Wisdom

"Fortify wisdom," says Solomon, "and she will exalt you;

" For what use is wisdom that does not make wise the man able to hear?

for I teach you the ways of wisdom, that the springs may not fail you" — the springs that gush from the same earth.

Is wisdom, the greatest of all arts, gathered upon a journey?

nay, it is better simply to use letters for a sound mind, but we, as with everything else, so spill out into the superfluous philosophy itself.

They say that wisdom is a good;

Do you think you have any wisdom yourself?

In another conversation with Socrates Antiphon said:

Clearly, then, if you set any value on your society, you would insist on getting the proper price for that too.

For because wisdom is a consistent action, it is in that pertaining kind which I mentioned;

And so it is prescribed by wisdom that the wise man should, if there be need, leave wisdom itself.

But if we should concede this of the arts, yet the case of virtue would not be the same, because virtue needs the most reflection and exercise — which is not so in the arts — and because virtue embraces stability, firmness, constancy of the whole life, and we do not see these same things to be in the arts.

Newton, if I can judge aright, All Wisdom does express;

The picture plac'd the bust between, Adds to the thought much strength, Wisdom, and Wit, are little seen, But Folly's at full length.

It is also clear that Wisdom cannot be the same thing as Political Science;

Hence Wisdom must be a combination of Intelligence and Scientific Knowledge:

Hence it is clear that Wisdom must be the most perfect of the modes of knowledge.

take the lead in wisdom and virtue.

It remains to tell you about “wisdom” and “philosophy.

and, while we call eloquent those who are able to speak before a crowd, we regard as sage those who most skilfully debate their problems in their own minds.

for the power to speak well is taken as the surest index of a sound understanding, and discourse which is true and lawful and just is the outward image of a good and faithful soul.

But men who pretend to excellence must not imitate their example but much rather the power of wisdom and of justice and of the other virtues.

Men of intelligence are accustomed to take common counsel with others regarding matters about which they are concerned, preferably with those who are wiser than themselves, but, at any rate, with those who will express their own judgement.

For there is no one who, among the ways of life, will not give preference to the practice of reverence in relation to the gods and of justice in relation to mankind and of wisdom in relation to all activities in general, and they will tell you that the Spartans have lived in the Peloponnesus not more than seven hundred years.

for you give hope to your father and to all the world that if, as you grow older, you hold fast to this course, you will as far surpass your fellow-men in wisdom as your father has surpassed all mankind.

And there are some men whom you regard as unwise, and others as wise?

Then you conceive those to be wise who know what one ought to do and say?

Then it is a man who knows something of this sort, and is assisted by knowledge of what is best,—and this is surely the same as knowledge of the useful, is it not?

Human wisdom is of little or no value.

The fact is, men of Athens, that I have acquired this reputation on account of nothing else than a sort of wisdom.

Well, for a while this youth admired both Harmodius and Aristogeiton as wise men, but afterwards, when he associated with Hipparchus, he despised them, and they were so overcome with the pain of this “disqualification” that they slew Hipparchus.

and then, after selecting from his own wise lore, both learnt from others and discovered for himself, the things that he considered the wisest, he threw these into elegiac form and inscribed them on the figures as verses of his own and testimonies of his wisdom, so that in the first place his people should not admire those wise Delphic legends of “Know thyself” and “Nothing overmuch”, and the othe …

And hence, if the brave man is good, clearly he must be wise.

I have often heard you say that every man is good in that wherein he is wise, and bad in that wherein he is unlearned.

and these mystics are, I believe, those who have been true philosophers.

My dear Simmias, I suspect that this is not the right way to purchase virtue, by exchanging pleasures for pleasures, and pains for pains, and fear for fear, and greater for less, as if they were coins, but the only right coinage, for which all those things must be exchanged and by means of and with which all these things are to be bought and sold, is in fact wisdom;

Is it then owing to the science of her carpenters that a city is to be called wise and well advised?

Then it is by virtue of its smallest class and minutest part of itself, and the wisdom that resides therein, in the part which takes the lead and rules, that a city established on principles of nature would be wise as a whole.

Then what is it?

What knowledge is it?

Those who have knowledge, I say.

But to the things that wisdom has consecrated it can do no harm;

because they named no Matter at all, but first Wisdom founded, the beginning of the ways unto his works;

Or, if he stretched out the heaven thus alone, how do these heretics presume perversely, as though singular Wisdom were not admitted, who says, "When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him"?

And so, in contemplating the man’s wisdom and nobility of character, I find it beyond my power to forget him or, in remembering him, to refrain from praising him.

Once on a time when Chaerephon made inquiry at the Delphic oracle concerning me, in the presence of many people Apollo answered that no man was more free than I, or more just, or more prudent.

and moreover, in the meetings of the legislative assembly all the people of Athens, without question, follow the advice of those whose words are wisest rather than that of their own relatives.

But how could one become really wise in foreseeing that which will prove to be useful?

There is no shorter road, my son, said he, than really to be wise in those things in which you wish to seem to be wise;

So we see that mere human wisdom does not know how to choose what is best any more than if any one were to cast lots and do as the lot fell.