Watch out for intellect, because it knows so much it knows nothing and leaves you hanging upside down, mouthing knowledge as your heart falls out of your mouth. Anne Sexton
Intellect and its partner, knowledge, are deceptive. They trick people into thinking that they are wise or that someone they know is wise. But wisdom is so much different than intellect and knowledge that they don't even live in the same home.
The definitions of intellect and knowledge include each other. And they don't include feeling, or emotion, into their descriptions. Wisdom does include some knowledge but it draws more from life experiences, observations, and emotion. It considers more than the textbook stuff and takes into account life which is what rounds out the textbooks and brings them to life.
In the end when all you have and all you are speaking is from a place of intellect you prove yourself to know nothing at all. You, as Sexton says in today's quote, show there is no heart that helps you live your life. Do we need heart to help us live life? Yes we do. It is our hearts that help us determine if we should speak at all and when we do how it comes out. I have a friend who spouts off a bunch of knowledge about things but there is zero heart, zero wisdom, in the words and so in the end this person will be left hanging upside down alone having alienated people in their life. That's the other part of knowledge versus wisdom. Knowledge causes division in relationships because it generally presumes itself to be superior, wisdom brings relationships closer because it generally approaches with humility. One of the fastest ways to alienate people in your life is to speak with presumption and disregard the heart. Not to mention speaking out of a place of intellect, because of the behavior that it shows up as, turns people off in general. Who wants to hang around someone who knows so much but knows nothing at all about things that really matter in life?
We tend to esteem intellect in our culture and equate it with wisdom but the two are vastly different. What would, what could, happen in our relationships is we began instead to esteem wisdom and put intellect and knowledge in their proper place?
Intellect and its partner, knowledge, are deceptive. They trick people into thinking that they are wise or that someone they know is wise. But wisdom is so much different than intellect and knowledge that they don't even live in the same home.
The definitions of intellect and knowledge include each other. And they don't include feeling, or emotion, into their descriptions. Wisdom does include some knowledge but it draws more from life experiences, observations, and emotion. It considers more than the textbook stuff and takes into account life which is what rounds out the textbooks and brings them to life.
In the end when all you have and all you are speaking is from a place of intellect you prove yourself to know nothing at all. You, as Sexton says in today's quote, show there is no heart that helps you live your life. Do we need heart to help us live life? Yes we do. It is our hearts that help us determine if we should speak at all and when we do how it comes out. I have a friend who spouts off a bunch of knowledge about things but there is zero heart, zero wisdom, in the words and so in the end this person will be left hanging upside down alone having alienated people in their life. That's the other part of knowledge versus wisdom. Knowledge causes division in relationships because it generally presumes itself to be superior, wisdom brings relationships closer because it generally approaches with humility. One of the fastest ways to alienate people in your life is to speak with presumption and disregard the heart. Not to mention speaking out of a place of intellect, because of the behavior that it shows up as, turns people off in general. Who wants to hang around someone who knows so much but knows nothing at all about things that really matter in life?
We tend to esteem intellect in our culture and equate it with wisdom but the two are vastly different. What would, what could, happen in our relationships is we began instead to esteem wisdom and put intellect and knowledge in their proper place?
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