Knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not putting tomato on the fruit salad!

We can build our life visions based on 3 paths:

1. Based on wisdom (which is the most valuable)

2. Based on imitation (which is the easiest)

3. Based on experience (which is the most painful)

Therefore, even fools survive, but it's up to you to determine its comfort and value.

Knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not putting tomato on the fruit salad!

We can build our life visions based on 3 paths:

1. Based on wisdom (which is the most valuable)

2. Based on imitation (which is the easiest)

3. Based on experience (which is the most painful)

Therefore, even fools survive, but it's up to you to determine its comfort and value.

Living is with wisdom only. Surviving can be without it.

Thank you. 

As I face the idea that I may have reached the first half of my life, I start to wonder whether I've learnt enough to be able to survive, without putting tomato in my fruit salad!

Although one can survive without wisdom, one is not 'living' in the sense of experiencing life.  "The unexamined life is not worth living".  Without wisdom how could one grow without reflection?  They might grow physically but not mentally.  The distinguishing element between humans and wild life is our ability for developing wisdom beyond primal intelligence/intuition.  The will to become wiser is also the will to become more human.

Wisdom works when you start working. Wisdom enriches when you got rich experience. Guts also affect the wisdom. Your presence is felt with wisdom. Wisdom contributes a lot when you start working, interacting, taking decisions, etc. Without wisdom one remains fool, but survive.

Indeed there are people without wisdom but always with constant failures but rarely successful in what they want to find. Wisdom is an accumulated knowledge, know how and intelligence of addressing challenges or problems in navigating the search space for solutions and making proper decisions with little turbulence and in shorter time. A person of no wisdom collides with every presumed solution to a problem but ended up being not and to find a solution it takes longer times from that of a wiser person, so he/she has to constantly try.

Meaningful living is wisdom.

Wisdom leads us to a more fruitful and purposeful life. Our decisions depends on our degree of wisdom. Wisdom is the power of right judgment, it is the ability to choose the correct solution different life situations using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.

Everyone survives bur wiser persons live a more fruitful and purposeful life for themselves and for humanity..

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Let's try to acquire wisdom!

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”

Albert Einstein

The use of wisdom is to lose fear of the unknown, to look to the future with confidence. That is when one begins to enjoy life.

Dear All,

Its great that many have supported the wisdom and i really like this one by Jimi Hendrix.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.- Jimi Hendrix

every one survives. but people with wisdom live a full life and enjoy it too.

wisdom is to know that uncertainty is the only certainty in life.

http://www.foundationsmag.com/wisdom.html

"Go beyond science, into the region of metaphysics. Real religion is beyond argument. It can only be lived both inwardly and outwardly."

Swami Sivananda

Hello Maria,

I often wounder when one becomes wise? When one social actor is percieved as wise and the other as unwise? I wonder if one ever "feels" wise? Is being wise the one who wins the debate or learns from mistakes? Does becoming wise have the neccessary condition of failure, being wrong, or just knowing the game better than another?

Does the social actor ever "feel" wise or just not feel? Is being wise accumalating wealth or indoctrinating the status quo? How do people percieve wiseness and what does it mean to be wise?

The wisest man I have ever meet was a homeless man one day while waiting at a bus stop. He leaned over to me and said "I was once like you" . I looked at him startled and said "excuse me"! He replayed, yes I was once like you running from meeting to meeting, worrying about bills, budgets, deadlines, college for the kids, retirement,  and family. I had no time for smelling a flower, looking deeply into a pond or walking for miles. I had no feelings, no emotions, no purpose other than fulfilling duty. I had no original thoughts, style, and had lost all sense of wonderment and mistery. I was just "Bob". Joy and amazement lost to the credit card and time became rushed and misery was company. I had vanished and this thing had appeared. Yes son I was once just like you. He took a sip out of a brown bag and left shaking my hand and said, "don't worry son I am now feeling and living for the first time in the wonder and mistery of life".

For many years teaching was my life, defined my life, and became my life. It took almost seven years before I finnaly understood what he meant and I became Douglas and not just a Doug.

Douglas Daugherty 

Knowledge is the application of data and information and it answers "how" questions.

Understanding is the appreciation of "why" . 

Wisdom is the evaluated understanding.

Experience that most often comes with time is the source of wisdom, whatever that is to whatever kind of people.

