Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
Seneca The YoungerRead
We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of all people and the importance of community and collective well-being.
Seneca the Younger highlights the idea that humans are inherently social beings, united by a shared responsibility towards each other and the greater good. He suggests that our existence is intertwined, and we should cultivate a mutual love that fosters a supportive community, advocating for the well-being of all as a fundamental principle of life.
In practice
In a speech about community service, one might say, 'As Seneca the Younger wisely noted, we are members of one great body, emphasizing our duty to support one another.'
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Loyalty is the holiest good in the human heart.
Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.
Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.
What is all this juice and all this joy?_x000D_ _x000D_ A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning_x000D_ _x000D_ In Eden garden.-Have, get, before it cloy,_x000D_ _x000D_ Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,_x000D_ _x000D_ Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,_x000D_ _x000D_ Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
Maybe there's a whole other universe where a square moon rises in the sky, and the stars laugh in cold voices, and some of the triangles have four sides, and some have five, and some have five raised to the fifth power of sides. In this universe there might grow roses which sing. Everything leads to everything.
The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it. What happens to them matters to them. Each has a life that fares better or worse for the one whose life it is.
We worship perfection because we can't have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect.
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