Not to be able to bear poverty is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.
Interpretation
It's shameful to be unable to endure poverty, but it is even more shameful to not take action to alleviate it through hard work.
This quote by Pericles emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and the value of hard work in overcoming poverty. It suggests that while experiencing hardship is a part of life, failing to take proactive steps to improve oneβs situation is a greater failing, highlighting the dignity that comes with striving to change one's circumstances through effort and determination.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students to pursue their goals.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.
Those who are politically apathetic can only survive if they are supported by people who are capable of taking action.
For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.
For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.
Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
I never guess. It is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty.
Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.
I soon discovered that man's importunity is God's opportunity. he uses our problems as building materials for his miracles. I began to understand that this was my first lesson in learning to trust him completely, my first steps on the path to complete dependence on, and obedience to, his guidance.
Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and do not fear or wish for your last day.
We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil good enough to cultivate; we can plant anything in it.
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