Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
Interpretation
Prosperity can make a person difficult to guide, whereas adversity provides a clearer path to management and direction.
This quote by Plutarch highlights the contrasting nature of human behavior in prosperity versus adversity. When individuals are prosperous, they may become complacent or arrogant, making it challenging to provide them with direction or guidance. Conversely, during times of hardship, people may be more receptive to advice and guidance, as they seek ways to overcome their challenges. Thus, the quote suggests that adversity can foster personal growth and adaptability, while prosperity may lead to a lack of humility and openness to change.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about personal development during tough times.
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 only can no one predict the future, we don't understand the present - and there isn't even any certainty about the past.
I've been working on issues of poverty for more than 20 years, and so it's ironic that the problem that and question that I most grapple with is how you actually define poverty. What does it mean?
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose. Foolish people ask you, when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, 'How do you know it is truth, and not an error of your own?' We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.
The river was mild and leisurely, going away from the people who ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapors for supper.
I like fish, and I also like bear's paws. If I cannot have the two together, I will let the fish go, and take the bear's paws. So, I like life, and I also like righteousness. If I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go, and choose righteousness.
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