Wisdom is essential. We highly need it to survive a good life. It could be defined as the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. "Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful." NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, The Prince.

Thank you, dear Mohammad. I'll certainly try and climb up to the top of that beautiful pyramid!

Too much data and too much noise are indeed characteristics of adolescence and childhood.

As we grow up, we learn to choose!

I wonder where intelligence and sensitivity / sense of observation come in the way to Wisdom... 

Aren't animals to be considered instnctively of naturally wise?

Peter Smetacek introduces the concept of inherited wisdom...

How about Psychiatric patients, don't they manage to get through life, in their own particular wise way?

In this sense, Douglas also brought some interesting information here, with the example of the happy wise homeless.

The other thing that distubs my mind on this subject is the autistic capacity of acquiring huge amounts of information and sometimes even with analytical perception of the information. 

Douglas's Homeless person had lost his fear of the future.... as did Douglas, when he became Douglas and not Doug. Sensitivity comes into the picture when one understands and empathizes with something: it is only by knowing pain that one can feel the pain of others. Intelligence, of course, is the ability to do so.

A lack of intelligence sees the ability to inflict pain upon another as a source of power; intelligence ensures that that ability is never used, even by mistake.

Wisdom indicates willpower, common sense, insight and intuition of the person. Respect to Intelligence, Wisdom is more related to the ability to be aware and in tune with the surrounding environment, while intelligence is the ability to analyze and assimilate information. An "absent-minded professor" has low Wisdom score, but a high Intelligence score. A simpleton (low Intelligence) can still have a lot of insight (high Wisdom). Wisdom is the most important feature, for clerics and druids, but is also relevant for paladins and rangers. If you want your character is always attentive to what is happening around, you must assign a high Wisdom score. Every creature has a Wisdom score.

Wisdom is not what it seems. Wisdom is assigned to those who had success in advising a course of action, but often it is assigned to those who appeared to be wise. There are many who are assigned wisdom based on self-assignment and self-promotion. True wisdom is learning from experience and associated common teaching.

It is difficult for some to distinguish wisdom from cleverness. A clever statement is, "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting tomatoes on fruit salad!" Sorry Alireza, but you have not tried tomato in a fruit salad or fruit in a vegetable salad. You are missing a delicious treat.

Yes, Maria. Fools survive. Clever fools are the most dangerous. Some get to be world leaders.

A wise person is one who can distinguish between wisdom and clever foolery.

Wisdom should be understood as the capacity of a person to choose the best solutions in determinate situations. It should be also indicated that the best solutions not always are ethically correct. I believe that many persons frequently make decisions giving preference to ethical considerations.

Wisdom is most important to the life as it enables to do anything based on knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight at the same time we can live without wisdom but it will be like somehow we will be just for the sake of living any attempt made probably leads to failure if at all successful that to because of many people with with wisdom works for him  a nice quote on wisdom which I like most

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." - Thomas Jefferson

Keeping Quiet and not exposing ignorance is WISDOM

You are indeed right, dear Krishnan!

But in this case, would it be wise not to share our knowledge? This might reduce the amount of people that are allowed to be wise!

(I often have this problem, when evaluating students. The quieter are often the wiser, but in the end, as I evaluate their contributions to my interactive lectures, they may end up underevaluated.

There are often also, regional differences. that may result from their basic education: As I receive students from all over my country, I notice that the northerners are often more extrovert and more eager to share their ideas and enter discussions, whereas the southerners are often quieter, more introvert, and a bit less cooperative. There are exceptions, of course, and this adds to the pleasure of teaching so many different students.

Anyway, a wise advice is given by the English poet Ben Jonson (1605): «Calumnies are answered best with silence» 

Wise scientists give reasons for their actions!. Dear brave downvoter, I wish you the wisdom for explaining your reasoning and the courage to participate in questions like a real scientist.

A wise person is an experienced person. Practical wisdom is a craft and craftsmen are trained by having the right experiences. People learn how to be brave, said Aristotle, by doing brave things. So, too, with honesty, justice, loyalty, caring, listening, and counseling.”

A wise person is an experienced person. Practical wisdom is a craft and craftsmen are trained by having the right experiences. People learn how to be brave, said Aristotle, by doing brave things. So, too, with honesty, justice, loyalty, caring, listening, and counseling.”

