Education
The underlying difference between someone who is clever and someone who isn't can be imagined as the difference between the top and the bottom side of a line drawn in pencil. It is really insignificant.
A favorable environment does not guarantee that one can study. Wherever you are, be it on a train or even in the bathroom, that can be your classroom.
There are many ways to read a book. One is to read only for pleasure, simply following the plot, but this is a very shallow way to read. Another is to think about the author's motivation for writing the book, its historical backdrop, the societal elements of the time, the characters in the story and the ideas and intention that the author is trying to express. And finally there is reading to grasp what kind of person the author is, their true character, the scale of their being, their views on life, the world and the universe, and their ideals and beliefs. Genuine reading requires that you take it this far.
The confusion of knowledge for wisdom is one of the great misfortunes of our times. ... Knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing. While knowledge may be a door that opens the path to wisdom, it is not, in itself, wisdom.