Sophocles is making a claim that runs counter to our usual happiness shopping list—he's not saying wisdom *brings* happiness as a means to an end, but that wisdom *is* happiness's very foundation, its skeleton. The distinction matters: you might chase pleasure or comfort and find them hollow, but wisdom teaches you which desires deserve your attention and which ones will merely exhaust you. When someone faces a difficult choice—say, whether to take a lucrative job that requires constant travel away from family—wisdom doesn't promise an easy answer, but it supplies the clearer sight to understand what you actually value and why, transforming the decision from agonizing confusion into something more bearable.