Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.
Interpretation
Public practices significantly influence individual moral habits more than personal failings affect society as a whole.
This quote highlights the profound impact that collective public practices have on shaping the moral character of individuals. It suggests that positive habits cultivated through societal norms can permeate personal lives more swiftly than the negative behaviors of individuals can corrupt the broader community.
In practice
During a discussion on ethics in society, I might bring up this quote to emphasize the importance of positive public norms.
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
In social policy, when we provide a safety net, it should be designed to help people take more entrepreneurial risks, not to turn them into dependents. This doesn't mean that we should be callous to the underprivileged.
And now each night, I count the stars. And each night I get the same number. And when the stars won't come to be counted, I count the holes they leave.
Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail . We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men on earth to rule all of humanity.
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.
To serve Armenia is to serve civilization.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
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