Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
Nicolas ChamfortRead
There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that foolishness is more common than wisdom, and even wise individuals possess foolish traits.
Nicolas Chamfort's statement reflects on the nature of human behavior, asserting that foolishness is abundant compared to wisdom. It reminds us that while wise individuals exist, they too can display folly, emphasizing the complexity of human nature where wisdom and foolishness coexist within individuals. This acknowledgment of our imperfections can lead to greater humility and understanding.
In practice
In a discussion about humility and the nature of intelligence, this quote can highlight the complexities within human character.
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent.
Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth.
It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
In living and in seeing other men, the heart must break or become as bronze.
And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead (suicide note)
Once you've learned to think you can't stop. And an enormous number of people devote their lives to keeping their minds busy and feel extremely uncomfortable with silence.
You're betraying your whole life if you don't say what you think - and you don't say it honestly and bluntly.
The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.
When you're on your own, you have all the self-censorship that everybody has when they try and write. All the little voices that say, 'No, you can't write that, what will they think of that?'
If you get a call to go to a certain place in the middle of the night to pick up stolen goods, and it turns out the stolen goods don't show up but the cops show up, I think you're going to have a very weak story saying, 'Well, I got swindled here.'
The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
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