WISDOM
Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairman couldn’t find the problem. In desperation, Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. Sure enough, the generators whirred to life—but Ford received a bill for ten thousand dollars from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the tightfisted carmaker inquired why the bill was so high.
Steinmetz sent his reply: for tinkering with the generators, $10; for knowing where to tinker, $9,900. Ford paid the bill.
He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool, shun him;
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child, teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep, wake him;
He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise, follow him.
An old mountaineer from West Virginia was celebrated for his wisdom. “Uncle Zed,” a young man asked, “how did you get so wise?”
“Weren’t hard,” said the old man. “I’ve got good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience. And experience—well, that comes from having bad judgment.”
—Bits & Pieces
Wisdom only comes with experience and experience only comes with time.
The art of being wise if the art of knowing what to overlook.
—William James
Scripture nowhere condemns the acquisition of knowledge. It is the wisdom of this world, not its knowledge, that is foolishness with God.
—H. A. Ironside
Many persons might have attained to wisdom had they not assumed they had already possessed it.
—Seneca
Don’t sail out farther than you can row back.
—Danish proverb
Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn‘t spend half our time wishing.
—Alexander Woollcott
A student in Columbia University was under the impression that he had been assured by the institution that he would be taught wisdom. Feeling that the university had failed him in the matter, he filed suit against it for eight thousand dollars.
The Superior Court dismissed the case; and the Appellate Division of the Superior Court ruled that the suit had been properly dismissed.
The presiding judge Sidney Goldmann of the three-man appellate court declared, “These charges were set in a frame of intemperate, if not scurrilous, accusations. We agree with the trial judge that wisdom is not a subject that can be taught and that no rational person would accept such a claim made by any man or institution.”
The difference between a smart man and a wise man is that a smart man knows what to say and a wise man knows whether to say it or not.
—Frank M. Garafda
Wise men learn more from fools than fools learn from the wise.
—Marcus Cato (the Elder)
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
—Samuel Coleridge
No man is wise enough by himself.
—Plautus
Here’s to the man who is wisest and best.
Here’s to the man who with judgment is blest.
Here’s to the man who’s as smart as can be—
I mean the man who agrees with me.
WITNESSING
Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.
—Francis of Assisi
Bishop John Tanner used to test chaplains by saying, “If I had two minutes to live, how would you tell me to get to heaven?” If they couldn’t tell him in two minutes, he knew they couldn’t tell him in two hours.
T. J. Bach was converted while a student in Copenhagen, Denmark. Walking down the street on a Sunday afternoon, he noticed a young man crossing the street to give him a tract. Bach crushed the tract in his hand, muttering that people should mind their own business. The young man did not respond but instead turned aside to pray, as tears began to run down his cheeks. Noticing the man’s tears, Bach thought, “He has given his money to buy the tract. He has given his time to distribute it. And now he has given his heart in prayer for me.” The young man’s compassion toward Bach’s crude behavior brought deep conviction. Half an hour later in his room, Bach pasted the tract together. Before he finished reading it, he was down on his knees, asking God for forgiveness.
—Leslie B. Flynn
A Christian baroness, living in the highlands of Nairobi, Kenya, told of a young national who was employed as her houseboy. After three months he asked the baroness to give him a letter of reference to a friendly sheik some miles away. The baroness, not wishing the houseboy to leave just when he had learned the routine of the household, offered to increase his pay. The lad replied that he was not leaving for higher pay. Rather, he had decided he would either become a Christian or a Mohammedan. This was why he had come to work for the baroness for three months. He had wished to see how Christians acted. Now he wanted to work for three months for the sheik to observe the ways of the Mohammedans. Then he would decide which way of life he would follow. The baroness was stunned as she recalled her many blemishes in her dealings with the houseboy. She could only exclaim, “Why didn’t you tell me at the beginning!”
—Leslie B. Flynn
Mark J. Goodger made it a weekly practice to hand out tracts from door to door. One day in South Carolina he stopped at a house and rang the bell. Because he heard sounds inside, he knew someone was home; so he kept ringing, even though no one came. Finally a man appeared, took the tract he offered, and rudely slammed the door in his face. A week later, Goodger returned to the same house. This time the man answered almost immediately. Inviting him in, he asked him to come to the attic. There he saw a sturdy rope dangling from the rafters with a box below it. The man said, “Friend, when you rang my bell last week, my head was in that noose. I was ready to jump! But you were so persistent that I decided to go down and see who it was. After receiving your tract, I read it because its title interested me, and through it God spoke to me. Instead of jumping off that box, I knelt beside it and gave my heart to the Lord.” How thankful Goodger was that he had been diligent in his witnessing! Without that leaflet the man would have gone into eternity unsaved.
A barber felt he must testify for the Lord; so when his first customer came in, he tilted him back in the chair, vigorously stropped his razor, and suddenly asked, “Are you ready to die?” In horror the man bolted out the door. The barber’s misguided enthusiasm lost him his customer.
—M. R. De Haan
A young minister, returning to his home late one evening after conducting a service some miles distant, entered a crowded bus, having his Bible under his arm. Some of the passengers, rough fellows, poked fun at the young man, and one of them shouted at him in a derisive way, “Say, Mister, how far is it to heaven?”
The minister turned to face his antagonist and, in soft-spoken tones and with gracious manner, replied, “It is only one step, Sir. Will you not let me show you the way?”
The story is told of a man who was teaching his wife how to drive the car. He got her in the driver’s seat and said, “Now just turn the hickey over, pull on the jigger, push down on the jimcrack, then press down on the do-dad with your foot and pull the thingamabob at the same time. When it starts, push down on the dofunny and yank the uptiddy and then let up on the foot dingus, put your other foot on the hickey-madoodle and don’t forget to push down on the hootenanny. See?”
That reminds us of the way some people explain the Bible. Let us be clear and explicit in our teaching and preaching—especially in explaining the Way of Life; for so much depends on it.
—Christian Victory
On one occasion John Vassar, a great soul-winner, was going from house to house distributing tracts and talking with people about their souls. One woman who heard about this strange man and what he was doing said, “If he comes to my house, he will get the door slammed in his face.” Without knowing that this woman had made such a statement, Mr. Vassar rang her doorbell the next day. When she saw that he was the man who had been described to her, she slammed the door in his face. John Vassar sat down on her doorstep and sang:
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe,
Here Lord I give myself away;
‘Tis all that I can do.
The woman heard the earnest verse as he sang and was convicted. She opened the door and called Mr. Vassar in, who led her to Jesus Christ.
Publius Aristides, a second-century Athenian philosopher, was asked to report on the Christians of that day. Here is part of his letter:
“The Christians, O King, know and believe in God, the Maker of heaven and earth. They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them. They observe scrupulously the commandment of their Messiah; every morning, and at all times, on account of the goodness of God toward them, they praise and laud Him, and over their meals they render Him thanks. On account of them, there flows forth much beauty in the world.”
—Edward H. Morgan
WIVES
A man is a person who, if a woman says, “Never mind, I’ll do it myself,” lets her.
A woman is a person who, if she says to a man, “Never mind, I’ll do it myself,” and he lets her, gets mad.
A man is a person who, if a woman says to him, “Never mind, I’ll do it myself,” and he lets her and she gets mad, he says, “Now what are you mad about?”
A woman is a person who, if she says to a man, “Never mind, I’ll do it myself,” and he lets her, and she gets mad and he says, “Now what are you mad about?” says, “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.”
—Katherine S. Beamer
I really don’t understand my wife sometimes. She insisted on buying a new bathing suit before we went on vacation just because her old one had a hole in the knee.