For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.
Interpretation
A person's advice lacks value if they do not share in the risks and responsibilities of others.
In this quote, Pericles highlights the importance of shared experiences and responsibilities when it comes to leadership and decision-making. He suggests that those who do not have personal stakes in the outcomes of their counsel—such as having children to protect—are less qualified to offer valuable advice, especially in matters that affect the community or society at large. This underscores the idea that true wisdom comes not only from knowledge but also from personal investment in the issues being addressed.
In practice
During a community meeting on education policy, you might quote Pericles to emphasize the need for leaders to consider the impact of their decisions on families.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.
Not to be able to bear poverty is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.
Those who are politically apathetic can only survive if they are supported by people who are capable of taking action.
For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.
Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of its inmost shrine; her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not : whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort, nay, still linger in the forecourt, till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities.
But we are not interested in death at all: rather, we escape the facts, we are continuously escaping the facts. Death is there, and every moment we are dying. Death is not something far away, it is here and now: we are dying. But while we are dying we go on being concerned about life. This concern with life, this over concern with life, is just an escape, just a fear. Death is there, deep inside - growing.
The critical element in meditation practice is beginning again. Everyone loses focus at times, everyone loses interest at times, and everyone gets distracted over and over again. What is essential, and also incredibly transforming, is realizing that we have the ability to begin again, without blaming or judging ourselves, without thinking we have failed, without losing heart, we can, and need to, constantly be beginning again.
There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep _x000D_ seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We _x000D_ think that there is something hiding reality and that _x000D_ this must be destroyed before reality is gained. _x000D_ How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh _x000D_ ... at all your past efforts. That which will be the day _x000D_ you laugh is also here and now.
Only man is permitted to live without rhythm in order that he can become free. However, he must of his own accord bring rhythm again into the chaos.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.