Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience - George Bernard Sha
Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to proper use. Scholars are a dime, a dozen, but a man of wisdom is a rare bird. Wisdom is the foundation, and justice the work without which a foundation cannot stand. Knowledge is horizontal. Wisdom is vertical- it comes down from above. There can be no wisdom disjoined from goodness. The first task of a man aspiring to wisdom is the consideration of what he himself is: what is within him, what without, what below, what above, what opposite, what before, and what after. In the face of Divine Wisdom, all that we have, or do, or know, is a gift of God, and is only an insignificant molehill compared to His fountain of knowledge. St. Augustine says, let your old age be childlike, and your childhood like old age; that is, so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom.
According to Plato Wisdom has four parts:
Wisdom, is the principle of doing things right.
Justice: the principle of doing things equally in public and private.
Fortitude: the principle of not fleeting danger, but meeting
Temperance: the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.
One day, King Philip of Spain called his son to a private room in the palace. There, on a table were the sword of the King and the crown of the King. His royal majesty asked the prince to choose which of the two he wanted. The young man chose the crown.
Then his royal father said, “No, son, first take the sword in defence of your country and win the war, otherwise your enemies will wear the crown.”
A wise man does first what a fool does last.
