What does the aphorism "The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool" mean to you?
832238
Hi,\nTry this: "Wisdom without practical common sense is worthless."\n\nT.C......Rose
348640
A wise person watches others, and learns from thier mistakes. A fool makes mistakes, and doesn't learn from them
471199
I'd say it's more of a, \n\n"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
110764
An aphorism is a "tersely phrased statement of truth or opinion; an adage." My favorite is from Ghandi: "Be the change you want to see in the world." If that doesn't have truth to it, I don't know what does.\n\nBut I'm more interested in a link you had on another question. The webpage you direct us to raises a good question in itself. It says we should not hurt the EGOS of others? I mean OTHERS, full stop, yes. But their egos? Why?
154148
In a way, yes. It is the wisdom of your experiences. If someone doesn't act in their own best interest, or if they don't understand the simplest wisdom, we say they don't have "common sense". Another way of putting it is "They just don't know stuff that normal people should know." The more that you communicate with your local community, the more common wisdom you will have and spread around. As we get more isolated behind books and computers, we lose a lot of our 'common' sense of things that even "common people" would know.
1051645
"Haven't you had enough of the brute, stupid, childish, and, otherwise, adolescent, exploitative representation of human (or, really, sub-human) existence that is played out daily (in the name, and on the lives, of each and every born human being) by competing governments, politicians, militarists, scientists, technocrats, social planners, educators, exoteric and fundamentalist religionists (who aggressively propagate the provincial, and pharisaical, religions of ego-salvation, rather than practice the universal, and ego-transcending, religion of love), and media hypers (who thrive on the invention and exaggeration of conflict, and dramatically showcase the worst of human instincts in the unending "gotcha" game that denudes and exposes and trivializes and hypocritically mocks the highs, and the inevitable lows, and even the natural ordinariness in the struggling efforts of humankind)? Isn't it evident, in your deepest feeling-psyche, that this Wisdom-renouncing world is being controlled by the worst and most superficial conceptions of existence?\n\nIt is now time for every one, and all, to understand themselves, and to reclaim the world from the dictatorship of the ego, and from all of those who play at politics (and life in general) as if it were a sporting event that is supposed to excite and entertain every one on television.\n\nNuclear disarmament is a relatively positive, but still too superficial and piecemeal, effort. It is not a truly curative means, but only another palliative and temporary move in the midst of mankind's traditional advance toward future trouble. There is something more fundamental than the disarmament politics whereby enemies come to a gentlemanly agreement on how to kill one another without destroying one another! What is more fundamental, necessary, and truly curative is that human beings, individually and collectively, understand and transcend that which is in them that leads them to confront one another as opponents and enemies.\n\nIt may sound naive to speak of the necessity for the present (childish, and brutishly adolescent) crowd of governments and institutions to understand themselves and renounce the self-imagery and the techniques of enemies, but the feeling that it is naive to speak in such terms is merely a reflection of egoic frustration and despair. Human beings everywhere must now transcend that very frustration and despair if they are going to prevent the enslavement and destruction of mankind.\n\nHumanity is living in bondage now. Mankind is already, presently, globally, bound to egocentric and materialistic idealisms that are suppressing the human freedom to live by Wisdom and Realize the Truth. If human beings do not shake loose from this regime, they are going to suffer the extreme fulfillment of collective egoic destiny, in a "Narcissistic" holocaust that will either enslave mankind (via a technologically robotized political and social order) or (otherwise) destroy mankind (via technologically engineered warfare).\n\nIt is not naive to demand a new leadership when those who are led (and who could make the counter-demand for change) number in the billions. Nor is it folly to try to educate mankind when the only alternative is slavery and death. Therefore, I Say to you: All must commit themselves to understand the patterns by which they are now (and have traditionally been) living (both individually and collectively), so that they can then change those patterns and the destinies those patterns will (otherwise) inevitably inflict upon them.
202384
it's a combination of two phrases actually. It combines the phrase "cutting up" which means to clown around with the phrase "act a fool" which simply means to act like afool.
241680
Intelligence is knowing facts.\n\nWisdom is knowing what to do with the facts you have.\n\nHuman ~wisdom~ is folly; only God's Wisdom is worthwhile.
206451
Once upon a time, one clever man said:\n"Who wants - looks for the ways; who does not want - looks for reasons"...\nYou *must* win the war against your laziness, or you will be unhappy in your life.
124356
I want to see how, and why people think the way they do. And yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I have learned some things from some of the peoples answers. If you want to call it wisdom. Wisdom only becomes wisdom, when that particular knowlege has been applied "landoflookbe".
1186707
Yes:  Too wise you are, too wise you be, you are too wise \nfor me.\n\nPeople used to write this in autograph and year books, with the \n"yy" as drawn eyes!  Thanks for bringing back good memories!
902843
its good to be wise this you cant train for but happens.Its best to try not to be clever as the most intelligent people are noy always wise.Wisdom comes from understandind not learning and i hope you all find that!
287275
the magical word is stupidity
52638
The premise of the quote is rooted in the belief that first of all there is a 'truth' to be known.  And knowing that truth and being unhappy because of that truth is better then living under false pre-tense and feeling happy.  ie. having a girlfriend who you know is cheating on you and staying with her. Is better than being happy and not knowing that your girlfriend is cheating on you.\n\nI think the quote takes the possibly to the extreme.  The person who created this quote doesn't necessarily believe that the 'truth' means that someone will be unhappy.  Rather that the 'truth' is the most important thing.
250077
Sometimes, wisdom, is just letting it go. \nSometimes wisdom is refusing to empower those that would use surreptitious methods to elicit partial or incomplete response for the mere purpose of making the respondents seem less significant than themselves.
530487
The original quote was actually "Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them." The statement was made by George Santayana, philosopher, from Reason in Common Sense. \n\nThe quote has been tweaked a bit throughout history, perhaps to give a more modern and personal connection to the quote.
1045193
By saying that knowing is not enough, he's saying that if you have knowledge and do nothing about it, it's useless.  You must apply the knowledge to some useful area.  By saying that a will is not enough, he's saying that even if you have the will, it won't matter unless you do something about it.  Both parts of the quote essentially are saying that you can't just be idle (with will and knowledge); you must use what you have.