Thursday, January 22, 2009

Knowledge versus Wisdom

Sometimes when I'm reading, a particular turn of phrase will strike me as particularly well done. This is one from a book I just finished called Pack Animals:

Brigstocke scowled. "You're just giving them a pack of lies."
"People want to believe it," Jack said. "They wouldn't believe the truth. There's no point having the facts if you can't process them and stay sane." He contemplated the water in his glass as he swirled it around. "Knowledge isn't the same as wisdom."
"Why? What's the difference?"
Jack smiled. "Knowledge is when you can tell that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is when you leave it out of a fruit salad."
(Anghelides, Peter (2008). Pack Animals. Great Britain: BBC Books. )

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