Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time. -Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur
Interpretation
Balancing love and wisdom is challenging, even for the most powerful beings.
This quote suggests that even those with extraordinary capabilities, like a god, struggle to harmonize the complex emotions of love with the clarity of wisdom. It highlights the inherent difficulties in nurturing deep emotional connections while maintaining rational judgment, implying that love can cloud judgment and vice versa.
In practice
In a discussion on relationships, this quote can illustrate the challenges of emotional connections.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist.
If you ask people what attracted them to the person they love, they never tell you of some perfect feature that focused them on sheer surfaces but rather an imperfection that allowed them to see into their uncharted depths.
I fell in love, not deep, but I fell several times and then fell out.
Even this late it happens the coming of love, the coming of light. You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows, sending up warm bouquets of air. Even this late the bones of the body shine and tomorrowβs dust flares into breath.
Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.