Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
Interpretation
Pain can drive anyone, regardless of their goodness, to behave in ways they normally wouldn't.
This quote suggests that pain and suffering can influence people's actions and morality. Even those who are inherently good or innocent may resort to deception or dishonesty when faced with immense pain, highlighting the complex and often challenging nature of human behavior under distress.
In practice
During a discussion about ethical dilemmas in psychology classes.
Never promise more than you can perform.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others.
Older men start wars, but younger men fight them.
ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude . . .
Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man's conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God.
My faceless neighbor spoke up: βDonβt be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.β I exploded: βWhat do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet? His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily: βI have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.
I'm really very sorry for you all, but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.
Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.