A Wise Person Knows...

• A wise person knows the proper aims of the activity she is engaged in. She wants to do the right thing to achieve these aims - wants to meet the needs of people she is serving.
• A wise person knows how to improvise, balancing conflicting aims and interpreting rules and principles in light of the particularities of each context.
• A wise person is perceptive. knows how to read a social context, and knows how to move beyond the black-and-white of rules and see the gray in a situation.
• A wise person knows how to take on the perspective of another - to see the situation as the other person does and thus to understand how the other person feels. This perspective taking is what enables a wise person to feel empathy for others and to make decisions that serve the client's (students, patient's, friend's) needs.
• A wise person knows how to make emotion an ally for reason, to rely on emotion to signal what a situation calls for, and to inform judgment without distorting it. He can feel, intuit, or "just know" what the right thing to do is, enabling him to act quickly when timing matters. His emotions and intuitions are well educated.
• A wise person is an experienced person. Practical wisdom is a craft and craftsmen are trained by having the right experiences. People learn how to be brave, said Aristotle, by doing brave things. So, too, with honesty, justice, loyalty, caring, listening, and counseling.
  
  - Excerpts from the book Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe.