Man is so constituted that he then only excels other things when he knows himself.
Interpretation
Self-knowledge is essential for true excellence and distinction beyond others.
This quote by Boethius emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in achieving greatness. It suggests that understanding oneself, one's strengths and weaknesses, is the key to surpassing others in any endeavor, as it allows one to harness their potential effectively and authentically.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to emphasize the journey of self-discovery in personal development workshops.
And no renown can render you well-known:_x000D_ For if you think that fame can lengthen life _x000D_ By mortal famousness immortalized,_x000D_ The day will come that takes your fame as well,_x000D_ And there a second death for you awaits.
He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate, and set proud death beneath his feet, can look fortune in the face, unbending both to good and bad; his countenance unconquered.
Every man must be content with that glory which he may have at home.
For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy.
I who once wrote songs with keen delight am now by sorrow driven to take up melancholy measures. Wounded Muses tell me what I must write, and elegiac verses bathe my face with real tears. Not even terror could drive from me these faithful companions of my long journey. Poetry, which was once the glory of my happy and flourishing youth, is still my comfort in this misery of my old age.
Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.
I don't want a moratorium on the death penalty. I want the abolition of it. I can't understand why a country [USA] that's so committed to human rights doesn't find the death penalty an obscenity.
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
Abortion kills twice. It kills the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the mother. Abortion is profoundly anti-women. Three quarters of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.
We must learn to die, and to die in the fullest sense of the word. The fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness
Power? It's like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction - to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.