A wise person knows the proper aims of the activity she is engaged in. She wants to do the right thing to achieve these aims—wants to meet the needs of the people she is serving.

A wise person is perceptive, knows how to read a social context, and knows how to move beyond the black-and-white of rules and see the gray in a situation.

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_using_our_practical_wisdom?language=en

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Wisdom-The-Right-Thing/dp/1594485437

http://motivatedmastery.com/what-is-practical-wisdom-and-why-do-we-need-it/

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

Mark Twain

Oh, no ! Dear Behrouz!

I hadn't even noticed that someone was here downvoting other people's interesting contributes, again... (this is not the wisdom of silence... It is unpleasant. So unpleasant. - We are all here proud and happy to have our answeres upvoted. And so sad to see that someone disagrees and doesn't even enter the dialogue to say why or what they disagree... Strange unwise attitude!) Never mind, dear Behrouz. At least ten of us appreciated your answer and let you know. One thing I know is that you cannot upvote and downvote, simultaneously...)

We should request Research gate to remove tht absurd downvoting button  There is no use for it. There's always this open answering check at the bottom of the page, to let us tell that we disagree on something and we are civilized people to accept and even appreciate different points of view.

Thank you, dear Mohammad. I do agree with Mark Twain, stangely often enough to upvote most of his woirds. In this case, wit is a sign  of wisdom.

Dear Maria,

Thank you for your continued comments throughout this thread and I would like to respond some of the responses.

@ Probhakar, It is very true Thomas Jefferson has penned some very beautiful words and phrases. However, I find it very hard to assign honesty to his person-hood having been a slave owner and a rapist of a 14 year old slave who bore a child, another 15 year old who bore another and the Jefferson foundation covering it up until DNA and the courts ruled this to be true.

@Kazaros, I ask; how can one be wise if one makes unethical choices?

@Krisanan, I agree and my grandfather asked me when I was young "Why do you think you have two ears and only one mouth? He said "if you listen twice as much as you talk all will be revealed in regards to the one speaking. 

@Behrouz, I could not agree with you more on your comments regarding down voting. I have received a couple and have asked the one who cast that vote as to why with no response. 

@ P. Smetacek, how correct you are, with one addition. The wise homeless man was indeed not afraid of the future for his knowledge of himself, his comfort with himself, and his peacefulness with himself has been the wisdom I have come to thirst for.

Douglas 

Thank you, dear Douglas, for your WISE analytical comment of the thread.

You enlighten the discussion. This is the kind of pleasurale disagreement that makes us move forward. Thank you!

Nevertheless, please allow me not to agree that Jefferson was a great wise thinker.  I believe that you can be a wise good thinker, and leave that inheritance for posterity, without having been wise in your actions or deeds. 

Or, would you think that if I am a good medical practitioner, I would not be allowed to fall ill or even die? 

Contraditcory people are usually the funniest of all. 

Thank you for your wise useful comment on this issue!

Kind regards, dear douglas

Dear Behrouz,

I wouldn't give the down voter a second thought or the pleasure of a comment.  I believe he is a troll who follows this group around to conversations giving down votes.  Last week he down voted the comments of our dear friend Kamal, one of the most intelligent and wisest of people I have had the pleasure to know.  Your comments and Kamal's were reasonable and well-considered and contributed to the conversation.  Since most of these down votes here and on other threads are on substantive comments and generally not on brief, personal comments I suspect a little jealousy is at play.

I expect next week it will be my turn and I won't lose a minute's sleep over it!  Then again, since I seldom contribute much worth reading maybe he'll leave me alone.

Warm regards,

John

There seems to be agreement among several participants in this discussion that wisdom is necessary for a fruitful, purposeful life, for "really living" as opposed to merely surviving, that without wisdom one is a fool!  If meaningful living is wisdom then does that mean that those without wisdom are living a meaningless life?  Is it correct to state people without wisdom are unsuccessful and are constant failures??  How can it be said that without wisdom one is not living in the sense of experiencing life???  What should people with an unexamined life not worth living do--commit suicide????   

There are so very few wise people in the world that the above would apply to the majority of us.  Unless, of course, you claim to be wise which would be an error making you unwise since an attribute of wisdom is humility.  Ironic, isn't it?  Those of you who are wise and those of us who may become wise can never claim wisdom because doing so would be in opposition to that which we possess. 

