I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
Interpretation
One should share what they have learned but maintain a critical perspective on the information received.
This quote from Herodotus highlights the importance of discernment in our communication. While it is crucial to share knowledge and experiences as we learn them, it is equally important to approach information with skepticism and an analytical mindset. Blind acceptance can lead to misinformation, so one should evaluate the credibility of what is conveyed before integrating it into their understanding.
In practice
During a history lecture, discussing the importance of evaluating sources.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.
Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise.
What I fear and desire most in this world is passion. I fear it because it promises to be spontaneous, out of my control, unnamed, beyond my reasonable self. I desire it because passion has color, like the landscape before me. It is not pale. It is not neutral. It reveals the backside of the heart.
I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.
You just have to have a simple faith.
But there is another danger besetting your path. I mean the error of regarding your own capacities instead of your work, of putting self-consciousness in place of God.
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