

"For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong." –12&12
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." – Proverbs 9:10
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." – Reinhold Niebuhr, Serenity Prayer 


"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 bitterest." – Confucius 



"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go, my own wisdom and that of all about me insufficient for that day." – Abraham Lincoln 

"Not to know at large of things remote from use, obscure and subtle, but to know that which before us lies in daily life, is the prime wisdom." – John Milton

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." – Marcel Proust






"The perfection of wisdom and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities; we will then be a happy and a virtuous people." – Mark Twain 



"Wisdom has two parts. In the first place, the wise man knows the means to certain good ends; secondly, he knows how much particular ends are worth."
"For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality and the solution was knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. [Today] the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men, [and] the solution is a technique." – C. S. Lewis 


"Wisdom is a path; it’s a long, patient quest—over and over and over again doing simple things, day in and day out, right left, right left over a long period of time—and wisdom therefore can never happen quickly." – Tim Keller
"Prudence is the virtue that disposes us to see rightly, the way things are in the world around us, and to employ that truthful vision to act rightly. It enables us to size up a situation accurately, to determine the best course of action, and to embark upon it. It is practical wisdom, or 'right reason' in action." – William C. Mattison III
"Wisdom is not gained [just] by knowing what is right. Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails." – Barbara Brown Taylor 
"The difference between knowledge and wisdom is experience." – Michael Ruscio

"Wisdom involves more than just knowledge. What characterizes this virtue is the ability to make distinctions between things, to perceive or apprehend differences, to discern the true from the false, right from wrong, and to take practical action based on an accurate grasp of reality and of the consequences of such action." – PTP123 

For more PTP123 passages on wisdom, see pp. 195–201. For PTP4 passages, see among other pages: as prudence, 102, 196, 264, 378, 379; and right concern/construal, 118, 144; as right reason in action, 225, 267, 272, 296–297; chief and guide of the virtues, 118, 288, 378; in Serenity Prayer, 379; relation to knowledge and understanding, 294–295, 379; sub-virtues of, 264. For more Big Book and 12&12 passages, click on 164andmore.com and search wisdom and its cognates. For related posts, see in Reflections, Second Thoughts: Decisions, Reason, and Emotions, and How Important Is It?
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