I can't speak for others, but as for me I am far from wise.  But I am not a fool.  I think my life so far, at age 67, has been fruitful and purposeful.  I can't think of any time that I felt like I was merely surviving; with what I have contributed as a husband, father, son, teacher, colleague I think my life without wisdom has so far been meaningful to those others and to me.

I have known many people--many of them my relatives and neighbors--who led perfectly meaningful and fruitful lives without wisdom.  At the same time I have known many wise people--again, many of them my relatives and neighbors--in the small village on a mountain top in Tennessee where I spent several formative years.  They were wise with the simple wisdom of mountain folk.  Most of them were not educated, a few years of elementary school at most.  But they were educated and wise in the ways of the world, of nature, of animals and crops and seasons, of human nature and families and neighbors and helping out and honesty and fairness.  Their wisdom was not gained from degrees, books, and travels; it came from observing and knowing the world around them.  It came from listening to their elders--those older and wiser.   They were simple--and wise.

Every body has the right to disagree with logic. Better to say disagree to "XYZ" and give answer with logic and justification, instead of using 'Downvote' and giving no answer.

Dear John, dear Sayed Zaheen!

You surely are two wise poetic important people to the world! Thank you!

I miss Kamal. I'm worried that he hasn't written anything in RG for nearly a week. I love his wise comments. I do hope that he isdoing well and only busy with his not-virtual-work

I have also been missing Hanno's practical opinions in this question.

Dear Subbhash, I have been thinking that it might be a good idea to ask RG to remove the stupid downvote button. It is a nuisance, there's no valid utility for it, and it disturbs the flow of ideas, that we usually share we such enthusiasm and friendlyness.

In fact, if they leave the upvote button, those that silently disagree just need to not upvote, and the rest will be left peacefully to their entertaining discussion.

We often disagree. and this is good, otherwise, there would be no need for discussions to go on. There's no need for competition when we are honestly exchanging our views.

Nobody could live without wisdom, unless one could be mad or dangerous. Wisdom enables to go ahead difficulties and to learn from them, as well as to plan for a successful life. It is the process of good thinking and right actions or decisions. Without wisdom,total  failure is inevitable, even after some success.

Yes, Fahrouz! I totally agree. The right word to use is "Dangerous".

Lack of wisdom makes people dangerous.

Thank you.

To summarize and re-phrase what I wrote previously:  There are billions of people on this planet who are not wise, they do not possess wisdom.  But the lack of wisdom does not make them unsuccessful, failures, dangerous, unproductive, fruitless, surviving rather than living, insignificant, trivial, unworthy of life as some of the answers to this question suggest.  Comments in this vein suggest that only wise people have value.  I think all people have value, whether they are wise or not

Dear John, I must fully disagree when you count billions of successful people, without failures, productive and fruitful, that would have turned the planet a much better place, in a demonstration of  great wisdom. I don't see  how you can count billions of unwise people.

Maybe I disagree, because I didn't fully understand your idea. As I consider you a much wiser person than me, I tend to want to accept your ideas, but I honestly don't understand. (and I will certainly NOT push that down vote button).

But, nevertheless, as a Medical practionner, and inevitably a great admirer of human nature, I do fully and unconditionally agree with you that all people have value, great value, whether they are wise or unwise.   There's a popular saying in my Country that summarises this idea: "We were all born naked and we'll all die someday".

When we work in an emergency room, you'd soon understand the real value of each and every person. There's no room to choose who to save. As you don't decide who is wise enough to deserve treatment, you'll simply have to treat and save each and everyone. Because everyone has the greatest of values, when it comes to saving lives.

Dear Maria, I did not count billions of successful people.  I counted billions of unwise people.  There are 7 billion people on the planet.  For the sake of argument, let's say 3.5 billion are wise (exercise wisdom) and 3.5 billion are unwise (do not possess wisdom).  According to some of the comments ONLY THE WISE HAVE VALUE, ONLY THE WISE ARE WORTHY.  In other words, 3.5 billion people have no value because they are not wise, they are not in the elite that holds wisdom.

