To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Interpretation
It is impossible for humans to avoid making mistakes, but those who learn from them gain wisdom.
This quote by Plutarch emphasizes the inevitability of human error and the importance of learning from our mistakes. It suggests that rather than striving for perfection, we should focus on the lessons we can derive from our failures, as this is where true wisdom and growth are cultivated.
In practice
A motivational speaker reflecting on personal growth during a seminar.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.
I've found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard new things: that is things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new.
Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
Manic depression's touching my soul. I know what I want, but I just don't know how to go about getting it.
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
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