Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
PlatoRead
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
Interpretation
Wise individuals who abstain from participating in governance often end up being ruled by less capable leaders.
This quote by Plato highlights the consequences faced by intelligent and wise individuals when they choose not to engage in political affairs. The implication is that by stepping back from governance, these wise people allow those who may be less informed or capable to take charge, ultimately leading to a society governed by inferior leaders. This serves as a reminder of the importance of civic involvement and responsibility.
In practice
During a political debate, you may reference this quote to emphasize the importance of active citizenship.
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow... even if that someone is yourself!
Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction.
...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty.
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
Legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property... Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.
Land. If you understand nothing else about the history of Indians in North America, you need to understand that the question that really matters is the question of land.
For those struggling in midstream, in great fear of the flood, of growing old and of dying for all those I say, an island exists where there is no place for impediments, no place for clinging: the island of no going beyond. I call it nirvana, the complete destruction of old age and dying.
If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.
For perpetrators, when they apologize and experience remorse, it gives them a chance to reclaim their own humanity. Some rise to the moral challenge. Others of course don't care, and they continue acting with contempt.
Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons--throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to.
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