Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
And all knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom; wherefore make this your first and last and constant and all-absorbing aim, to exceed, if possible, not only us but all your ancestors in virtue; and know that to excel you in virtue only brings us shame, but that to be excelled by you is a source of happiness to us.
Interpretation
True knowledge must be grounded in justice and virtue; the pursuit of virtue is the highest aim.
This quote from Plato emphasizes that knowledge devoid of justice and virtue is merely cleverness and not true wisdom. Plato implores individuals to strive for greater virtue than their predecessors, highlighting that excelling in virtue not only honors those who came before but also brings joy to them, reinforcing the interconnectedness of knowledge, virtue, and moral responsibility.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and integrity.
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction.
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow.
An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
Above all, discard the irrelevant.
A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence in his aura, which draw many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence.
Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.
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