Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.
Interpretation
Being eloquent while being incorrect can have serious consequences.
This quote by Sophocles emphasizes the importance of being truthful and accurate in our speech. It suggests that speaking eloquently is of little value if the content of what is being said is misguided or false, highlighting the ethical responsibility that comes with effective communication.
In practice
In a debate, one might quote this to stress the importance of factual accuracy.
Silence is an ornament for women.
None love the messenger who brings bad news.
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
You clearly hate to yield, but you will regret it when your anger has passed. Such natures are justly the hardest for themselves to bear.
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.
All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.
There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.
In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.
The wise man makes an island of himself that no flood can overwhelm.
Thinking cannot be clear until it has had expression-we must write, or speak, or act our thoughts, or they will remain in half torpid form. Our feelings must have expression, or they will be as clouds, which, till they descend in rain, will never bring up fruit or flowers. So it is with all the inward feelings; expression gives them development-thought is the blossom; language is the opening bud; action the fruit behind it.
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