It is ingrained in all living creatures, first of all, to preserve their own safety, to guard against what is harmful, to strive for what is advantageous.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the instinctual drive in all living beings to prioritize their safety and seek beneficial outcomes.
Saint Ambrose highlights the fundamental instincts that govern the behavior of all living creatures, suggesting that self-preservation and the pursuit of advantage are innate tendencies. This perspective offers insight into both animal behavior and human motivation, implying that the desire to protect oneself and improve oneβs situation is universal and essential for survival.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about animal behavior in biology classes.
A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to his parents, to give honor to his elders, to preserve his purity; he ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years.
Where a man's heart is, there is his treasure also.
The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.
Take away the contests of the martyrs, and you have taken away their crowns.
The best way to use the gold of the Redeemer is for the redemption of those in peril.
As for politics, Iβm an anarchist. I hate governments and rules and fetters. Canβt stand caged animals. People must be free.
We judge individual man and women as we do nations and races -- by the character of their achievement and by their achievement of character.
Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land.
An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.
See! those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart! Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame.
In cases of major discrepancy its always reality thats got it wrong ... reality is frequently inaccurate.
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