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.
I have not observed mens honesty to increase with their riches.
No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
'Who do you think you are?' That's the big one, isn't it? A flourishing life depends on how you answer that.
I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have.
Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.
There are no prescriptive solutions, no grand designs for grand problems. Life's solutions lie in the minute particulars involving more and more individual people daring to create their own life and art, daring to listen to the voice within their deepest, original nature, and deeper still, the voice within the earth.
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