It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Interpretation
Our lineage may provide us with honor, but true glory comes from the achievements of those who came before us.
This quote by Plutarch emphasizes the value of ancestry and heritage while stating that the true glory of a person's status should be attributed to their ancestors' accomplishments rather than their own social standing or lineage. It reflects on how one's background can influence opportunities but underscores the importance of recognizing and honoring those who have paved the way.
In practice
During a family reunion, one might quote this to reflect on the family's history.
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
As it turned out, though, it was a lot easier to say that someone deserved to die for what they did than it was to take the responsibility to make that happen.
Animals don't know as much about jealousy as people, but they're not ignorant of it, either.
We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.
The human bones are but vain lines dawdling, the whole universe a blank mold of stars.
In the same way, you were happy in spring, With the half colors of quarter-things, The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds, The single bird, the obscure moon- The obscure moon lighting an obscure world Of thing that would never be quite expressed, Where you yourself were never quite yourself And did not want nor have to be.
We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?
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