Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the difficulty of being recognized for deeper insights that challenge societal norms.
Plato's quote reflects the struggle of individuals who perceive truths that lie beyond the commonly accepted beliefs and deceptions of their culture. Those who dare to see and articulate these truths may find themselves alienated from the majority, as their perspectives are often not understood or accepted by the masses who cling to familiar narratives and societal norms.
In practice
In a lecture on critical thinking, this quote highlights the importance of questioning societal norms.
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction.
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
When the horrors of anarchy force us to set up laws that forbid us to fight and torture one another for sport, we still snatch at every excuse for declaring individuals outside the protection of law and torturing them to our hearts content.
There are people who so arrange their lives that they feed themselves only on side dishes.
As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
The trouble with conspiracies is that they rot internally.
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