Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.
QuintilianRead
In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Isolation can be found within one's thoughts, regardless of external surroundings.
Quintilian suggests that one can experience solitude not just physically, but also mentally. Even in the midst of a crowded journey or a bustling banquet, the power of one's thoughts can create a sense of seclusion and personal reflection, allowing an individual to disconnect from their environment.
Themes
ThoughtsSeclusionIsolationJourneyReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a philosophy seminar to spark discussion about the nature of thought and presence.
More from Quintilian
All quotes →As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.
QuintilianRead
Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.
QuintilianRead
A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.
QuintilianRead
An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
QuintilianRead
It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.
QuintilianRead
Similar quotes
All around us, aspects of the modern world - diet, exercise, medicine, art, work, family, philosophy, economics, ecology, psychology - have begun a long circle back toward their former coherence. Whether they can arrive before the natural world is damaged beyond repair and madness destroys humanity, we cannot tell.
Paul ShepardRead
As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
Mikhail BakuninRead
Life in the oceans must be sheer hell. A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of a hell that during evolution some species—including man—crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.
Werner HerzogRead
The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.
Charles Sanders PeirceRead
Live by publicity, you'll probably die by publicity.
Russell BakerRead
The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead