Two kinds of people live a life without care: one kind are extremely worthy of praise, the other kind are extremely worthy of criticism. The first are those who care nothing for the pleasures of the world and the second (i.e. those who are deserving of criticism) care nothing for haya or modesty.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on two types of people who live carelessly, highlighting the distinction between virtuous and flawed carelessness.
Ibn Hazm presents a thought-provoking perspective on the nature of carelessness in life. He suggests that there are two groups of individuals: those who lead a life free from worldly pleasures and are to be admired, and those who, in their indifference, lack the virtue of modesty and are thus critique-worthy. This distinction serves to provoke deeper reflection on the values we hold and the different motivations behind our actions and states of being.
In practice
In a discussion about values, this quote could highlight the importance of virtue over hedonism.
When you compare yourself with others in matters of wealth, position, and health, you should look at people less favoured than yourself. When you compare yourself with others in matters of religion, knowledge and virtue, look at people who are better than yourself.
And though the years before I die _x000D_ Stretch out interminably, I _x000D_ Shall only count my life in truth _x000D_ As that brief hour of happy youth.
The wise man knows the only fitting price for his soul is a place in Paradise.
Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.
We put this 15-year old girl on the cover of a fashion magazine, and tell everyone she is the epitome of sexual perfection, but we jail anyone who touches her for another three years.
Sometimes I get the feeling that we're just a bunch of habits. The gestures we repeat over and over, they're just our need to be recognized. Without them, we'd be unidentifiable. We have to reinvent ourselves every minute.
If gratitude, when exerted towards another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture when it is employed on this great object of gratitude to the beneficent Being who has given us everything we already possess, and from whom we expect everything we yet hope for.
I believe in the sun. In the tangle of human failures of fear, greed and forgetfulness, the sun gives me clarity.
Every man to whom salvation is offered has an inalienable natural right to say 'No, thank you: I prefer to retain my full moral responsibility: it is not good for me to be able to load a scapegoat with my sins: I should be less careful how I committed them if I knew they would cost me nothing.
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