Man's shortcomings and sins are all due to substance of the body and not to its form, while all his merits are exclusively due to his form.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that physical attributes do not determine a person's worth, but rather their character and intentions do.
Maimonides highlights the distinction between the physical body and the intrinsic qualities of a person, asserting that flaws and mistakes stem from bodily weaknesses while virtues and merits arise from one's deeper essence. This reflects a philosophical view that emphasizes the importance of inner qualities over external appearances.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about personal growth.
If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.
God who preceded all existence is a refuge.
When man possesses a good, sound body that does not overpower him nor disturb the equilibrium in him, he possesses a divine gift. In short, a good constitution facilitates the rule of the soul over the body, but it is not impossible to conquer a bad constitution by training.
If the whole earth is infinitely small in comparison with the sphere of the stars, what is man compared with all these created beings!
One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed.
When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation.
To grumble about the world and its unhappiness is always easier than to beat one's breast and groan over oneself.
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
What is it that sometimes speaks in the soul so calmly, so clearly, that its earthly time is short? Is it the secret instinct of decaying nature, or the soul's impulsive throb, as immortality draws on? Be what it may, it rested in the heart of Eva, a calm, sweet, prophetic certainty that Heaven was near; calm as the light of sunset, sweet as the bright stillness of autumn, there her little heart reposed, only troubled by sorrow for those who loved her so dearly.
If my devils are to leave me, I'm afraid my angels will take flight as well.
We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely is he to be at his worst in our company. Every time he talks away his own character before us he is signifying contempt for ours.
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