WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

the ways of the world
    n 1: the manner in which people typically behave or things
         typically happen; "the ordinary reader is endowed with
         considerable wisdom and knowledge of the way of the world";
         "she was well-versed in the ways of the world before she
         had taken the veil"; "he was amazingly innocent of the ways
         of the world" [syn: the way of the world, the ways of
         the world]