"Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery"
About this Quote
Wisdom grows not from accumulating facts but from a disciplined reverence for what cannot be fully grasped. Deep intelligence stays supple; it holds paradox, resists the rush to closure, and recognizes that every clear answer casts a shadow. An honest appreciation of mystery does not romanticize the unknown or use it to shut down inquiry. It admits limits, welcomes surprise, and allows questions to ripen without forcing them into tidy conclusions.
Thomas Moore has long argued for a soulful approach to life, where psyche, myth, and the sacred infuse ordinary experience. In works like Care of the Soul, he urges attention to symbols, dreams, and the depths that defy purely rational mapping. Mystery, for him, is not a gap to be filled but a presence to be tended. It asks for patience, imagination, and a tolerance for ambiguity. The person you love, your own motives, the meaning of a loss, the atmosphere of a place: each is inexhaustible. Treating them as solvable problems reduces them; honoring their opacity enriches them.
This stance also aligns with the best science and philosophy. Socratic wisdom begins with knowing what one does not know. Keats called it negative capability, the capacity to remain in uncertainties without irritably reaching after fact and reason. Even rigorous research advances by courting the unknown and letting it question our methods.
In a culture of dashboards and instant takes, an honest appreciation of mystery is a corrective to the arrogance of control. It breeds humility, which protects against dogmatism; curiosity, which fuels learning; and compassion, which grows when we accept how little we see of another’s interior life. Far from paralyzing, mystery animates. When we consent to the depth of things, our intelligence deepens, our speech softens, and our choices gain texture. We do not explain life away; we accompany it.
Thomas Moore has long argued for a soulful approach to life, where psyche, myth, and the sacred infuse ordinary experience. In works like Care of the Soul, he urges attention to symbols, dreams, and the depths that defy purely rational mapping. Mystery, for him, is not a gap to be filled but a presence to be tended. It asks for patience, imagination, and a tolerance for ambiguity. The person you love, your own motives, the meaning of a loss, the atmosphere of a place: each is inexhaustible. Treating them as solvable problems reduces them; honoring their opacity enriches them.
This stance also aligns with the best science and philosophy. Socratic wisdom begins with knowing what one does not know. Keats called it negative capability, the capacity to remain in uncertainties without irritably reaching after fact and reason. Even rigorous research advances by courting the unknown and letting it question our methods.
In a culture of dashboards and instant takes, an honest appreciation of mystery is a corrective to the arrogance of control. It breeds humility, which protects against dogmatism; curiosity, which fuels learning; and compassion, which grows when we accept how little we see of another’s interior life. Far from paralyzing, mystery animates. When we consent to the depth of things, our intelligence deepens, our speech softens, and our choices gain texture. We do not explain life away; we accompany it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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