The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.
Interpretation
Sometimes, a bit of foolishness can provide necessary insight or relief in challenging situations.
This quote suggests that life can present us with unexpected difficulties, and occasionally, engaging in a little folly—acting in a way that may seem foolish—can actually offer us the clarity or relief needed to navigate those challenges. It highlights the complexity of human experiences where conventional wisdom might not always be the best guide.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing creativity and unconventional thinking.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks.
To experience anything fully and see it clearly there must be a moment of presence where conceptual thinking is not interfering with your experience of that moment.
Don't talk about it. The rose doesn't have to propagate its perfume. It just gives it forth, and people are drawn to it. Live it, and people will come to see the source of your power.
Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed.
When you reach my age, you realize you couldn't have done things very much better or much worse than you did them in the first place.
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