QuoteProject
When a Benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the Benefit may often be said to injure.
Plato
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Misplaced kindness can lead to harm rather than help.

This quote by Plato highlights a fundamental philosophical idea that good intentions do not always lead to positive outcomes. When someone offers a benefit or kindness without fully understanding the situation or the recipient's needs, it can result in unintended harm, suggesting the importance of wisdom and discernment in our actions.

Themes

BenefitKindnessHarmWisdomIntention

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about ethical decision-making, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of intent versus outcome.

More from Plato

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
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.
PlatoRead
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
PlatoRead
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
PlatoRead
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
PlatoRead
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
PlatoRead

Similar quotes

We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity β€” a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
Nelson MandelaRead
Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.
Marian Wright EdelmanRead
The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach.
Albert SchweitzerRead
On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its great intellects.
Karl MarxRead
You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.
Walker PercyRead
Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. BurroughsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.