The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.
Interpretation
Both leadership tasks and everyday activities require intelligence and planning.
This quote by Plutarch highlights that the same level of intelligence is needed for vastly different tasks, whether it is leading an army in battle or organizing a dinner. It suggests that in both cases, attention to detail, strategy, and consideration of the participants' experiences are crucial, illustrating the versatility of intelligence in various aspects of life.
In practice
During a leadership workshop, you might use this quote to illustrate the various forms of leadership.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
Not being untutored in suffering, I learn to pity those in affliction
Fed on the dry husks of facts, the human heart has a hidden want which science cannot supply.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
It's easy to pretend expertise when there's no data to contradict you.
If you are insulted, if you are accused, if they gossip about you, don't say anything bad. Don't be the one who sees the shame, be the one who corrects it.
Between believing a thing and thinking you KNOW is only a small step and quickly taken.
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