Sydney Maco

The pursuits of the intellectual are ultimately frustrated by further questions, complications and apparent “anomalies”. The wise on the other hand seem to have a slow but steady stream of re-affirmations, a level of insight only few can grasp, leaving others to seek wisdom rather than mocking the intellectual in public debates.
Intellectuals approach knowledge as a collection of facts and figures, regurgitating these at any opportunity to demonstrate supremacy, spicing things up with a dash of logical argument. Claiming exclusive rights over all that has been revealed, naming mathematical constants, celestial objects, the human genome. A phenomenal height of arrogance which can lead to a crashing fall back down to earth.
I do not claim to be neither an intellectual nor wise, only that I acknowledge there is a distinction. On seeing this difference I can now turn in the direction of seeking wisdom, rather than a mere intellectual pursuit.
There are many examples of intellectuals who have finally come to realise that their pursuit has been more an initiation into wisdom than anything. You may be at a stage in your life where facts and figures reign supreme, in that case you have a long way to get to wisdom. While you continue down this path, you will never understand more about the known universe than (On a scale of 1 to 10)
1 + 3.1248163264128256 x 10 ^{-4309583847598347538274238764}
(Constant - the pinnacle of intellectual wisdom).
You will know when you are in the company of a wise person. Learn the language they speak, don’t burden them with life’s trivialities, but rather seek to understand their beliefs and motivation.