Walter Benjamin on wisdom

A religion may be discerned in capitalism⁠—that is to say, capitalism serves essentially to allay the same anxieties, torments, and disturbances to which the so-called religions offered answers.

If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Socrates470–399 BC

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius551–479 BC

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we
understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.