Sometimes I wonder where wisdom comes from. Some say wisdom comes with age. Others say it comes from their god. I don't believe in either.

Wisdom isn't one of those things that one just gets, all of a sudden. Wisdom is held in such great esteem religions need to attribute a lot of it to deities. It is valued in rulers and one of those things that one can never have too much of.

Where does it come from? It surely doesn't come with age, or everyone would vote the eldest person in the country when election comes around. It doesn't come from a deity, who would surely see the wisdom in giving humans more of it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case as wisdom seems to become rarer with each passing year, a lot like common sense (which is no longer common). It won't be coming from any modern education system, which emphasises memory and obedience, much less intelligence, and wisdom not at all. It won't be coming from the economy (held in reverence by every politician) which causes people to value material wealth more and more (or maybe it's just greed).

I would like to see what others think on the same topic, and if anyone else thinks it should be held in worth greater than material wealth or social standing.

True wisdom is itself eternal. It's source lies in pure consciousness(God,Tao,Great Spirit etc). Shame I havn't gotten there yet! Anyway that is my opinion. When one makes onself docile to eternity, eternity bestows it's grace upon you and then you have true wisdom.

wisdom is being able to take things that have happened to you in your life, or things you know about, and being able to shape that into information for people to use everyday, which is why some old people are very wise because they have experienced more, wisdom comes wqith experience not necessarily age.

Wisdom comes from experience. People with age generally have more experience, hence more wisdom.

Aquatus is wise and 100% correct.

I agree with aquatus, it's not age that makes you wise, it's learning from experience, especially someone else's experience. And although age itself doesn't give you wisdom, I'm sure we could all name older people we know who are idiots, age gives you more exposure to personal experience and opportunity to learn from other's experience. Additionally, those of us who take spirituality seriously credit our connection to the Creator with an additional source/opportunity for wisdom, not a guarantee, since some just don't seem to know how to attain wisdom, but an additional opportunity for it.

Just as an interesting sidenote, there is an old Chilean saying that my Grandma used to tell me:

"El diablo sabe mas por ser viejo que por ser diablo."

Which roughly translates as:

"The Devil knows more because for being old than for being the Devil."

I found it amusing that even supernatural creatures are given credit and respect for age, just as we do for natural creatures. Age, and presumably what it took to survive to that age, is almost universally given a certain amount of respect by humans.

If any of you lack wisdom ,let him ask of God ,that giveth to all men liberally ,and upbraideth not :and it shall be given him . James 1:5

Christ said ; For i will give you a mouth and wisdom ,which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist . luke ; 21;15

Be carefull wisdom can get you killed look what it did to stephen in acts chapter 6


Its a Gift .In alot of Cases .

Education and experience don't always make one wise . There is such things as extremly Educated Fools .

They just never had the ability to chose when being taught wrong or right . and alot of times grab onto false teaching and become fools . VERY EDUCATED FOOLS AT TIMES.

and you can also have uneducated wise men , but more education helps in a wise man .But education don't help much in a fool .

Oi! I was about to write that! Totally agree with this.

But, I don't discount the knowledge of you young'uns

Well said ..

Took the words right out of my mouth ..

There are many ways to gain it. And it all depends on how you define wisdom. One way is to die, to leave one's body and pass through the "Light" boundary to enter the Black Void, and then be brought back to this world we call earth, again. Some say that once that is done, one's system gets reprogrammed...

Thanks for your replies, everyone

Wisdom comes with experience... Hmm. I must respectfully disagree with popular opinion here. What use is experience if you do not learn from it? How does one gain wisdom from an experience they discount as being mere 'happenings' or worse, ignore and forget? What about wisdom gained from looking at the experiences of others? I cannot help but feel there is more to wisdom than mere experience.

Interesting. I think your presumption is right, it's based off survival-instinct. Thanks for that.



Very true! It's precisely that (amongst other observations) that convinced me that people know less about wisdom than they think. One only needs to see such a person once to question the much parroted "wisdom comes with age".

Wisdom gained from the experiences of others is also very important.

I was the youngest of four children, my oldest sister was twelve years my senior, and I can honestly say I didn't get into nearly the trouble they did because I saw the outcome.

Some children I know seem brighter and wiser than some of the old bigots I know.....

I agree wisdom is more than just experience. One must be able to think logically to understand the experience, logic should be required in high school. But then the World Wide Association of Control Freaks would not want a population who can think for themselves and know when they are being lied too.

One other thing I have learned from experience, the more I know, the less I know. You never know what to coming around the bend.

"the more I know, the less I know."


That's the truth....I knew everything when I was sixteen!!!

