"We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom"
About this Quote
Montaigne draws a bright line between what can be borrowed and what must be earned. Facts, doctrines, and arguments pass easily from book to reader, teacher to student, friend to friend. They travel as cargo. Wisdom does not. Wisdom is not a stack of propositions but the lived art of judging what fits this person, in this hour, under these pressures. It is formed by temperament, habit, pain, delight, and the slow correction of experience.
Writing in 16th-century France amid the boom of printing and humanist learning, Montaigne watched scholars dazzle with citations yet founder in ordinary life. He mocked the pedant who can recite Seneca but cannot suffer with patience, who knows the list of virtues but fails to choose the right one when two collide. He admired the ancients yet insisted on digestion rather than display. Borrowed words must become blood, he said in his way; otherwise they remain a showy costume. You can repeat a maxim about moderation. Only the practice of saying no when pride is hot in the throat teaches what moderation asks of you.
His motto, Que sais-je? What do I know?, expresses this stance. Knowledge accumulates; wisdom interrogates. It measures the limits of what is known, the bias of the knower, and the singularity of circumstance. That humility is not paralysis but the beginning of prudence. Wisdom also has a moral texture. It is not only clever choice but good choice, woven from character. Character cannot be downloaded.
The point is not to scorn learning. Montaigne read voraciously, quoting everyone from Plutarch to Lucretius. He used their insights as flint, striking sparks against his experience until an inner fire caught. The modern flood of information makes his distinction urgent. Being up-to-date is not the same as being up to life. To become wise, one must test borrowed ideas against reality, fail and adjust, and finally speak in a voice that is one’s own.
Writing in 16th-century France amid the boom of printing and humanist learning, Montaigne watched scholars dazzle with citations yet founder in ordinary life. He mocked the pedant who can recite Seneca but cannot suffer with patience, who knows the list of virtues but fails to choose the right one when two collide. He admired the ancients yet insisted on digestion rather than display. Borrowed words must become blood, he said in his way; otherwise they remain a showy costume. You can repeat a maxim about moderation. Only the practice of saying no when pride is hot in the throat teaches what moderation asks of you.
His motto, Que sais-je? What do I know?, expresses this stance. Knowledge accumulates; wisdom interrogates. It measures the limits of what is known, the bias of the knower, and the singularity of circumstance. That humility is not paralysis but the beginning of prudence. Wisdom also has a moral texture. It is not only clever choice but good choice, woven from character. Character cannot be downloaded.
The point is not to scorn learning. Montaigne read voraciously, quoting everyone from Plutarch to Lucretius. He used their insights as flint, striking sparks against his experience until an inner fire caught. The modern flood of information makes his distinction urgent. Being up-to-date is not the same as being up to life. To become wise, one must test borrowed ideas against reality, fail and adjust, and finally speak in a voice that is one’s own.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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