The word wisdom is more than knowledge, more than experience. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary expands this thought saying "the combination of experience and knowledge with the ability to apply them judiciously".
The second version sticks out more to me since we demonstrate wisdom through our actions. (Certainly not through these short articles.) Our actions reveal the person we are more than our words do.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are three philosophers who considered wisdom a key virtue. Our founding fathers made the pursuit of wisdom evident in their writings. They might be considered the wisest revolutionists of all time.
If any of you are adamant about searching for wisdom like I am, the question is how do we acquire it?
I am a young person probably like those of you who are reading this, I am anything but wise. Through reading books, I became more self-conscious about how much I don't know. Socrates once said "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
So I doubled down and made the effort to read twice as much. Alexander Green has said, "The great paradox of learning is the more you know, the more acutely you perceive how much you don't know, can't know and will probably never know."
This goes along with investments. (Something I write about commonly here.) I don't care if you have read 100 investment books or attended dozens of seminars. Until you have actual skin in the game, and have felt the fear, greed, uncertainty, and hope, you can't be a wise investor.
There are many men on Wall Street who work for investing corporations that acknowledge the goal is to buy low and sell high but can never physically bring themselves to do it.
Naturally, wisdom through investing is just one area we would like to be proficient in. Wisdom is certainly more important than making money or trading stocks.
Through reading books, you will find many quotes that are wise. These gems give us the understanding that our tiny worldview can get a little bit bigger.
I will leave you with a sample of my personal favorite quotes:
"We don't see the world as it is. We see it as we are." - Anais Nin
"Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." - Socrates
"It is better to know some of the questions than to know all of the answers." - James Dean
"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
All the best,
Dan