The high esteem placed on the wise and the low esteem placed on the unwise is evidenced by statements made by commenters such as:  "Lack of wisdom makes people dangerous."  "Without wisdom one could be mad or dangerous." "Without wisdom total failure is inevitable."  "Wiser persons live a more fruitful and purposeful life for themselves and for humanity."  "Meaningful living is wisdom."  "Indeed there are people without wisdom but always with constant failures but rarely successful."  "Without wisdom one remains fool, but survive."  "Although one can survive without wisdom, one is not 'living' in the sense of experiencing life."  "Therefore, even fools survive."  "Living is with wisdom only. Surviving can be without it."  All of the foregoing are negative, critical, and derogatory to the "billions of people on this planet who are not wise" as I wrote previously. 

I appreciate the wisdom of the few while defending the value of the fellow human being without wisdom. 

Thank you, John! I truly hadn't understood your view, and now, I do!

Thank you.

Thank you, also, for the truly gentle and friendly disagreement between us, that shows how two or several exchanges of different views can be so positive for the advancement of an idea.

This is good!

Thank you for being such a wonderful, wise, open-minded person! That's why we love you, and that's why we respect you dearly.

You are an important person to know! It's good to have here.

Dear Maria,

I did mean to imply I thought of Jefferson as a wise man or having wisdom. My comment was about his being assigned the value of honesty and I do apologize for my lack of clarity.

@ John: I do agree that by looking at those who appear to have wisdom as somehow being of greater value to humanity as opposed to those who don't as dangerous is a proposition that can (and given human history has been used ) and probably will be used as a tool to marginalize, oppress and dehumanize the percieved other. 

May I ask for some clarity into your definition of what is and who has wisdom? The use of the word wisdom has always troubled me do in-part to as Joseph has pointed out deception and cleverness masked as wisdom and for the same reasons some knowledge's are valued and promoted as knowledge by the dominant group. Their "true knowledge" dismisses other knowledge's and are marginalized at best or summarily dismissed at worst.. Wisdom as you have pointed out seems to be consciously or unconsciously associated with economic success and this is troubling. Have we forgotten Mandela and Gandhi?

@ Maria, again I want to thank you for the leading a very fruitful discussion regarding the topic of wisdom. I must however cry foul in the connecting of a doctor falling ill or dying to the rape of child slaves being only 14 and 15. I quite frankly do not know were to draw the line if we claim wisdom  in thought only is the criteria for being wise and ignoring the persons actions. In other words can a wise person be immoral?

Douglas . 

Thank you, dear Douglas, for another important contribution.

Yes, our words and syntax can often lead to misunderstandings. (even if, deep down, we often should agree on particular, general context of thoughts.). Our "problem", here, is much much derived from the fact that as a foreigner, I tend to analyse every singular  word of the phrases I read, and this sometimes disturbs the content or flow of general thoughts. This wouldn't happen between truly native speakers.

Nevertheless, I also believe that this might add interest to our discussions. And we should in fact enjoy our gentle pleasant disagreements.

As an apprentice-scientist, I have grown interest for Jefferson's thoughts and inventions. And I simply forget to analyse his personal biography or character, which might be interesting, in fact. (and to act as dangerous fools, in other kinds of different tasks - I do remember putting the laundry in the kitchen fridge, instead of the washer, when I was preparing my PhD , or feeding cat food to the fish !!! -Being wise with the preparation of my thesis made me a dangerous lunatic fool, that killed a fish )

 Your comment on this issue, was certainly important. Thank you!

John's remarks, and now also your own's also made me stop and rethink!

In fact, as I look back at Mohammad's pyramid of wisdom, in page 2, I couldn't help and rethink that maybe we should also clearly define and classify several different types of wisdom, even if the definition of the term doesn't appear to be clear or to bring consensus:

Shouldn't we consider:

- Cultural and philosophical wisdom;

- Social and political wisdom;

- Emotional wisdom;

- Scientific, pragmatical wisdom;

- other types of individual wisdom...

... in the context of the capacity of analytical capacity of the quantity of knowledge acquired ?

This would allow John to reconsider 7 billions of wise people. In the end, we all have our own certain amount of wisdom, that allows us to belong to our societies, and to be successful in some particular tasks that we perform in different fields.

I believe in the positive contribute of these 7 billion sage people. And our positive thoughts are here to prove it!

