Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
And we have made of ourselves living cesspools, and driven doctors to invent names for our diseases.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques human behavior, suggesting we have degraded ourselves and burdened others with our ailments.
Plato's quote reflects on the moral and physical decay of society, where individuals have become like 'living cesspools', indicating a state of corruption and degradation. It suggests that instead of addressing our problems, we've forced those in the medical profession to label our deteriorating conditions, illustrating a cycle of neglect and responsibility avoidance that characterizes human existence.
Themes
Human BehaviorSocietyHealthDecayResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about public health and societal responsibilities, this quote can highlight our role in fostering diseases through poor habits.
More from Plato
All quotes βNot 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
I'm not good at finding 'encouraging' features in American culture. I doubt that aesthetic literacy has much of a future here.
Philip RothRead
Wealth often takes away chances from men as well as poverty. There is none to tell the rich to go on striving, for a rich man makes the law that hallows and hollows his own life.
Sean O'CaseyRead
To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Who knows whether, if I had given up smoking, I should really have become the strong perfect man I imagined? Perhaps it was this very doubt that bound me to my vice, because life is so much pleasanter if one is able to believe in one's own latent greatness
Italo SvevoRead
I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.
Richard LinklaterRead
There is no reason to believe that the people who staff the managerial and professional positions in our service institutions are any less qualified, any less competent or honest, or any less hard-working than the men who manage businesses. Conversely, there is no reason to believe that business managers, put in control of service institutions, would do better than the 'bureaucrats'. Indeed, we know that they immediately become bureaucrats themselves.
Peter DruckerRead