The value of wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events, or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements, and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one’s emotional reactions (patience) so that one’s principles, reason, and knowledge prevail to determine one’s actions.
The Value of Wisdom
Wisdom encompasses numerous other values and virtues, such as:
- Knowledge: Accumulated learning and the ability to apply it appropriately.
- Insight: The ability to discern the true nature of a situation, especially when it is not immediately obvious.
- Empathy: Understanding others’ feelings and needs, and acting with compassion.
- Prudence: The ability to make the right decisions, balancing justice, mercy, and benefit.
- Humility: A lack of arrogance or self-importance, and an understanding that one does not know or control everything.
- Reflection: The ability to learn from past experiences, consider future implications, and act in the present accordingly.
- Ethical Judgment: The ability to make decisions based on moral or ethical considerations, not just based on personal gain.
It’s an understanding that there’s more to life, that there’s a moral or ethical aspect to life that transcends our daily activities. Wisdom incorporates long-term consequences into decision-making, reflects an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, and embodies a sense of responsibility towards the well-being of others.
In essence, wisdom is about seeing beyond the surface into the deeper levels of understanding and awareness, about recognizing the broader implications of one’s actions, and about making decisions based on more than just immediate outcomes.
30 Quotes About Wisdom
- “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
- “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” – Doug Larson
- “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.” – Ansel Adams
- “It’s not what you know, but the kind of person you become by knowing.” – Seneca
- “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
- “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant
- “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” – Socrates
- “Do not be wise in words, be wise in deeds.” – Jewish Proverb
- “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” – Jimi Hendrix
- “The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” – Albert Einstein
- “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
- “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – William Shakespeare
- “We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom.” – Michel de Montaigne
- “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
- “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.” – William Wordsworth
- “The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
- “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine
- “The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” – H.L. Mencken
- “Wisdom begins in wonder.” – Socrates
- “Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “Wisdom is knowing the right path to take. Integrity is taking it.” – M.H. McKee
- “Wisdom is the ability to learn from change.” – Jim Rohn
- “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7 (NIV)
- “A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own.” – Latin Proverb
- “Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.” – Charles Spurgeon