Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Interpretation
In arguments, emotions can cloud our judgment and obscure reality.
This quote by Publilius Syrus serves as a reminder that during intense discussions or disputes, our passion and emotions can easily distract us from understanding and acknowledging the actual facts or truth of the matter. It highlights the importance of maintaining a clear perspective and rational thinking when engaging in disagreements.
In practice
Using this quote in a debate to emphasize the importance of staying rational.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
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.
He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others.
No matter whether one is flying over Newfoundland or the sea of lights that stretches from Boston to Philadelphia after nightfall, over the Arabian deserts which gleam like mother-of-pearl, over the Ruhr or the city of Frankfurt, it is as though there were no people, only the things they have made and in which they are hiding.
I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.
It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out.
Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
The shallow, as intimated, consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise see in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?
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