Life & Wisdom Quote by Don Herold

New York takes the intellectual accessories of modern life and wears them like jewelry, Don Herold suggests, dazzling enough to distract from the absence of basic judgment. The line works because it’s a double insult disguised as a compliment: “sophistication” sounds aspirational until you remember its older meaning of being “sophisticated” as in adulterated, tampered-with, made artificial. Herold exploits that ambiguity. New York, in this view, isn’t merely worldly; it’s processed.

The joke has bite because it flips the city’s own mythology against itself. New York sells the idea that proximity to taste-makers equals intelligence. Herold’s subtext is that constant exposure to novelty can produce reflexive cleverness rather than wisdom: people learn the choreography of being in-the-know, mistaking speed for depth and attitude for understanding. “Less sense” isn’t calling New Yorkers ignorant; it’s accusing them of a kind of urban overthinking where common sense gets crowded out by performance, trend, and status anxiety.

Context matters: Herold wrote in the early-to-mid 20th century, when New York was consolidating its role as America’s publishing, advertising, finance, and theater capital. Those industries manufacture desirability for a living. The city becomes a machine for refinement and self-presentation, and Herold’s punchline lands like a warning: a culture that prizes polish can end up rewarding nonsense as long as it’s delivered with confidence. It’s provincial critique with a razor, but it also captures something New York half-admits about itself: the glamour is real, and so is the bluff.