We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
OvidRead
Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.
Interpretation
Persistence, rather than force, leads to significant change over time.
Ovid's quote illustrates the power of persistence in achieving difficult goals. It emphasizes that gradual and consistent effort, much like the slow erosion of stone by water, can lead to profound results, highlighting that patience and determination are often more effective than sheer force or intensity.
In practice
During a motivational speech, to emphasize the importance of not giving up.
We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.
Fas est ab hoste doceri._x000D_ One should learn even from one's enemies.
Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.
The end doesn't justify the means.
In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.
The dead hold in their hands only what they have given away.
The source of all abundance is not outside of you. It's a part of who you are.
You must not talk about 'ain't and can't' when you speak of this great wonderful world round you, of which the wisest man knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean.
Perhaps wisdom is simply a matter of waiting, and healing a question of time. And anything good you've ever been given is yours forever.
I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange with-out heresy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.