The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.

Smiles frames “wisdom” less as abstract knowledge than as a practical ethic for social life. To “bear and forbear” suggests a double discipline: bearing the inevitable frictions of human interaction (annoyances, slights, differences) and forbearing from retaliating, judging harshly, or insisting on one’s own way. Peace with others, in this view, is not achieved by controlling them but by governing oneself—cultivating patience, restraint, and a willingness to absorb minor injuries for the sake of harmony. The ellipsis hints the line is excerpted from a longer moral reflection, consistent with Smiles’s Victorian emphasis on character, self-command, and everyday virtues as the foundation of a stable society.