Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the unpredictability of fortune and the human inability to foresee the future.
Sophocles highlights the dual nature of fortune, suggesting that both good and bad circumstances can befall individuals regardless of their actions or character. In essence, he underscores the idea that life is inherently uncertain, and no one can predict how fortune will favor or disfavor them, reminding us of the fragile and transient nature of human experience.
In practice
During a motivational speech about resilience in the face of adversity.
Silence is an ornament for women.
None love the messenger who brings bad news.
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
You clearly hate to yield, but you will regret it when your anger has passed. Such natures are justly the hardest for themselves to bear.
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
Nothing is to be preferred before justice.
I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies.
The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.
We've had a debate about immigration in New Zealand for some time. Now what we're trying to champion in that conversation is a recognition that New Zealand has been built off immigration. I myself am a third-generation New Zealander.
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