Knowledge Is Not Wisdom: Jiddu Krishnamurti on True Intelligence

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Though we sometimes use the two words interchangeably, knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing.

Knowledge comes from the mind, whereas wisdom comes from the heart.

Knowledge will help us in so many ways from getting into a good school to landing a well-paying job or rewarding career.

However, when faced with suffering in life and a desire to be at peace, knowledge falls incredibly short.

It is wisdom — and wisdom alone — that will free us from suffering.

Wisdom that we have always possessed, but often fail to remember.

This point is beautifully illustrated in the following lines from Jiddu Krishnamurti’s “The Book of Life.”

I hope you enjoy these words of wisdom and develop a deeper appreciation of what makes up true intelligence.

Wisdom encompasses so much more than just knowing things about the world. It also includes the ability to love and appreciate the deeper (and sometimes hidden) aspects of life. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

In our search for knowledge, in our acquisitive desires, we are losing love, we are blunting the feeling for beauty, the sensitivity to cruelty; we are becoming more and more specialized and less and less integrated. Wisdom cannot be replaced by knowledge, and no amount of explanation, no accumulation of facts, will free man from suffering. Knowledge is necessary, science has its place; but if the mind and heart are suffocated by knowledge, and if the cause of suffering is explained away, life becomes vain and meaningless…

Information, the knowledge of facts, though ever increasing, is by its very nature limited. Wisdom is infinite, it includes knowledge and the way of action; but we take hold of a branch and think it is the whole tree. Through the knowledge of the part, we can never realize the joy of the whole. Intellect can never lead to the whole, for it is only a segment, a part.

We have separated intellect from feeling, and have developed intellect at the expense of feeling. We are like a three-legged object with one leg much longer than the others, and we have no balance. We are trained to be intellectual; our education cultivates the intellect to be sharp, cunning, acquisitive, and so it plays the most important role in our life. Intelligence is much greater than intellect, for it is the integration of reason and love; but there can be intelligence only when there is self-knowledge, the deep understanding of the total process of oneself.