Does TIME always make us WISER?

Question

or some of us simply become BITTER.....

Answer 1

No, time alone does nothing. It's up to us. What we get depends on how we spend it, and what we do with what we get in the process. Vinegar or wine.

Answer 2

Not everyone becomes wiser with age, but many do. I believe I have become wiser...and perhaps a little bitter with age. Unless you are lucky, the passage of time is likely to bring disappointments and tragedies. Some we can overcome, but not all. However, if you work at it, the bitterness of the present may gradually pass as time passes.

Answer 3

Heck no it doesn't make us all wiser. Or it might make us wiser in some things but not in others. Also, I do not think that being bitter and being wise are mutually exclusive. Again, both can come in patches. You could be bitter, but still be wise about other things. Although, on the whole, if one were truly wise (in the majority, not just in parts), it would be almost impossible to be bitter.

Answer 4

Experience through time makes us wiser...not just time. One can just sit there wasting time and learn nothing. It is our way of spending time that makes a difference. Like I noted before, we are all given the same amount of minutes and hours of day to make use of them for our own benefit. Still, people who have survived the first 30 years of it responded to life differently. Some became wiser, some went foolish, some resorted to vices, others didn't progressed at all.
In the late years people will be asking questions like “what have I done so far?”. Others may simply shrug their shoulder. Others may blame others for their failures. So, I guess it’s not really time that makes a man wiser, but his willingness to learn from his mistakes in the past.

Answer 5

While it takes time to gain plenty of knowledge about different subjects, it depends on if the person has learned any thing or not, if they are willing to use the knowledge they gained or even as you say if they become bitter (personality) there is more than one factor to look at besides time like the individual them self , their personality, if they choose to use their knowledge and their intentions as well(good or bad). I believe that people do become wiser with age but it is up to them how much they gain or use it and how they use it. My personal belief is that people who are wise are those who learn from their mistakes, admit to their mistakes, use their knowledge for the good of humanity to help others. In other words time does make us wiser but it's if you choose to use it or not is the key and how you use it. hope this helps you. =)))).
see you . keep asking those wonderful questions.

Answer 6

The key word in your question is "always"; with that in mind, I'd have to say no. Although the passage of time gives everyone an opportunity to grow wise, not everyone takes the brass ring. I have seen young people wise beyond their years, due to compressed (and usually tragic) experience, and those that are old in years that haven't got a clue.

To answer the second part of your question, a wise person would never become bitter. If you are bitter, you are not wise. To live is to experience many things: pain, love, frustration, loss, elation, anxiousness, fear, hope, curiosity, sorrow, and peace. A bitter person can never obtain peace. For every stimulus, there is a response. The cool thing about people, is that they can choose their response--consciously or subconsciously. It is which of those two you choose that is the key.

Someone can hurl an insult, speak disparagingly, cast aspersions, etc. You have to decide how to respond to every external stimulus; yes, it is your decision. You decide whether to respond with a returning barb, or a shrug of the shoulders and a smile. Your response is your decision alone. No one can make you angry, you choose to become angry; no one can frustrate you, you decide to become frustrated. Again, this can be a conscious (wise) or subconscious (unwise) decision.

True wisdom comes from experience (usuallly involving time), circumstance, and the will to become master of your destiny--a conscious, and wise decision.

Answer 7

I don't honestly think it's time, it's the person & what they do with their lives (or don't do). I want to add that I saw an answer that simply can't be true. Wise & bitter ARE exclusive. A wise person is not embittered. In "You could be bitter but still be wise about other things"... knowledgable would have been a much better word to use. Wisdom is pretty much all encompassing, (not selective). I've known VERY young people with a great deal of it. Pay heed to shahbarack--one of the wisest of us all here!

Answer 8

Not always. Some people age like a fine wine and improve with the years. Others just become very bitter. Some people become very set in their ways, closed-minded, cold-hearted. Sometimes young people are wise beyond their years while older ones are foolish.

Answer 9

Unfortunately what the Porter in Shakespeare's MacBeth said of wine, is true also in regard to Time and Wisdom, it both gives and takes, paints and deceives, according to the nature of the one who partakes. Those who become bitter were never truly wise. A fool is a fool for life, unless wisdom is acquired and observed. A sage possesses wisdom, but must leave it or hand it on to another as the time comes that granted it to him brings also that marking its passing. The source and the home of Wisdom is with God, the beginning and the end, ultimately only the wise find their way back, a journey and experience.

[edit: I think what Psychic Cat said of Shahbarak's answer is true, and value both of them as part of my experience.]

Answer 10

Does time makes us wiser,you asked? When I got Married at the age of 16, and as the years passed, and I already had five kids, my Mother died from complications of Diabetes, Then three years later my Dad died also, it seemed to me that when i lost my Dad my World came to an end. But my consolation was that though they never showed they Loved us when we were Kids, I nevertheless took care of them, and spent sleepless nights at their Hospital Room, because it was my Duty as a daughter. I became wiser in showering more Love to my Husband and kids, because I wanted them to remember me as a loving Wife, Mother, who cared for them a lot. Did seeing Death in the Face make me Bitter? On the contrary, it made me see things differently, to appreciate each day of Life that God in his infinite wisdom give to me, and try to do right by my Family and Friends.

Answer 11

I find it sad that many brillant and funny satirist increasing became bitter and cynical as they got older.

I like this question because it implies that wisdom is an alternative to that unfortuante outcome- that with a true understanding, we are able to find a meaningful way to transcend the glaring weaknesses in mandkind and the feeling of despondency that that may evoke.

Time is necessary but unfortunately, not sufficient. But time is necessary to build compassion and humility- necessary ingredients. I'm sure there are others.