Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Every vice has its excuse ready.
Interpretation
People often rationalize their unethical behavior with excuses.
This quote reflects the idea that individuals are adept at creating justifications for their wrongdoings. It suggests a human tendency to avoid accountability by providing reasons for actions that might be considered vices or immoral. The ability to craft excuses highlights a deeper understanding of our flaws and the complexities of moral decision-making.
In practice
During a discussion on ethics, this quote can be used to illustrate how people justify negative behavior.
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.
What is kinder--to believe the best of people and burden them with a nobility beyond their endurance--or to see them as they are, and accept it because it makes them comfortable?
Everybody sees me as this sullen and insecure little thing. Those are just the sides of me that I feel it's necessary to show because no one else seems to be showing them.
The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.
His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the servants' hall.
I told you I would tell you my names. This is what they call me. I'm called Glad-of-War, Grim, Raider, and Third. I am One-Eyed. I am called Highest, and True-Guesser. I am Grimnir, and I am the Hooded One. I am All-Father, and I am Gondlir Wand-Bearer. I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die. My ravens are Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory; my wolves are Freki and Geri; my horse is the gallows.
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