Dear Maria,

First, it is I who am the foreigner (RG was founded in the European continent if memory serves) and as such I need to be more clear in my writing. Personally I agree with all the your listed wisdom's but must ask is categorizing specific contextual domains wise? I also have one exception and that being other types of individual wisdom. I still very much struggle with the idea of wisdom being attached to a person who physical acts/behaviors are of a criminal or immoral nature. Maybe this is just a personal bias on my part;  but I do ask if this individual is caught how wise can he/she be wise?   

Douglas

May be wisdom is more connected with consciousness. Many people with no or less consciousness are successful and many others with more consciousness are not. This is a question of how consciousness and integrity are totally related with wisdom added to knowledge and expertise

Hopelessness is often the first reaction when we consider our mounting existential crisis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-fici/essential-wisdom-for-our-existential-crisis_b_4428246.html?ir=India

Learning is inevitable one can not live without learning and therefore there can not exist unwise people. For example, every child learns to speak. We the elite people defined wisdom in a narrower sense. Consider a cobbler, a person whose job is mending shoes. Can we say he is unwise; he needs no learning for taking up this profession, may be the amount differs Therefore my conclusion is that we can not live without wisdom.

Yes, dear Anup. But what if your experienced cobbler, decides to innovate, because he is bored to mend shoes in always the same manner, just for the fun of it, even if he looses clients, but gains in a more pleasurable profession? He still has the knowledge, and the experience, but he makes a «fool» of himself, and he's become dangerous, because the clients that used to trust his work, suddenly fall and break their legs?

He is still knowledgeable and experienced, but he was UNWISE to innovate...

The same would apply to an old experienced agricultor, that decides to invent a new kind of vermicide that may intoxicate those that eat his plants, especially if he used to be the sage advisor of a village, and gained followers...

They both have knowledge and experience, and are intelligent enough to try and innovate, but they were surely unwise.

Dear Maria

The same thing may happen with a knowledgeable well experienced Engineer who is responsible for designing large  houses. He also may decide to design in such a manner (may be for some personal gain which will never happen with a cobbler) that the house would collapse. Then why we should blame only non elite professionals? These are different issues and let us hope that these will never happen.

Regards

A scientific experiment can also end up in a disastrous situation. Recall the Thalidomide tragedy.

That's it!

That is exactly my point of view. 

I think of the example of Alfred Nobel, also. He discovered a weapon that could kill other humans, after long years of research, and in order not to be remembered as unwise scientist, because he had the wise Intuition of the misfits of his invention, he left all the money he gained to invest in the future advancement of science and peace.

There certainly are several types of knowledge, and certainly many people that have everything to be wise, for many years of their experienced life and knowledge.

And one small moment of distraction can suddenly turn us unwise.

It is so much easier to define «unwise», than it is to define «Wisdom».

Yes, wisdom belongs to a few only, in a diversity of activities and in a great diversity of individuals in a Society. But the lack of wisdom can attack all, at any moment.

What matters, in the end, is that wisdom should be the goal to obtain, through out our lives, in many different fields.

If I understood correctly - learning adds to knowledge that is inevitable to all human life. Wisdom being the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight it belongs to very few. Also as it appears that WISDOM is an essential entity that is closely related to humanity.

Dear Lawrence,

Absolutely!! You have pointed out the essential attribute of wisdom that has eluded us in all these answers.  Thank you!

John

Thank you both! 

As we tend not to discuss the several aspects of Religion and Politics, because of our respect for the Diversity, we might have forgotten one of the Wisest Books on Wisdom, here.

Thank you both! (and bless you!)

Now I know, for sure that you 'll never pay me a visit! (I already admitted to putting the laundry into the fridge, instead of the washing machine. And now you know what ketchup is good for...

The rule of thumb (that's an odd idiom; anyone know its origin?) at family gatherings is never discuss politics or religion.  The same holds true for social/news web sites.  I've gotten into many discussions on both topics that devolved into vehement argument and profanity.  I haven't vissited those sites since joining RG. 

Why shoulddn't we discuss politics and religion on RG?  I would expect such discussions here to be more civil and we could learn more from and about eeach other.

Darn, can't get rid of these Parkinson's tremors.  Took me forevver to write this.  I know what you're all thinkking!  "Good!  Maybe you'll stop writing those long bboring essays."

Love you all,

John

Rule-of-thumb comes from the thickness of a stick a man could use to beat his wife. Thicker than the thumb was not allowed. Now, would a wise man beat his wife or even be married?

