If you don’t learn anything as you go through life then you aren’t doing it right!

Not necessarily. Depends entirely on the person.. Take myself, for a good example....I am old and wisdom is not my forte...perhaps learning from our mistakes brings wisdom, in which case, then yes, I have wisdom. For most other matters, I remain the infinite optimistic teenager !!

At my age... I say yes, and I am living proof. I was a Crazy Motherfucker that I don't know how I made it to my age in one piece. But here I am smiling at the world and when I need counsel, I turn to my kids for advice. I got to Retirement, What else can I say? Often I say... if I knew then what I know now... but how could I? You have to be around the block a few times to pick up experience and wisdom to make Right Decisions.

I think age can bring wisdom if you choose to learn the lessons. But some people go in the other direction.

I think wisdom comes from the ability to shed light on a subject which was discovered through refection on an experience, or perhaps a blunder.

I would say the adage is generally true but having made a catastrophic cock up in my 40's it certainly isn't an absolute

I'm uncertain if wisdom is attributed to age. It's relative to the person. However I have now doubt that age brings with it experience in life. Now is that synonymous with wisdom? I'm not sure.

I hypothesize that intelligence + experience = wisdom.

I am not as trusting of everyone or as naive as I was when I was in my twenties. As I got older, I believe that I got wiser. I learned more throughout the years, My experiences contributed to my thinking and my actions now. I evaluate subjects more carefully before I act or respond to them. I don't assume that everyone can think and act rationally. As I get older, I have experience things and seen things and hopefully learned things that have made me a little bit wiser. I am still learning and hopefully will keep getting wiser.

I know a lot of foolish old people. I also know many wise ones. It depends on the person.

I come from a world of degrees and national certifications. With this and years of experience I give the benefit of the dought. The military scores your knowledge with pay for your rank and the amount of time served. Another words age has nothing to do with wisdom if we are scored by what we know. If wise means all knowing, we need a bench mark to make a comparison... my question is how smart is wise? And does wise mean an accumulation of smart...ugh! To early in the morning for this...lol.

I wish! I have three uni degrees was a lecturer in counselling, and haven't at the moment got two brain cells to rub together - age related degeneration methinks, or my brain his on vacation I like your thoughts about innocence yes 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings' I am pretty sure though that my life is condensed enough to psych out whats good and not so good.

Age does not bring wisdom and the world has many old fools, I'm sure you can think of one.

I don't, I think age comes with experience.

I would generally agree however if you are unwise when you are older you REALLY look stupid!

Well, you have to take the wisdom onboard for a start but people hate being wrong especially if they think they have been right longer.

not much, i think alot of people don't change that much, though i do think we become a bit better with situations just from the number of experiences we've had

For some people, 20 years is 20 years of experience.. For others it is1 year of experience 20 times. My experiences fall into the "well, I guess I better not do THAT again" kind of experience.

Some people get wiser as they get older. Not all, though. Just look around you. Learning-oriented is very likely a component. And you are right about kids, too. Many of the awful things about us -- the tribalism, racism, hate for other people -- are taught, not inate.

As an 'older' person, I must admit that, with each year, I realize how little I know. Is this realization 'wisdom' in the classical sense of the term? I don't think so. But I vividly remember the days of my youth, and the beliefs of certainty I held--I don't think I ever knew as much as I did when I was 19! I have at last begun to respect one of the main practices of many Native American nations, as I have read, regarding the decision making of tribal elders. And yet, I still hold that in our more 'youthful' minds may be found new, fresh and revolutionary perspectives.

That needs to be changed to boredom..the wisdom thing I'm not sure about cause I'm still 49.

Individually, on average, I'd say it's true. There are definitely exceptions, but I think we tend to learn from our mistakes as the years tick by. That's not to say that an older person is necessarily wiser than a younger person, though. I think it's relative only to the individual.

What kind of wisdom? Can wisdom be segregated? Can someone have a depth of relationship wisdom while having none whatsoever related to math, science, law, etc? Or is it a requirement that wisdom is an innate ability to be 'proper' (is that the right descriptive) in any situation?

If it is the latter, I think that such an innate ability would almost have to be an almost magical confluence of influences at a very young age OR just that this persons brain developed with the right ability to perceive in such a way that a good choice was always obvious to them.

I, however, feel that wisdom can be related to a subject. Thus, someone who is a great mechanic might not be the wisest mechanic and thus might lose a finger for doing something that another less skilled, but more wise, mechanic would naturally NOT do, OR because they had a near miss having tried that at an earlier time. (This might, in fact, be the first time the great mechanic ran into this... does that mean it is unwise of him to proceed or just a lack of experience/knowledge that lead him to proceeding?).

No, I am not 100% sure where I am going with this (is my lack of wisdom showing? ) but I think that the appearance of wisdom can just be experience in a subject or field and if you were to observe that person in another endeavor you might think that they are something less than wise, for lack of knowledge/experience in that field.

With age comes the time to make more mistakes. Some people learn from them and become wise. Some people just stay ignorant. Don't listen to people just because they were born in a time before you were.

As a child I possessed a profound wisdom in that I never questioned anything. To just be here was wonderful. Then along came knowledge. ruined it all.