Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
You are in a pitiable condition if you have to conceal what you wish to tell.
Interpretation
Concealing your true thoughts or feelings puts you in a vulnerable position.
This quote by Publilius Syrus highlights the unfortunate state of being forced to hide one's true desires or intentions. It suggests that such concealment can lead to a sense of weakness or suffering, as authenticity is crucial for a fulfilling and honest life.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of honesty in relationships.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
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.
The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.
Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
And alien tears will fill for him pity's long broken urn. For his mourners will all be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn.
Hayek was making us think of the productive process as a process in time, inputs coming before outputs.
The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
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