Rules of thumb are common wisdom and in some cases usual practices in some trades. It is unfortunate that many substitute rules of thumb for actual wise thinking. Another aphorism is "Some people are so busy learning the tricks of the trade that they never learn the trade." - Vernon Law

Wisdom is what you use when nothing else works. 

wise, wise thoughts!

(I'm enjoying this, more than politics !)

You're never, ever  boring, dear John! I read your words with tremendous pleasure and admiration. And now, that I know that it takes you long to write, I even admire your words more. I look up to you !

Is knowledge more important than wisdom?

A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries.

Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the wise man´s wisdom even if associated with.

- Dhammapada.

Unfortunately, ... dear Mohammad and Krishnan, you both just quoted wise great truths.

I'll keep positive and believe that these great truths, may lead more to be wiser. I have hope!

Wise words, dear Shaban, thank you!

You brought light to the question.

Wisdom is the ability to think and act by using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, reflective insight, etc. Wisdom is regarded as a virtue and is a disposition to perform any act with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. In short, wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge.

Thank you, dear Sayed and dear Subbash! Indeed right! 

You very wisely summarise the definition of Wisdom that results from this long thread. As I notice from most philosophical questions with many long answers, it might be inevitable to reproduce some of the best ideas on an issue. (I would report to the last answer on page 2 of this thread, in which our dear colleague Mohammed Al-Kresheh posted a pyramid of steps conducing to Wisdom.

In fact, when we correspond with intelligence to a question, and when there are so many brilliant minds in this World, it becomes inevitable to get a certain repetition of ideas, that we could classify as common sense. This is one of the reasons why so very often the Nobel price is attributed to several distant scientist at the same time, even if they didn't collaborate, but got to the same conclusions simultaneously...

dear Maria, in my opinion, wisdom in your case would be to start to play the piano again.

I will, someday, dear Enzo! I will.

Acting wisely demands that we be guided by the proper aims or goals of a particular activity.

Aristotle’s word for the purpose or aim of a practice was telos.

• educate students
• promote health
• relieve suffering
• pursue justice.

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/14/practical-wisdom-barry-schwartz/

Wisdom determines our way of life by guiding and taking best possible actions.

We avoid taking ice in winter and avoid consuming RUM in summer.

" Wisdom is the daughter of experience "

Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks

«Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass. though but slowly»

Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks

"Wise" and "smart" are both ways of saying someone knows what to do. The difference is that "wise" means one has a high average outcome across all situations, and "smart" means one does spectacularly well in a few.

Dear Maria,

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

― Bertrand Russell,

“We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.”

― Abraham Maslow

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

― William Shakespeare,

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

― Socrates

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

― Aristotle

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”

― Maurice Switzer

Douglas

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”

― Isaac Asimov,

Thank you, dear Douglas !

Aristotle - ah! my hero, and all times favorite!!!

Please allow me to copy that quote to the top of the thread.

Thank you!

Dear Maria,

Yes, I believe he Aristotle was one of your guests, but I favor Shakespeare and Socrates. 

Never mind, dear Douglas, I always carry some Aristotelic phylosophy with me, in mind, so if you invite me to your diner party, he'll surely will be there too. (He educated Alexander the Great, and my middle name is Alexandre - the smaller -)

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

Calvin Coolidge

As I've mentioned before, I spent some of my formative years in a small village on a mountain top in Tennessee.  There were few people with a formal education, perhaps just the two elementary school teachers and the librarian.  But there were quite a few endowed with the wisdom that comes from age, common sense, and experiences with people and nature. 

One of the characteristics of mountain folks, wise and unwise, is that we don't like to be deceived or conned.  We call it being "snookered".  If we get snookered we feel foolish and we don't like looking like fools.

These days it's easier to fool someone online than in person.  There are countless cases of deception, impostors, fake identities, fake profiles on social media sites.  Facebook, LinkedIn and others have fallen prey to this.  RG is no exception.

One first becomes curious when comments are written with very poor English language usage.  My first thought was that this person must be ESL but after reading more I determined that was not the case because most ESL writers do not make these types of mistakes.  These are the mistakes of limited functionality in English--errors in punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammar, syntax, and meaning.  Some sentences are so convoluted they are unintelligible.  Others, on certain threads where he has engaged in conversation, are statements that are quite bizarre that I don't think any scholar would accept.

