"Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it"
About this Quote
The line turns wisdom from a heroic rescuer into a quiet gatekeeper. Rather than swooping in when trouble strikes, wisdom works upstream: foresight, restraint, and the habit of checking impulses before they harden into bad decisions. It prefers prevention to cure, equating sagacity with ordinary acts like pausing, asking an extra question, getting a second opinion, or deciding not to play a game whose rules you do not understand.
There is a sly paradox here: the better you are at it, the less dramatic your life appears. Wisdom often leaves no headline, because its triumphs look like non-events. The deal you did not chase, the argument you did not escalate, the shortcut you did not take, the crowded exit you did not rush toward all fade into quiet days and unbroken routines. That invisibility makes wisdom easy to underrate in cultures that reward bold fixes and heroic recoveries. Yet most of what people call luck is the residue of prudence and preparation.
The line also separates wisdom from mere intelligence. Brains can solve problems; wisdom reduces the volume of problems that need solving. Cleverness improvises in a crisis; wisdom arranges conditions so a crisis is unlikely. It is a blend of memory and humility, a readiness to learn from experience and from others. It notices patterns and heeds small alarms. It treats time as an ally, stretching decisions long enough to reveal consequences.
Doug Larson, a Midwestern newspaper columnist known for wry aphorisms, delivers the idea with a grin that sharpens it. The joke echoes a deep tradition, from the Stoic preference for self-command to Ben Franklin’s ounce of prevention. It is advice shaped by everyday life rather than grand theory: protect your margin, keep your options open, and you will not need heroics. The highest form of wisdom, then, is the kind that makes itself unnecessary.
There is a sly paradox here: the better you are at it, the less dramatic your life appears. Wisdom often leaves no headline, because its triumphs look like non-events. The deal you did not chase, the argument you did not escalate, the shortcut you did not take, the crowded exit you did not rush toward all fade into quiet days and unbroken routines. That invisibility makes wisdom easy to underrate in cultures that reward bold fixes and heroic recoveries. Yet most of what people call luck is the residue of prudence and preparation.
The line also separates wisdom from mere intelligence. Brains can solve problems; wisdom reduces the volume of problems that need solving. Cleverness improvises in a crisis; wisdom arranges conditions so a crisis is unlikely. It is a blend of memory and humility, a readiness to learn from experience and from others. It notices patterns and heeds small alarms. It treats time as an ally, stretching decisions long enough to reveal consequences.
Doug Larson, a Midwestern newspaper columnist known for wry aphorisms, delivers the idea with a grin that sharpens it. The joke echoes a deep tradition, from the Stoic preference for self-command to Ben Franklin’s ounce of prevention. It is advice shaped by everyday life rather than grand theory: protect your margin, keep your options open, and you will not need heroics. The highest form of wisdom, then, is the kind that makes itself unnecessary.
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| Topic | Wisdom |
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