proverb · Words worth keeping
Experience is the father of wisdom.
Experience is the father of wisdom.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying calls experience the father of wisdom. It imagines encounters and practice as giving rise to sound judgment.
What the words are saying
Father presents a source relationship without measuring how learning occurs. A useful application can reflect on experience rather than assume merely having lived through an event produces wisdom. Study, feedback and other perspectives may also contribute. The phrase does not establish one exclusive path to understanding.
Everyday example
Someone reviews what an experience taught and checks that lesson against further evidence.
When to use it
Use it to discuss reflection on experience as one contribution to judgment.
What it does not mean
Experience alone does not guarantee wisdom or exclude other ways of learning.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided proverb reference
Supplied reference A; unit 314; PDF page 48
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.