At this point curiosity leads to suspicion and I checked the person's profile.  Here is where things don't add up and the deception is clear.  The low level of language usage does not equate to the claims of degrees earned.  Double bachelor's degrees, with honors (misspelled), master's degree with honors, enrolled as doctoral candidate.  A student with this level of English is not likely to have completed an undergraduate degree and less likely to be admitted to graduate programs, particularly the doctorate. 

Claims of receiving thousands of dollars in US Federal academic grants are unlikely since these are awarded to tenured or tenure-track Ph.D.s  and if the English in the grant applications was like that used here they would have been rejected at first review of proposal. 

There are no publications or conference papers.  He has a fairly respectable RG Score based solely on questions and answers, with nearly 500 answers written, 80 in just the past week.  It's not "wise" to write so much on RG when one has a dissertation to complete.  The time devoted to those answers spent on the thesis instead would have gone a long way to completing it, if he were really working on a degree.

But the reason time is spent on answers instead of the degree becomes clear when he who will not be fooled checks the university to find that there is no record of that name currently enrolled in a doctoral program or receiving the bachelor's or master's.  Such false claims as made on the profile are unethical.

He can't fool me; I'm a mountain man.  It distresses me that my friends on RG are being deceived and that's why I wrote this lengthy exposé.  To write a personal message to the person in question would require me to "follow" him and that I would not do.  This statement without revealing a name was my only alternative.  What he does about, if he reads it, is his business. 

Time usually takes care of such problems, with no more trouble from us.

I couldn't care for such strange things that seem inevitable to happen, from times to times...

I respect your wise opinion, dear John.

We all know how very difficult, how much «time and family consuming» it is, to become and to remain a true Scholar. It was wise to let us know your opinion and sorrow. Thank you!

« Oh! How sweet the path to love! ...

I am of such nature that fear makes me move back.

But with Love, not only I advance, I also fly... »

(Saint Therese de Lizieux -1873-1897-)

My mother offered me this morning a lovely little book of prayers of this child nun Santa Teresinha do Menino Jesus.

Her words are so simply , honest and purely poetic, that I couldn't resist sharing.

I find the purest of Wisdom in these simple words. A child can be wise, because a child is pure in heart and suffering.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/248952.Th_r_se_de_Lisieux

Wisdom, by using knowledge, gives us a path/way to behave and work in a right manner.

Yes, dear Subash.

We come to the conclusion that Wisdom is one of the consequences of knowledge, and knowledge, without wisdom is useless.

...

Real wisdom is so different from what's drilled into us by most authority figures that we tend to go functionally blind to it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/how-to-use-intuition-inner-voice_n_1934128.html?ir=India

...

Wisdom, a very important concept in different cultures, with rich philosophical and religious connotations, are broadly indicative of valuable knowledge that comes with practice.

The Persian language and literature, knowing the meanings of Wisdom

Justice and meekness and patience and Drstkrdary and Rastgftary

And the reason for the end result (profit and interest) to be used

The nearest Persian word for wisdom, "wisdom" (and to the Wise: Wise), although this term does not include all time conceptual words of wisdom.

The literal meaning of wisdom and its equivalents in Other languages should we pay attention to the diversity seen from different cultural and religious wisdom in open fields.

The result is that you can not live without wisdom

We can live without wisdom. But not a good life! Fools are also live their life.

I should agree with Saeed that we might have to consider different kinds of Wisdom, considering different cultural and religious grounds. 

I n that case, dear Subhash, shouldn't we consider that fools and / or those with mental handicaps, may have their own particular kind of wisdom, different from the generality of other humans ???

(When you visit a psychiatric ward, as  I did as a medical student, you'll soon notice that those patients have their very own particular intelligence and experience and their very own particular analytical logic of the world, that differs from our «so-called» healthy logic and wisdom... - I have often wondered if they are right ort wrong, or if we shouldn't respect and accept that particular logic, as long as it doesn't result in violent acts - My greatest problem is the great painful suffering that many of these patients endhure, and that requires medical treatment. Otherwise, in any little village of every country, there's a particular village fool, that seems happy as it is, and that have their particular kind of wisdom and logic, and we should let them be, as they please. - This is my own particular view -)