When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is increased through fear.
Quintus Curtius RufusRead
A timid dog barks more violently than it bites. Curtius Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet
Interpretation
Those who are timid often make loud threats but do little harm.
This quote highlights the tendency of timid or fearful individuals to be more vocal and aggressive in their threats than to follow through with actions. It suggests that bravado often comes from insecurity, and that often the loudest bark comes from those who are least likely to cause real harm.
In practice
In a discussion about workplace dynamics, one might say this quote to suggest that those who complain loudly often lack the capability to act.
Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.
Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction - a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the muse.
When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth!
Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.
A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.
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