The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
We have built a thousand temples to Fortune and not one to Reason
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that people often worship luck and chance instead of valuing reason and rational thinking.
Marcus Cornelius Fronto's quote emphasizes the tendency of humans to prioritize fortune and luck over logical reasoning and wisdom. By stating that many temples have been built to Fortune, he critiques society's inclination towards attributing success to chance rather than understanding and utilizing reason as a guiding principle in life. This highlights a fundamental flaw in human nature where superficial factors are revered more than the deeper, more sensible aspects of existence.
Themes
FortuneReasonPhilosophyWisdomLuck
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is a great addition to a discussion about the importance of rational decision-making.
Similar quotes
One curiosity of being a foreigner everywhere is that one finds oneself discerning Edens where the locals see only Purgatory.
Pico IyerRead
Civilisation, the orderly world in which we live, is frail. We are skating on thin ice. There is a fear of a collective disaster. Terrorism, genocide, flu, tsunamis.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.
Christopher HitchensRead
The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
Every reign must submit to a greater reign.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead