To make the child in your own image is a capital crime, for your image is not worth repeating. The child knows this and you know it. Consequently you hate each other.
Interpretation
Imposing one's own ideals onto others, especially children, is detrimental and leads to conflict.
This quote reflects on the destructive nature of trying to mold children in the image of the parent or guardian. It suggests that when individuals project their own flawed perceptions or ideals onto others, especially those vulnerable like children, it results in resentment and a lack of authentic connection, as both parties recognize the futility and harm in replicating a flawed image.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on parenting styles at a workshop.
Surely we cannot take an open question like the supernatural and shut it with a bang, turning the key of the madhouse on all the mystics of history. You cannot take the region of the unknown and calmly say that, though you know nothing about it, you know all the gates are locked. We do not know enough about the unknown to know that it is unknowable.
When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
I here ask pardon of all my compatriots for everything of which I have been guilty towards them. I know that, by my ill-considered and immature works, I have brought distress to many and that I have even provoked others to attack me openly and, in general, have produced displeasure in many.
If virtuous, the government need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting the truth, either in religion, law, or politics.
A new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken...
So always, if we look back, concern for face-to-face morality, and its modern emphasis on justice as well, have historically evolved as religious issues.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.