Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Every vice has its excuse ready.
Interpretation
People often rationalize their unethical behavior with excuses.
This quote reflects the idea that individuals are adept at creating justifications for their wrongdoings. It suggests a human tendency to avoid accountability by providing reasons for actions that might be considered vices or immoral. The ability to craft excuses highlights a deeper understanding of our flaws and the complexities of moral decision-making.
In practice
During a discussion on ethics, this quote can be used to illustrate how people justify negative behavior.
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.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Tolerance, openness and understanding towards other peoples' cultures, social structures, values and faiths are now essential to the very survival of an interdependent world.
I am one who has always been interested only in the edges of the body and the spirit, the outlying regions of the body and the outlying regions of the spirit. The depths hold no interest for me; I leave them to others, for they are shallow, commonplace. What is there, then, at the outer most edge? Nothing, perhaps, save a few ribbons, dangling down into the void.
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
Because you are a great lord, you believe yourself to be a great genius. You took the trouble to be born, but no more.
In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.
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