Whatever Happened To Wisdom?

Sometimes all it takes is a graph to put things in perspective. Change over time can tell us important stories about who we are and where we’re going.

Google’s Ngram Viewer is a tool for doing research into the frequency of words that appear in print. Google has scanned millions of titles put it all into a public database. This allows us to search for words and in turn, see what direction our culture is headed.

To be sure, this tool has some limitations and it may not tell us all we’d like to know, but it does reveal a fascinating and disturbing view of cultural changes through the 20th century. I searched for “humility,” “wisdom,” “sapience,” “modesty,” and “patience.” All showed peaks in the 19th century with steady declines thereafter.

All of which force us to ask some hard questions about where we are as a people and what we value. Are we really moving away from wisdom? Why?

wisdom over time

humility over time

sapience over time

modesty over time

patience over time