For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.
Interpretation
Making mistakes in judgment is a natural human trait, even if it may not reflect wisdom.
This quote by Plutarch highlights the inevitability of making errors in our opinions and judgments. While wise individuals strive to avoid mistakes, the acknowledgment that being wrong is a fundamentally human experience serves as a reminder of our fallibility and the importance of humility in our judgments.
In practice
In a discussion about decision-making, I could use this quote to emphasize the importance of accepting human errors.
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
Failure is information-we label it failure, but it's more like, 'This didn't work, I'm a problem solver, and I'll try something else.'
Never sit at a table you canβt walk away from.
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.
Trials make more room for consolation. There is nothing that makes a man have a big heart like a great trial. I always find that little, miserable people, whose hearts are about the size of a grain of mustard seed, never have had much to try them. I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows β who never weep for the sorrows of others β very seldom have had any woes of their own. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles.
Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.
I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.
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