When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door.
Interpretation
True friends are those who stay by your side regardless of your wealth or status.
This quote by Plutarch highlights the idea that many people are drawn to wealth and status rather than true friendship. When someone loses their riches, those who were only interested in them for their fortune may abandon them, while genuine friends remain steadfast, revealing the true nature of relationships based on sincerity rather than materialism.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of loyalty, one might reference this quote.
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
If someone falls down, pick them back up. Just because there's not a frickin camera in your face doesn't mean you don't have to look out for each other.
Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from - dare I say it - God.
Michael Jackson? He was something more (than one of my favorite entertainers), a true friend. He wasn't just a genius. Above all, he was a good person, who gave so much. He gave people values, he encouraged them to better themselves all the time. He was far deeper and more authentic than people could see. He was misunderstood too many times
Friendship," said Christopher Robin, "is a very comforting thing to have.
Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.
I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 - Jesus, did you?
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