Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
He is a despicable sage whose wisdom does not profit himself.
Interpretation
True wisdom should benefit both the wise person and others around them.
This quote highlights the importance of wisdom being practical and beneficial. It implies that a person who possesses wisdom but fails to use it to improve their own life or the lives of others is not truly wise, but rather, despicable. The underlying message is that wisdom should lead to positive outcomes and enrichment for oneself and for society.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of applying knowledge practically.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little have been tried.
I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.
I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.
All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.
If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.