I think the play of words—the syntax—in both “Age goes with wisdom” and “Wisdom goes with age” is semantically slippery to the point of being illogical. This is evidently due to the misuse of the verb “goes” in the sense of “moves along in a specified manner.” The verb “comes” in the sense of “arrives” might do a better job than “goes” in those two sentences.
If we take “Age goes with wisdom” at its face value, the sense would be that people exhibit more and more wisdom in direct correlation with their chronological age. This is certainly not borne out by human experience. Discernment and good sense—or the lack of them—are basically inherent in a person, whether young or old, so that wisdom isn’t automatically a deficiency in the young nor a monopoly of the old. Indeed, there are toddlers wise beyond their unripe age and shockingly unwise people from supposedly better-seasoned or better-reasoned adults. Just a cursory look at some of the major protagonists in today’s political, business, and social theater will inevitably lead us to this unpleasant conclusion.
“Wisdom goes with age” doesn’t cut it semantically better either. There may be some rare exceptions, of course, but experience tells us that the class goat or village idiot at age 13 to 20 will remain so at age 30 till old age or deathbed.
Truer to human experience, I think, are these three better-worded adages, “With age comes wisdom” and “Wisdom comes with age.” As with most sayings, though, these two can wilt when subjected to unmerciful logical analysis, but they come much closer to the essence of what it takes to attain wisdom when one is imbued by nature and nurture with a more or less fixed level of intelligence and emotional quotient.
