What do you think are the five most important qualities for a human being to have? (i.e. understanding, sympathy, good judgement…)
Compassion
Intelligence
Patience
Discipline
Optimism
Intilectual curiosity
Sense of humor
Compassion
Ability to learn from mistakes
Willingness to make mistakes
Openmindedness - this speaks for itself, in that you’ll make a lot more friends and a lot fewer enemies if you are willing to understand them.
A willingness to learn - ties in with the first one, but deserves a slot of its own - ignorance causes all to go tumbling down, so to speak.
Willingness to accept the consequences of one’s actions - it’s a good deterrent to performing misdeeds if you have to answer for them.
An inviolable sense of right and wrong - to have morals would be useless if those morals can be set aside at whim.
A sense of humor - life is too short to take too seriously. Laugh, you’ll live longer.
Ooooh, this thread is making me feel good. So far from your lists, I am…
Compassionate
Intelligent (or at least, I’m told I am)
Relatively optomistic
Intellectually curious
Have a sense of humor
Able to learn from my mistakes
Willing to make mistakes
Open-minded
Willing to learn
Willing to accept the consequences of my actions
…and more to follow as more people respond with their ideal traits. Hey, maybe I’m not so bad after all! 
Probably not top five, but worthy
Discernment
Wisdom
Forgiveness
Altruism
Treating others as we would like to be treated
“Altruism” - I had to look that one up in the dictionary, Lorenzo. You learn something new everyday!
My top five:
Compassion
Humility
Love
Ambition
Sense of fun
Let us not forget:
abillity to change their environment: ie, ability to brew beer, and to cultivate and smoke dope
ability to pass on abstract thought to strangers; ie, ability to produce pornography
Lorenzo, what’s the difference between “Discernment” and “Wisdom”?
Only the discerning recognize the difference.
You don’t have to be one to be the other; I may be discerning, which to me is a fancy, but not derogatory word for ‘picky’, but I’m certainly not wise. Likewise, a person can be wise and not picky, perhaps as a quality of his wisdom. A wise man may accept what is given to him without argument, knowing from experience that it is disadvantageous to argue, while I whine and nitpick, not having this seed of knowledge.
Honor - To alway do what you see as the right thing, no matter the cost to yourself. To take responsibility for your actions.
Courage - Both physical and moral. To face physical danger when necessary. To take a stand when you are in the right, and to change when you are in the wrong.
Curiosity - The unquenchable thirst to find out Why…
Generosity - The desire to help others.
Sense of Humor - For when all the above fail
Good topic.
Compassion- For any and all things. Having respect for everything from black bears to cedar bushes.
Ambition- This is the basis for all our discoveries and inventions. Having an idea and then acting on it.
Knowledge- Having information and understanding. The opposite of ignorance. Being well versed and knowing what you are talking about. This includes Wisdom.
Morals/Ethics- Having a code to live by. A sense of what should and shouldn’t be done. Courage, honour, etc all fit in here.
An Open Mind- This kind of fits into Ambition and Knowledge but is slightly different. It is the ability to have ideas and learn.
Oops… forgot
Humor- Happiness and optimism. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Without this we all would have done ourselves in a long time ago.
Compassion
Courage
Self-confidence
Intelligence
Sense of humor
Compassion
Understanding
Chivalry
Sense of Humor
Pez
EMPATHY has to be top of the list IMHO. If you can manage to see yourself in someone else’s ‘shoes’, it tends to engender a bit of wisdom, compassion and understanding.
And humour. If you can’t laugh about how silly you look wearing someone else’s footwear, especially if you’re a bloke with size 12 feet in a pair of sexy stiletto’s, you’re doomed. 
While courage and intelligence are noble traits, I don’t believe they are things that one can adopt or nurture. Either you ARE courageous and intellligent, or you missed out when Og was handing out the ‘diplomas’. Some of us are cowardly idiots, but we still manage to be honourable folk regardless.