A short video in which well-known people from a wide range of fields talk about what wisdom means to them.
Wisdom to me isn't an answer
anyway. Wisdom is a question. It's like your mother saying, "Where have you
been to this time of night?" The question was the answer; she didn't want
you to tell her.
Wisdom is about experience which hopefully would include risk
taking and being somewhat adventurous.
It is more blessed to give than to
receive because in giving, although it doesn't seem so, you receive.
You
don't stop doing things because you get old.You get old because you stop
doing things.
I get sillier as I get older. So I don't know what wisdom
means.
It's awfully sad, that with our clever brain,capable of taking us to
the moon, that we seem to have lost wisdom. And that is the wisdom of
the indigenous people, who would make a major decision based on "How
will this decision affect our people 7 generations ahead?"
It's not
about brains. It's not about the accumulation of knowledge. It's about being
decent.
Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am,
and what I need;these are things I have to find out myself.
It's a play,
isn't it? You know you've got to get through the third act. And you've got to
finish as strong as you began. And if that's the proposition then... get to
work.
I think the happiest way of life is to be developing or making things.
Your best work is your expression
of yourself.Now you may not be the greatest at it,but when you do it, you're
the only expert.
You can't get to wonderful without passing through alright.
You can't skip "not being able to function" all the way over to "running
the wholeshow".
And if you happen to have talent, then you take that
technique somewhere with that talent,and you create new things. There is no way
that we can escape ourselves. If I give you a recipe and I give 5 different
people a recipe I will have 5 different dish on the table.
One of the reasons I
haven't slipped into some sort of retirement is I always feel like I'm
learning something new, all the time.
I always thought that inspiration is for amateurs.The
rest of us just show up and get to work.If you wait around for the clouds
to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain,you're not gonna make
an awful lot of work.
I don’t have to work, but I
like to work. Only if you like to work can you do good things.
If you're ever
going to create a peaceful world,you're going to have to ask, "What
is it possible for the other fellow to do?" If you believe in the law, it
applies to everyone.
Once you say it doesn't apply to one person, or to a group
of people, you're really saying, "Well, I don't believe the rule of
law".
When you look at conflict, no matter where it exists, it's about
difference; difference of race, religion, of nationality. The answer
to difference is to respect it, not to fight about it.
If a sovereign
does not take care of his or he rpeople then the international community has
a responsibility to protect.
You can't control people by fear because
the ultimate, ultimate essence is constantly craving dignity. That the human
dignity has a need for dignity, just like.... like water, like air.
You don't
have to be rich, and you don't have to bean army. If you find yourself in a
situation that needs to be changed, if you're willing to offer your life for it, you
might actually get something done.
The ways of peace are easier than we can
imagine provided that we are able to invent, we can invent our future.
I was in
the Air Force a while, and they have what they call "policing the
area". And that's where you looked around, if anything was wrong. You took
care of your own area. If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won't
have any problems.
It's not just policing your own area, because tha tcan
turn into its own ego trip "Look at me! I'm doing something for the
environment!" Rather than saying it's something I have to do, because
it's necessary.
You don't have to be a United States Senator tomake a difference.
Nurses make a difference.Policemen make a difference. People who work
with special needs children make a difference.
I don't know if political
change... can affect that much. The change has to be in the heart.
Love
something. I think we've got to learn to love something deeply.I think it's
love. It sounds sentimental as hell, but I really think it is.
I think
that love is the most important thing.
Life is not perfect. It never will be. You
just have to make the very best of it. And you have to open your heart to what
the world can show you. And sometimes it’s terrifying, and sometimes it’s incredibly
beautiful. And I'll take both, thanks.
