"<p>Smart people always wear me down and exhaust me. In their company, I felt like I was taking some kind of bad-faith exam. I had to watch them forever because they were watching me, from under their narrowed eyelashes, like a hunter watching the game, to see if I was responding correctly to their clever remarks, if I was clever enough for them, the clever ones, to talk to me. No, the clever ones always tire me. And I never learned anything of substance from them. Mostly they just explained why something was not good: life, the work of a man, spring or autumn? But that life is good, death is natural, man is not quite hopeless, they never said; for they were clever.</p> <p>Cleverness is not wisdom. Smartness is a skill, the agility of the nervous system, and intellect. Wisdom is truth, reassurance, forbearance, objectivity, and acquiescence. Clever men are never wise, they are too excited for that, they are as it were constantly intoxicated with their cleverness; but wise men are always clever, and at the same time more than clever, because they do not want to prove anything. Avoid the company of the wise, for they excite you and eventually offend you. Seek the company of the wise. You can talk to the clever ones. The wise ones can be listened to.</p>"