When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edith HamiltonRead
When the mind withdraws into itself and dispenses with facts it makes only chaos.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that isolating one's thoughts and ignoring reality leads to disorder and confusion.
Edith Hamilton’s quote emphasizes the importance of grounding our thoughts in factual reality. When individuals allow their minds to disconnect from tangible facts and withdraw into a subjective state, it often results in disorderly thinking and chaos, highlighting the necessity of maintaining a balance between introspection and external knowledge.
Themes
MindChaosRealityFactsThoughts
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on mental health, someone might quote this to stress the importance of facing reality.
More from Edith Hamilton
All quotes →The power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.
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Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.
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To rejoice in life, to find the world beautiful ... was a mark of the Greek spirit.
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Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.
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So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not machines, but human beings.
Edith HamiltonRead
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