Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
Interpretation
Prosperity can make a person difficult to guide, whereas adversity provides a clearer path to management and direction.
This quote by Plutarch highlights the contrasting nature of human behavior in prosperity versus adversity. When individuals are prosperous, they may become complacent or arrogant, making it challenging to provide them with direction or guidance. Conversely, during times of hardship, people may be more receptive to advice and guidance, as they seek ways to overcome their challenges. Thus, the quote suggests that adversity can foster personal growth and adaptability, while prosperity may lead to a lack of humility and openness to change.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about personal development during tough times.
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
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes ; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, Is any affliction like mine? Let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.
Now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened.
To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.
Spaniards were condemned for appeasing terrorism by voting for withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of U.N. authorization - that is, for taking a stand rather like that of 70 percent of Americans, who called for the U.N. to take the leading role in Iraq.
Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
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