sadder but wiser

Idioms  

1. Unhappy but having learned from one's mistakes, as in Sadder but wiser, she's never going near poison ivy again. The pairing of these two adjectives was first recorded in Samuel Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).

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Example Sentences

For now, Dr. Walker said, he and many others are sadder but wiser about using anti il-6 drugs to treat Covid patients.

From New York Times • Nov. 8, 2020

Yet where celebrity leaves Ally sadder but wiser, truer than before to her scarred heart, Celeste buries her pain in its sparkly privileges.

From The Guardian • Dec. 5, 2018

If so, then Scott Walker will have become, in defeat, a party figure not unlike the 2012 nominee he criticized last year: a sadder but wiser politician, counseling from the sidelines based on bitter experience.

From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2015

The Shore would be perfect for that part of the movie where the blue creatures all emerge sadder but wiser from the battle.

From The Guardian • Jan. 23, 2013

Let’s hope the ride will soon be over. sadder BUTWiSER.Some people are sadder but wiser after hearing a word to the wise.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner