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Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
George Bernard Shaw
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Wisdom comes from the ability to learn from experiences rather than simply the number of experiences one has.

George Bernard Shaw suggests that it is not merely the accumulation of experiences that makes someone wise; rather, it is one's ability to understand and reflect upon those experiences that contributes to true wisdom. This implies that wisdom is more about depth of understanding than breadth of experiences.

Themes

WisdomExperienceUnderstandingLearningKnowledge

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of reflection on experiences.

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What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
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Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
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The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
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A little wisdom, now and then

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Quote by George Bernard Shaw | QuoteProject