Top 16 Books About Wisdom Updated 04 /2024

Smart people have written a book called Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom. It is on this list of books about wisdom.

Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Prize winner, activist, and author of more than 40 books, is known around the world as a great humanist. In July 2016, he died. The book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom shows him in a way we've never seen him before. He's not just a great person, but he's also a great teacher. Witness was written by Ariel Burger, a friend and protégé of Elie Wiesel. It takes us inside the classroom, where listening and telling stories keep memories alive. These lessons in compassion can be learned from someone who is a witness. When we listen to a witness, we become witnesses, too. When you read this book, the legacy of Wiesel is still alive and well.

To be wise is not just to have a lot of knowledge shoved into your brain box. In ancient times, it was enough to know enough to share a few bits of wisdom with the people. But today, that's not going to work for you.

No, wisdom isn't just knowing things. It's knowing things and acting on them. It means having both the knowledge to make rules and the judgment to follow them. There are many ways to find wisdom. These eight books of wisdom from some very smart people are a good place to start.

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thích Nhất Hạnh

I'll start you off with Thch Nht Hnh's book, The Miracle of Mindfulness. When he talked about mindfulness, he talked about it long before it was popular on Twitter, if you can believe it. I like this quote because it's true and because my husband usually does the dishes, so I don't have to follow it.

To wash dishes, we need to think about the cup of tea that is waiting for us. If we hurry to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we aren't "washing the dishes to wash the dishes." Another thing: We don't even live when we wash the dishes, so we can do other things. In fact, we can't even think about the miracle of life while we're at the sink. There is a good chance we won't be able to drink our tea either. We won't even notice the cup of tea in our hands while we drink it. Thus, we are sucked into the future, and we can't even live one minute of our lives.

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

In The Best We Could Do, you can give your smart friends and family a quick dose of wisdom. It tells the story of a Vietnamese family coming to the United States as refugees after South Vietnam fell. This book is relatable to anyone who has ever tried to improve their future while also missing a past that is gone. This family has a hard time making a new home in their new country, staying together, and living the lessons of wisdom they learn. As long as you don't mind that it's aimed at children, this is a book you can read to anyone.

A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger Von Oech

Van Oech, who got a PhD from Stanford in a program he made up called "History of Ideas," says that being creative is an important part of being wise. Though it's been nearly 40 years since he started his "Innovation in Industry" conference series, this book still gives practical advice from people who aren't creative on how to be creative. Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab, Bill Gates, and a lot of other white guys were there.

In order to get a good idea, you need a lot of ideas.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV and Desmond Tutu, translated by Douglas Carlton Abrams.

When you put two Nobel Prize winners and a birthday together, what do you get? I hope there will be a lot of cake, but I also hope there will be a lot of wisdom. On this special day, the two were happy. You'll find a lot of stories and lessons in the book about everything from the science of happiness down to the daily practices that people use to stay in touch with their sense of happiness. I think that's a good idea.

Water comes into the Dead Sea, but it doesn't have a way to get out. Water from the rivers makes it smell bad. It just goes bad. The Dead Sea is because of this. It takes and doesn't give. It's the best way to become more happy in the end. He said that:

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

If you think that becoming wise should make you cry a lot, then this book is for you! In this book, Dear Sugar (later revealed to be Cheryl Strayed) writes a lot of advice columns. This book is for people who don't like advice columns. This is what will happen if you read this and talk to people who have read it. They will tell you how much they didn't want to read it and how they don't like "that kind of book." Sugar has put a lot of wisdom in your bones, so just smile at them and enjoy it.

"I won't know, and neither will you, about the life you don't choose." That sister life was important and beautiful, but not ours. We'll only know that. It was the ghost ship that didn't take us anywhere. Salute it from the shore.

The First Rule of Punk by Celia Pérez

"STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME READ BOOKS FOR CHILDREN." I can hear you over there, but I've got some big ear plugs, so you can just stop. I don't care how old you are, this book has some very wise ideas that are especially important in 2018. People who are wise enough to try this can learn a lot from it. Stand up for what you believe, embrace your culture, be yourself, and don't be afraid to be yourself. Yes, I am right. I don't want you to stare at me.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

You can find more wisdom in Gilead than almost anywhere else. It's said to be "spiritual prose." A father and his son are at the heart of this story, but it's also about so much more. It's about how to live a simple but beautiful ordinary life. In case you didn't cry enough while reading "Tiny Beautiful Things," this Pulitzer Prize–winning book is for you.

These people who can see right through you don't do you justice because they don't give you credit for the hard work you're doing to be better than you are, which is hard and well-intentioned and deserves a little attention.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

If wisdom comes from heartbreak, taking the wrong path over and over again, and ending up in a place of peace, then Milkman Dead has a lot of wisdom to share with the reader. To go back to this book every few years and eat what you missed the last time you looked. There are always more things to eat.

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