Thank you Michelle. An excellent example



It's the latest trend



Ah, someone who thinks as I do upon this matter! And yes, logic should be one of the basics, but the "Control Freaks" don't want that

I believe aquatus is correct when he said wisdom comes from experience. Others have rightly pointed out that experience can mean different things but I'm guessing aquatus meant the sort of experience where one has learnt from it. Both old and young people can be wise but both have had the experience (or perhaps have had it related to them) to understand what this experience means - and not just to themselves but to others who may be affected.

Logic is usually good, but not always. Part of wisdom is understanding that everyone is a person unto themself and entitled to make their own mistakes without anyone else trying to interfere - no matter how much you might want to. This is illogical but necessary. Of course there are limits, some mistakes may be terminal, but the understanding of this is also a part of wisdom.

The best wisdom is following your intuition!

Wisdom is knowing the difference between "right and wrong" when really nothing is right or wrong.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I love it!

You know people say "use your heart", "go with your gut feeling", "think with your brain and not your heart"or how women say that all men "think with their winkies", etc.?


I think Wisdom is thinking with your brain and your heart respectively while ignoring your gut and winkie. Best I can explain it.

According to to Dungeons and Dragons lore and its respective offspring wisdom is an attribute that increases your healing powers and your base damage with a bow.

Hey, wow. I never thought I'd actually hear someone say that! Thanks for your post, it's practically made my day



I don't see how that's illogical... Sounds logical enough.

Of course, it could just be me

How does one know the difference between right and wrong when neither are present?



Hmm, that's a new take. How exactly does one think with the heart, much less simultaneously with the brain? I don't get it. But then again, I never really understood this other heart that has nothing to do with the pulsing muscle in your chest.



Better seek out a doctor or an archer then

I think you are looking at the word experience in too narrow a way. To me the experience which builds wisdom means learning from the situations you have gone through and also learning from observing others as they go through different situations (and actually learning this way may be an indication of greater wisdom). So experience means more than simply going through something. But here again, those who have lived longer will generally have gained more wisdom than someone younger if they've been paying attention. While I am by far, not saying that all it takes to be wise is age, I do believe that an elder wise one will by default be wiser than a younger wise one. So all you young'uns, respect your elders, sit down, be quiet and pay attention!

Wisdom is knowing that by the time you have all the answers, all the questions have changed.

Remind me never to play D&D with you.


Wisdom is where you find it. It can be as easily found spouting from the mouth of a two year old as it can some grizzled hermit living atop a mountain. The wisdom gleaned from experience cannot hold a candle to that which comes suddenly from an unexpected source.

My dad used to say wisdom comes with age. I do not agree with what he said, God rest his soul. He made the most unwise financial decisions I have ever seen anyone do. I met a few wise older people when Chaplained a nursing home, but for the most part I did not see wisdom. Perhaps because of their declining mental conditions I do not know. I have met many younger wise people too. So what accounts for wisdom? I have heard it said that wisdom is applied knowledge. Then knowledge must be a pre-cursor to wisdom.

True wisdom comes when we realize how little we know.

Isn't that the truth. The more we learn, the more we realize how little we really know.

Now that is wise. Of course, it always helps if the elder isn't demanding respect...



Hmm. I wonder if anyone wil ever have all the answers to their own questions? After all, answers lead to more questions more often than not.

Maybe I'm not as smart as I thought I was, or maybe the excessive boredom is starting to affect my brain . Whatever it is, I couldn't understand this at all. Could you rephrase it please?



Applied knowledge. Then shouldn't there be more wise people now? Modern society has more knowledge than ever before, does it not?



Indeed. But what else counts for wisdom? Is there a limit to wisdom?

Making it any simpler would be an insult. Come back to it later.

Wisdom comes from experience.

I don't really disagree with anything said so far, but no one has defined wisdom. In my experience it is not a discrete package. There are many sources of wisdom, but also different forms of wisdom. There is a personal wisdom, learned and applied personally. There is also a societal wisdom, learned by many, codified and capable of being learned/ taught by others. This enables quite young people with limited personal experience to act wisely. Sometimes the two types of wisdom may conflict. Eg. personal morals/beliefs may conflict with society's mores. The wisdom learned by a tribal Aboriginal, may not be directly applicable to life in New york, and yet many of the basic principles and tenets may be similar. We have more opportunity now to be wise than any previous generation, because we have a far greater information base, and experience of many peoples to call on. However, knowledge does not convert directly to wisdom, without processes such as reflection and processing/synthesising the available data and applying it with relevance/reference to both our personal and societal requirements. To be effective, most people need to be taught how to use such processes, and modern society does not seem to do as effective a job with this as some previous ones where apprenticiceships, family learning and a coherent connection between all forms of education was more common..