The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
We may give advice, but not the sense to use it.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the difference between offering advice and the ability to apply it effectively.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld's quote suggests that while individuals can readily dispense advice to others, the true challenge lies in the ability to understand and implement that advice in real life. This reflects a common human paradox where knowledge does not always translate into action, underscoring the complexity of advice and its practical application.
In practice
In a motivational seminar discussing the importance of applying feedback.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Probably so we can think twice.
Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
To think well and to consent to obey someone giving good advice are the same thing.
Never deny a diagnosis, but do deny the negative verdict that may go with it.
If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision.
Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude - but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense.
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