Wisdom and the Wise Man on the Mountain Top.

QUOTE from Heraclitus (an ancient Greek philosopher from 533-475 B.C.): "Those who love wisdom must investigate many things."

My post today has to do with wisdom. I got the idea from reading the comic, "Hagar the Horrible," in the morning newspaper. So I'll do my HUMOR segment first today. (Hagar is that tough Viking from Norway who loves to drink beer, overeat and not work too hard..)

Hagar goes to the mountain top to talk to the "Wise Man on the Mountain Top."

Hagar asks the Wise Man, "What's the secret to a long life, O Wise One?"
The Wise One answers:, "The secret to a long life is - don't smoke, don't drink, and don't overeat."
Then the Wise One continues and says, "But the secret to HAPPINESS is an entirely different matter!!!"

That really caught my funny bone. I'm tempted to cut it out and take it to my doctor the next time I have a physical. Ha! He probably won't think it is as funny as I do.


When doing research today to find a quote about wisdom I LEARNED some interesting things about wisdom. The most interesting one was this one.

A guy named AKHENATEN had this to say about wisdom: "True wisdom is less presuming than folly.The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance."

The quote from him is so true. But what was the most  interesting for me was the explanation given about AKHENATEN. He was the enigmatic husband to Nefertiti and father to Tutankhamen, he established Egypt's first monotheistic religion. He has been called the first "individual" in history, as he is the first historical person whose actual ideas and beliefs we can evaluate. A theory, enthusiastically endorced by Sigmund Freud, suggests that Moses founded Judaism having first served as priest in AKHENATEN'S faith.

One of the reasons I'm fascinated with history is I learn all the time that people haven't really changed that much over time. AKHENATEN and MOSES lived around 1300 -1200 B.C., that's over 3,000 years ago. The words of AKHENATEN  prove that there were ignorant unwise know-it-alls back then just like we see today.