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
All I care to know about a man is that he is a human being... he can't be any worse.
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
Yes, I know, it's not the truth, but in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges.
Genetically influenced behavior is not necessarily good and not necessarily unchangeable. Explanations of bad behavior that appeal to genes do not absolve a person any more than do explanations that appeal to upbringing.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
As Kierkegaard was the first to suggest, we can never know where our prayers are likely to go nor from whom the answers will come. When we think we are nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.
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