in his actions, so he is reserved in his speech; and never rashly or unnecessarily obtrudes his opinion concerning either things or persons.

Adam Smith

Prudence is the necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.

Jeremy Collier

Temper your enjoyments with prudence, lest there be written on your heart that fearful word satiety.

Quarles

Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime that ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.

Sir Walter Scott

The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him.

Abraham Lincoln

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.

Jogann Lavater

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, and honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, and honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably.

Epicurus

Prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past.

Thomas Hobbes

Prudence is the footprint of Wisdom.

Amos Bronson Alcott

He who has far to ride spares his horse.

Jean Racine

Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.

John Milton

Prudence is the knowledge of things to be sought, and those to be shunned.

Cicero

I prefer silent prudence to loquacious folly.

Cicero

Prudence in action avails more than wisdom in conception.

Cicero

Dine on little, and sup on less.

Cervantes

Silence is the sancturary of prudence.

Baltasar Gracian

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

Samuel Johnson

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

Samuel Johnson

Prudence therefore consists in knowing how to distinguish degrees of disadvantage.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Prudence is sometimes stretched too far, until it blocks the road of progress.

Tehyi Hsieh

Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.

Samuel Johnson

Prudence does not make people happy; it merely deprives them of the excitement of being constantly in trouble.

Mason Cooley

Prudence is foresight and far-sightedness. It's the ability to make immediate decisions on the basis of their longer-range effects.

John Ortberg

Prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

Thomas Hobbes

Prudence is not hesitation, procrastination, or moderation. It is not driving in the middle of the road. It is not the way of ambivalence, indecision, or safety.

John Ortberg

Prudence as well as Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of a man's proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of the end we aim at, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain that end.

Aristotle

In matters of conscience, first thoughts are best. In matters of prudence, last thoughts are best.

Robert Hall

Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.

Clara Barton

The only prudence in life is concentration.

Emerson

Prosperity demands of us more prudence and moderation than adversity.

Cicero

Courage is a virtue only so far as it is directed by prudence.

Francois Fenelon

We accomplish more by prudence than by force.

Tacitus

Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader.

Tacitus

Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

Thoreau

The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.

Samuel Johnson

It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.

Napoleon Bonaparte

If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify us in speaking our thoughts.

Edmund Burke

Let us learn the meaning of economy. Economy is a high human office - a sacrament when its aim is grand, when it is the prudence of simple tastes, when it is practised for freedom or for love or devotion.

Emerson