Quotable Quotes: Knowledge is Not Wisdom
by Miki Saxon
I used to say that the only thing worse than my memory was my hearing or vice versa—depending.
Today it is my memory. Last week, after two weeks of ‘Questions’, I said we would revisit wisdom, since questions are often the start of wisdom, forgetting that I just did two on wisdom in October. But that’s OK; you can’t have too much wisdom.
There is an old saying, “knowledge is wisdom;” the updated version is, “Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom.”
T.S. Eliot understood this when he said, “Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson understood the difference when he said, “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
The ways to wisdom are varied and it is Confucius who best describes them, “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 most bitter.”
Nietzsche tells us, “Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge,” while Anthony Shaftesbury reminds us, “Giving advice is sometimes only showing our wisdom at the expense of others;” not a very nice use of wisdom.
But the final word goes to Charles H. Spurgeon who sums it up nicely, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/541576567/
