It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.
Interpretation
Critiquing others is easy, but creating something better is challenging.
This quote by Plutarch highlights the ease of criticizing or challenging the ideas presented by others compared to the difficulty of coming up with superior alternatives. It serves as a reminder that while it's simple to point out flaws in someone else's work, true wisdom and contribution come from the effort to create something that enhances or surpasses what is already there.
In practice
During a debate, one could use this quote to encourage constructive contributions rather than mere criticism.
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
The middle path is the way to wisdom
You will not be satisfied unless you are contributing something to or for the benefit of others.
Indeed, follow your star if you want to head north and it's the North Star. But if you want to head north and it's Mars, you had better follow somebody else's star.
I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch any thing on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.
A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.
Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.
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