Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.
Interpretation
We should show kindness to all living beings as a way to cultivate compassion in ourselves.
Plutarch suggests that our treatment of other creatures reflects our understanding and practice of benevolence towards humanity. By extending mercy and kindness to animals and all beings, we develop a more compassionate and empathetic nature, which ultimately benefits our interactions with fellow humans.
In practice
In a speech advocating for animal rights, one might quote Plutarch to emphasize the importance of kindness to all living beings.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.
We want to go forward, but which way are we facing?
What good is a character who's always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?
The inability to correctly perceive reality is often responsible for humans' insane behavior. And every time they substitute an all-purpose, sloppy slang word for the words that would accurately describe an emotion or a situation, it lowers their reality orientations, pushes them farther from shore, out onto the foggy waters of alienation and confusion.
The lapse of ages changes all things - time - language - the earth - the bounds of the sea - the stars of the sky, and everything 'about, around, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and always will be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence.
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