He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
My grandmother used to say, “You can tell a person by the company they keep.” That modern day wise saying comes from this ancient proverb. Spending time with wise people rubs off on us and we learn their ways, growing wiser.
My mother used to say to me, “If everyone else jumps off a bridge, are you going to do it, too?” In my mind, I used to think, “Well, if that’s what all the other guys are going to do, yeah, I think so!
That’s the kind of thing that happens when we hang out with fools. We wind up struggling with the same stuff the fool struggles with – and we will also suffer the same consequences.