“Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.”
Cato the Elder (-234–-149 BC) politician, writer and economist (0234-0149)
Plutarch's Life of Cato
Variant: Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
“Only the foolish learn from experience - the wise learn from the experience of others.”
Rolf Hochhuth (1931) german writer
Nur der Dumme lernt aus Erfahrung, der Kluge aus der Erfahrung der anderen!
Alan Turing
John C. Wright (1961) American novelist and technical writer
Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 10, “Love’s Proper Hue” Section 6 (p. 154)
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader
Source: Celebrating Silence: Excerpts from Five Years of Weekly Knowledge 1995-2000
“In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.”
Oscar Wilde book Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
“4833. The wise Man draws more Advantage from his Enemies, than a Fool from his Friends.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1749) : The wise Man draws more Advantage from his Enemies, than the Fool from his Friends.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Lloyd Alexander book The Book of Three
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book I: The Book of Three (1964), Chapter 1
Context: "Why?" Dallben interrupted. "In some cases," he said, "we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself."
“A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.”
Un sot savant est sot plus qu'un sot ignorant.
Act IV, sc. iii
Les Femmes Savantes (1672)
