It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.

The remark turns on a paradox: wisdom is not self-evident to everyone, because recognizing it requires a certain prior capacity—judgment, education, or moral receptivity. The second clause supplies a metaphor: even perfect music fails as music if the listener cannot hear it; likewise, sound counsel or profound insight can be wasted on an audience unable or unwilling to perceive its value. Read in a Lippmann-like key, it also gestures toward the limits of persuasion in public life: communication depends not only on the speaker’s clarity but on the audience’s competence and readiness to understand.