"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people"

Admiring cleverness in youth is a natural tendency. Intelligence, wit, and quick thinking often dazzle young minds, offering evidence of mastery, potential success, and social standing. Clever people can provide solutions, win arguments, and create new things, achievements that seem essential and admirable when one is trying to understand or change the world.

With time and age, priorities naturally shift. The experiences of hardship, disappointment, and the limitations of life gradually reveal that intelligence alone does not always make the world, or one's immediate environment, a better place. Cleverness can be applied selfishly or insensitively, sometimes causing harm despite its brilliance. As people get older, the value of acts of kindness, often subtle, unheralded, and sometimes even unnoticed, becomes more apparent. Kindness is what softens the sharp edges of life, bringing comfort, hope, and humanity to those around us.

Kind people may lack the dazzling appeal of clever individuals, but their impact is profound and lasting. They foster trust, create safe spaces, and offer understanding in times of need. Stories and memories about kindness linger longer in our minds and hearts than trophies of intellect alone. The ability to empathize and act with compassion becomes the trait most worthy of admiration as one grows older and understands the complexity of human existence.

At the heart of the shift from admiring cleverness to valuing kindness lies the wisdom born of seeing how relationships shape lives. Communities are held together by care, not simply by brilliance. As illusions of individual achievement fade, the true worth of loving kindness emerges. The world ultimately needs more gentle and generous souls than those who shine merely through intelligence, and the deepest respect grows for those who give of themselves with warmth and humanity.