What's the difference between foolish and wise?

Foolish


Definition:

  • (a.) Marked with, or exhibiting, folly; void of understanding; weak in intellect; without judgment or discretion; silly; unwise.
  • (a.) Such as a fool would do; proceeding from weakness of mind or silliness; exhibiting a want of judgment or discretion; as, a foolish act.
  • (a.) Absurd; ridiculous; despicable; contemptible.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So, logic would dictate that if Greeks are genuinely in favour of reform – and opinion polls have consistently shown wide support for many of the structural changes needed – they would be foolish to give these two parties another chance.
  • (2) It would be foolish to bet that Saudi Arabia will exist in its current form a generation from now.” Memories of how the Saudis and Opec deliberately triggered an economic crisis in the west in retaliation for US aid to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war still rankle.
  • (3) That's foolish, because Real Madrid rarely look more uncomfortable than at set pieces.
  • (4) "We regret that Congress was forced to waste its time voting on a foolish bill that was premised entirely on false claims and ignorance," David Jenkins, an REP official, said in a statement.
  • (5) Shorten said while Hicks was “foolish to get caught up in the Afghanistan conflict” the court decision showed an injustice.
  • (6) Many commentators considered the suggestion merely foolish, but computer hackers issued death threats against her and her children, which she promptly posted on Twitter, along with the defiant message: "Get stuffed, losers.
  • (7) And it means that if Labour were to win, Mr Brown would be very foolish, indeed downright wrong, to move Mr Darling.
  • (8) "It was a certain kind of titillation the shop offered," the critic Matthew Collings has written, "sexual but also hopeless, destructive, foolish, funny, sad."
  • (9) Describing the moment McKellen knocked on his dressing room door he said: “I ushered him in nervously, expecting notes for my poor performance or indiscipline – I was a foolish, naughty young actor.
  • (10) But what people did when they were young and foolish, or even when they were not yet public figures, is not always the same.
  • (11) While we have this, it would be foolish to pursue a policy of still constraining resources in the acute sector.
  • (12) All three echoed remarks made recently by the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, who said it would be “foolish” to cut rates in response to a temporary fall in inflation.
  • (13) Since the initially peaceful demonstrations against his regime began more than three years ago, he has proved himself, by turns, foolish, craven and vicious.
  • (14) In a high-risk, 65-minute speech in Manchester delivered without notes, and 20 minutes longer than he intended, Miliband tried to take the mantle of the 19th-century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli's one nation, pointedly grabbing the territory and language of the centre ground which he believes David Cameron has foolishly vacated.
  • (15) But one backbencher, West Australian Liberal Dennis Jensen , has said it is foolish to set up a $20bn medical research fund at the same time as the government is cutting money from scientific agencies, including the CSIRO and the Australian Research Council.
  • (16) Donald Trump is too weak, too foolish and too chaotic to see beyond the immediate crises he has created.
  • (17) Here, too, Capote displayed uncanny journalistic skills, capturing even the most languid and enigmatic of subjects – Brando in his pomp – and eliciting the kinds of confidences that left the actor reflecting ruefully on his "unutterable foolishness".
  • (18) They privately acknowledge they were foolish in taking the bait, but argue they have broken no rules since they were offered no jobs, and therefore have no commercial interests to declare in the MPs' register.
  • (19) "Hopefully, the lesson is to stop this foolish childishness," McCain said Thursday on CNN.
  • (20) The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.” As for the social conditions that obtain: “It is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish.” Looking back on my political activism of the 1970s and 80s, there was a lot of refusing to accept existing conditions on the basis that they were “wrong and foolish”.

Wise


Definition:

  • (v.) Having knowledge; knowing; enlightened; of extensive information; erudite; learned.
  • (v.) Hence, especially, making due use of knowledge; discerning and judging soundly concerning what is true or false, proper or improper; choosing the best ends and the best means for accomplishing them; sagacious.
  • (v.) Versed in art or science; skillful; dexterous; specifically, skilled in divination.
  • (v.) Hence, prudent; calculating; shrewd; wary; subtle; crafty.
  • (v.) Dictated or guided by wisdom; containing or exhibiting wisdom; well adapted to produce good effects; judicious; discreet; as, a wise saying; a wise scheme or plan; wise conduct or management; a wise determination.
  • (v.) Way of being or acting; manner; mode; fashion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A more current view of science, the Probabilistic paradigm, encourages more complex models, which can be articulated as the more flexible maxims used with insight by the wise clinician.
  • (2) I liked watching Morecambe & Wise, I liked the Queen's speech because it was on and everyone listened to it.
  • (3) Based on these data, we propose that 19-oxygenated androgen intermediates are biosynthesized sequentially in a step-wise fashion as the cytochrome P450 and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase form transient complexes, and that the amount of isolatable 19-oxygenated androgen is proportional to the amount of excess cytochrome P450 component.
  • (4) But Zambelis added: "Whatever rebel government emerges, China already has a place in the country business-wise.
  • (5) First, I recapped Die Hard 2 – the insane cross-eyed Gizmo of the Die Hard world – a few months ago, and now I'm secretly determined to do the whole series before the Guardian film editors wise up and yank this feature from my warm, live hands.
  • (6) At the hearing, committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, praised the secret service as "wise, very professional men and women", and called it shocking that so many of the agency's employees were involved in the scandal.
  • (7) The acid-mediated Z form binds ethidium more weakly than its B counterpart, and the ethidium induced Z to B conversion occurs in a step-wise (non-allosteric) fashion without the requirement of a threshold concentration.
  • (8) But some wise old heads sniff into their handkerchiefs because they have sat through too many costly "happy ever after" ceremonies that ended in acrimony.
  • (9) He has to grow up and wise up to the fact that people at West Brom have supported him right from the beginning of his career.
  • (10) In an attempt to show the public and cabinet colleagues that money being ring-fenced from Treasury cuts will be spent wisely, Mitchell said he wanted to know whether money spent at agencies such as the World Bank and the UN matched up to the government's anti-poverty objectives and delivered real benefits.
  • (11) The rate constants involved in the step-wise dissociation, process were obtained.
  • (12) The Republican presidential candidate then told Fox News that Amazon is “getting away with murder tax-wise” and has a “huge antitrust problem because he’s [Bezos] controlling so much”.
  • (13) Two new bifunctional reagents suited for the step-wise cross-linking of cysteine and lysine residues in proteins are described.
  • (14) The correction of hallux varus must be performed in a well planned, step-wise method.
  • (15) It's wise, however, not to concentrate on the exact path of Sandy.
  • (16) Concentrations of ceftriaxone and cefotaxime were measured by Andrews and Wise in blister fluids, in ascites and pleural fluid by us.
  • (17) Given a choice between placating the Freedom Caucus and placating Donald Trump, Ryan is wisely choosing self-preservation with the former.
  • (18) San Antonio wisely takes a timeout hoping to cool him down.
  • (19) Crozier has had time to play with since he arrived, but the question is whether he has used his first year wisely to build for the future.
  • (20) After different time intervals following a single or course-wise administration of the compound the level of total lipids was determined in the muscles and liver of the mice, and of the total lipids, beta-lipoproteins, phospholipids, cholesterol, fatty acids and 11-oxycorticosteroids levels in the blood serum of rabbits and of the bile acids content in the vesical bile of these animals.

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