A Literary Prescription for

Wisdom

For the long, humbling business of learning how to live, gathered from those who tried before us.

Wisdom is the slowest of the virtues. It cannot be rushed or bought, only gathered, from experience, from reflection, and from the hard-won conclusions of those who lived before us. It is less about knowing a great deal than about knowing what matters, holding your certainties lightly, and staying kind inside your not-knowing. These books and poems gather some of the finest thinking there is on how to live well, from ancient philosophers to modern seekers still working it out.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these distil centuries of philosophy into clear guidance for living, and some are novels that follow real people working out how to be. Non-fiction and fiction together, they share one humble understanding: that wisdom is not a possession but a practice, gathered slowly and never quite finished.

The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz · 1997

Ruiz distils ancient Toltec wisdom into four simple, life-changing principles for freeing yourself from needless suffering and self-judgement. Short, clear and quietly profound, it is the kind of book you finish in an afternoon and think about for years. A wonderful starting point for anyone wanting practical wisdom they can actually live by.

The Consolations of Philosophy

Alain de Botton · 2000

De Botton turns to six great philosophers, from Socrates to Nietzsche, for down-to-earth help with the ordinary troubles of life: unpopularity, poverty, heartbreak, frustration. Witty and humane, it makes ancient wisdom feel like advice from a wise friend. A delightful, genuinely useful introduction to what philosophy is actually for.

The Analects

Confucius · c.400 BC

The gathered sayings of Confucius have guided East Asian thought for two and a half thousand years, and their wisdom on virtue, learning and how to treat others remains startlingly relevant. Read a few lines at a time and let them settle. A profound, patient book for anyone seeking a steadier, more considered way of living.

Zorba the Greek

Nikos Kazantzakis · 1946

Kazantzakis’s exuberant novel sets a bookish narrator against the irrepressible Zorba, who teaches him, through dance, work and appetite, how to actually live rather than merely think about it. Joyful and wise, it is a bracing corrective to too much caution. A life-affirming read for anyone who has been living too carefully in their own head.

The Razor’s Edge

W. Somerset Maugham · 1944

Maugham’s absorbing novel follows a young man who turns away from wealth and convention to search the world for meaning and wisdom. Elegant and thoughtful, it asks what a good life really consists of, and refuses easy answers. A quietly profound read for anyone drawn to the search for something deeper than success.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert M. Pirsig · 1974

Part road trip, part philosophy, Pirsig’s modern classic weaves a father-and-son motorcycle journey with a deep inquiry into quality, values and how to live. Demanding but rewarding, it is a genuine and original work of wisdom. A landmark book for anyone who likes their philosophy grounded in the real, working world.

Poems about wisdom

For the wise heart

“What Is Our Life?”

Sir Walter Raleigh, c.1612

What is our life? A play of passion,
Our mirth the music of division.
…Our graves that hide us from the searching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest,
Only we die in earnest, that’s no jest.

Raleigh, adventurer and courtier, looks back on life with the clear eye of a man who has seen its heights and its scaffold, and finds it a brief, borrowed play. There is no bitterness in it, only a bracing, humbling perspective. A poem to read when you need reminding not to take the whole performance quite so seriously.

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from the Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu, c.500 BC

He who knows others is wise;
He who knows himself is enlightened.
He who conquers others has physical strength;
He who conquers himself is strong.
He who is contented is rich.
…He who does not lose his centre endures.

Two and a half thousand years old, Lao Tzu’s verses still cut straight to the heart of wisdom: the hardest and most important knowledge is self-knowledge, and the greatest strength is over yourself. Spare and unhurried, they reward slow reading. Ancient Chinese wisdom that has lost none of its quiet power.

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from “On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness”

Arthur Guiterman, 1936

The tusks that clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
…And I don’t feel so well myself.

Guiterman’s wry little poem is wisdom with a wink: all our grandeur and greatness comes, in the end, to dust and billiard balls, including our own. It is the perfect antidote to taking yourself too seriously. A funny, humbling reminder to wear your importance lightly while you have it.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about wisdom to keep

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Aristotle

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It is not that I’m so smart, I just stay with problems longer.

Albert Einstein

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The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Turn your wounds into wisdom.

Oprah Winfrey

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Wisdom is not knowing more than everyone else. It is being honest about how much you do not know, and staying kind inside that not-knowing.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

A stiller, wiser mind

A gentle practice for trusting the timing of your life when nothing seems to be moving, and an essay on the quiet wisdom of belonging to the life you actually have.

When Nothing Seems to Be Happening

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A steadying practice for the fallow stretches, when nothing seems to be moving, and the quiet trust that the unseen work is still being done.

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Learning to Belong to the Life You Have

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On the deep, unglamorous wisdom of accepting your actual life, and discovering that it was enough, and yours, all along.

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The 21-Day Meditation Course

Guided Meditation Course · Georgia Clare

Three weeks of short, guided meditations to help you build a calm, steady daily practice, one day at a time.

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Questions people ask

Reading for Wisdom

Where should I start?

Start with The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, a short, clear book of ancient Toltec wisdom for living with more freedom and less needless suffering. And if you would rather a story, Zorba the Greek is a joyful, earthy lesson in how to actually live. The poems below hold a great deal of wisdom in very few lines.

What can I read to live more wisely?

A mix of the reflective and the lived. The Consolations of Philosophy and The Analects gather centuries of thought on how to meet life’s difficulties, while The Razor’s Edge and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance follow real seekers working it out on the road. Or begin with the poems and the lines to keep further down the page.

Which quotes about wisdom are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” (Socrates), “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” (Aristotle) and “It is not that I’m so smart, I just stay with problems longer.” (Albert Einstein). You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really make me wiser?

It genuinely can. Wisdom is largely other people’s hard-won experience, distilled, and reading is the closest thing we have to living many lives without the bruises. The old philosophers and the great novels hand you their conclusions to test against your own. None of it spares you your mistakes entirely. But it can help you make fewer of them, and hold the rest more lightly.

Wisdom

Prescribed reading

For the wise heart

Quotes about wisdom to keep

A stiller, wiser mind

Reading for Wisdom

Where should I start?

What can I read to live more wisely?

Which quotes about wisdom are worth keeping?

Can reading really make me wiser?

More prescriptions await.