There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom, between someone who’s a brain and someone to whom we bring our pain. Someone wise does know which things can’t be changed and which can, and he or she is at peace with that. The wise person accepts things as they are, accepts his or her position in the universe: far better than a rock or a carrot or a pig, far less than God. Science is not God, nor is progress, nor is money, nor, most certainly, am I.
Wisdom doesn’t come from suffering. If it did, animals in experimental laboratories would be wiser than all of us. Wisdom comes from suffering reflected on, accepted, assimilated. But if we are so busy doing and experiencing that we have no time for quiet reflection, then life becomes not a connected whole but a pile of beads without a string. We have to take time to withdraw from the transitory in order to discover the permanent.
—Excerpted from God: The Oldest Question by William J. O’Malley, SJ
Thank you –your words on wisdom offer a positive insight into suffering. Oh that I may remember this as I journey.
Wisdom comes from God.
Thank for your insightful words on wisdom.
I have found that, in some cases, knowledge grows in book knowledge. Wisdom grows in love and silence.
“Someone wise does know which things can’t be changed and which can, and he or she is at peace with that.”
This was very well written, thank you for the reminder of silence. Quiet reflection.
Blessings
“Wisdom comes from suffering reflected on, accepted, assimilated.”
Thanks!