I find myself constantly drawn to the words of Socrates "All I know is, that I know nothing". With each passing day I learn more and more what this means. I am always learning from not only the wisdom of others but the ignorance as well. I have learned a great lesson today. This is my best explanation of intelligence. Knowledge is the awareness of ignorance in the world but intelligence is knowing all ignorance comes from thyself alone.

To be an intelligent person we must understand that no ignorance exists in the world the only ignorance we see is the ignorance we create. If we look upon someone as ignorant for ideas, beliefs, or thoughts that are opposite our own we ourselves become the ignorant one. When we come to the conclusion that we are absolutely right and another is wrong we become what we see in the opposite person. For just in the same way we view an ignorant person they too view us in the same manner. There are no real facts in this world there are only ideas that have been created by men like you and I and pondered on over the centuries, although we think we know something all we know is the ideas and thoughts of others and our further elaboration of those ideas. So to think someone ignorant is to think ourselves ignorant. For example, One man says the sky is blue and the other the sky is purple. Now, the man who says the sky is blue thinks the man who sees a purple sky as ignorant, because he absolutely knows the sky is blue. He holds himself higher than the man who sees the sky is purple because he knows he is right. What this man doesn't know is that the man who sees a purple sky has a disorder with the rods and cones in his eyes which cause him to see color differently so ultimately the sky is purple for him. So each think they are right they argue and bicker of each others ignorance until a man in the distance comes to them and explains that the sky has no color it is the mere refraction of light along with the reaction of cones and rods in our eyes that make the colors we see. In essence the sky can be any color, he says. The man who tells them this information does not look down upon either man nor does he see them as ignorant because he knows one man sees a purple sky the other a blue sky and that his idea of cones and rods although studied in a lab and tested has no way of being a fact for he knows there are no facts, just the interpretations of men on what they see. So to him there is no ignorance. As for the other two men they see that all the ignorance that caused bickering between them stemmed from themselves and not the other person. They failed to think further because they were so sure of their own facts. So until we can look at every situation from every angle without bias we will only gather knowledge that proves others ignorance, but when we can see from all angles with no bias and room for ideas then our knowledge will be turned into intelligence.