Better To Be Kind Than Clever.

[Atheist]

Anybody think it's better to be clever than kind?

[Prudie]

Exactly Tilly.

[Tilly2]

Thanks, Prudie. :-)

[JimF]

Completely disagree. You are not born clever. You may have a better capacity for absorbing and retaining information, but you still have to absorb it and retain it. Ergo, the more you absorb and retain information, the cleverer you become. In the same way, you are not born with the ability to play the piano. You may have more of a musical gift than others, but you still have to learn and practice.

[Tilly2]

O.K.

[-Talbot-]

Tilly is right being clever is a god given talent.


Thank youGod xx

[Prudie]

Retaining lots of information does not make you clever. Your definition of clever is not the same as mine.

[Tilly2]

Nor mine but dinner's ready and I need to go.

[ToraToraTora]

BA for jim at 19:21

[woofgang]

I think you can learn to be kind....indeed kindness has to be taught....A new born baby is not kind. Its needs are paramount and it has no thought for others. Children have to be taught to think of others and to behave accordingly. I do agree that from my small experience, some children are more easily taught this than others... I think that by my definition of cleverness, it can't be taught....its an innate skill like being an artist....if you haven't got that innate spark, you can get so far by hard work but not all the way.

[woofgang]

.....and of course really clever people recognise and value kindness in others and cultivate it in themselves.

[naomi24]

Kindness is innate. People either have it - or they don't.

[Theland]

I have always found that people who are not very clever, but very kind, are happier than clever people who often overthink things, and some wicked people are extremely clever. Clever at making money and not getting caught.

[Khandro]

In battle, I'll take a clever field-marshal rather than a kind one.

[Theland]

Horses for courses?

[naomi24]

One needs to be astute in one’s assessment of the kindness of others – a quality very often displayed for the purpose of blowing personal trumpets and engendering admiration. If there’s a method, it isn’t genuine.

[woofgang]

naomi, I don't think so.....as I said babies are not kind.....they need to be taught kindness and see it modelled.

[naomi24]

Woofgang, True, but like anything else it will either be embraced by those with a sense of empathy - or rejected by those whose cares concern only their own needs. That latter may have been taught, but it doesn’t follow that their education is effective.

[woofgang]

I suspect that you are right naomi but my contention is that NOBODY is kind without being taught to be....but yes some (very few) can't be taught and some may have had experiences that teach them that being kind is pointless or profitless.

[Atheist]

Woof. If nobody is kind without being taught to be, then where did the first kind person come from?

[pixie374]

Society needs both, plus a mixture of the two. I think woof and tilly are right, you are born with a character and potential and build from there.