Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.
IsocratesRead
Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Value the time spent listening to others, as it can lead to easier understanding and learning.
This quote by Isocrates emphasizes the importance of active listening and engaging in meaningful conversations during leisure time. By cultivating an 'ear attentive to discourse,' individuals can absorb knowledge and insights more effortlessly, gaining wisdom that others may have struggled to acquire through their own efforts.
Themes
ListeningLearningLeisureDiscourseEducation
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about effective communication, this quote could inspire participants to engage more with their peers.
More from Isocrates
All quotes βBut I marvel when I observe these men setting themselves up as instructors of youth who cannot see that they are applying the analogy of an art with hard and fast rules to a creative process
IsocratesRead
And let no one suppose that I claim that just living can be taught for, in a word, I hold that there does not exist an art of the kind which can implant sobriety and justice into depraved natures. Nevertheless, I do think that the study of political discourse can help more than any other thing to stimulate and form such qualities of character
IsocratesRead
It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.
IsocratesRead
Of all our possessions, wisdom alone is immortal.
IsocratesRead
Abhor flatterers as you would deceivers; for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them. If you admit as friends men who seek your favor for the lowest ends, your life will be lacking in friends who will risk your displeasure for the highest good.
IsocratesRead
Similar quotes
So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
Whether I'm at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I'm looking forward to reading.
Bill GatesRead
I had hundreds of books under my skin already. Not selected reading, all of it. Some of it could be called trashy. I had been through Nick Carter, Horatio Alger, Bertha M. Clay and the whole slew of dime novelists in addition to some really constructive reading. I do not regret the trash. It has harmed me in no way. It was a help, because acquiring the reading habit early is the important thing. Taste and natural development will take care of the rest later on.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children.
Malcolm XRead
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.
Henry David ThoreauRead
I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.
Naomi Shihab NyeRead