Aristotle told us "practical wisdom is the combination of moral will and
moral skill."
A wise person is like a
jazz musician - using the notes on the page, but dancing around them,
inventing combinations that are appropriate for the situation and the people at
hand.
A wise person knows how to use these
moral skills in the service of the right aims - to serve other people, not to
manipulate other people. And finally, perhaps most important, a wise person is
made, not born.
Wisdom depends on experience, and not
just any experience. You need the time to get to know the people that you're
serving.
You need permission to be allowed to improvise,
try new things, occasionally to fail and to learn from your failures. And you
need to be mentored by wise teachers.
(Barry Schwartz, Our Loss of Wisdom, TED Talk)
