Robert A. Heinlein Quotes on Wisdom
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Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.
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Democracy can't work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that's all there is - so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group.
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Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?
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Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way.
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It's amazing how much 'mature wisdom' resembles being too tired.
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Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
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Wisdom includes not getting angry unnecessarily. The Law ignores trifles and the wise man does, too.