It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.
Interpretation
Arguments driven by basic needs are often futile.
This quote by Plutarch suggests that when people are driven by their basic needs, like hunger, they are less likely to listen to reason or engage in thoughtful discussion. It highlights the challenges in communicating effectively when someone is primarily focused on fulfilling their immediate physical needs, indicating that addressing such needs is foundational before productive dialogue can occur.
In practice
A politician could use this quote when discussing the importance of addressing basic needs before engaging the public in complex policies.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
We have to keep asking ourselves: 'What does it all mean? What is God trying to tell us? How are we called to live in the midst of all this?' Without such questions our lives become numb and flat.
The relations between rhetoric and ethics are disturbing: the ease with which language can be twisted is worrisome, and the fact that our minds accept these perverse games so docilely is no less cause for concern.
Sometimes I read about someone saying with great authority that animals have no intentions and no feelings, and I wonder, 'Doesn't this guy have a dog?'
The essence of a person is not the clothing she wears or the things he does. People who love them do not stop loving them when they change clothing or do other things. Your essence is not even your history, culture, race, or what you think and do. It is your soul.
I began thinking about my skeleton, this solid, beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
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