The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
Interpretation
Neglected potential leads to unfavorable outcomes.
This quote by Plutarch suggests that if something inherently valuable, such as fertile soil, is left unattended and unutilized, it will give rise to undesirable resultsβin this case, weeds. It serves as a metaphor for human potential, implying that without effort, cultivation, or direction, our innate abilities and resources may lead to negative or wasted outcomes.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'Remember, the richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.'
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
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
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
As they who make Good luck a god count all unlucky men.
Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.
They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.
I'm not tough, and I never have been. I suppose over the years I've built up kind of a veneer to protect myself because I have functioned on my own for a long, long time, and I have never had a lot of flunkies preceding me to clear the way.
Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His.
When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer.
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