Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
He has existed only, not lived, who lacks wisdom in old age.
Interpretation
True living in old age requires wisdom and the ability to reflect on life.
This quote suggests that merely existing is not enough for a fulfilling life, especially in old age. It emphasizes the importance of gaining wisdom through experiences and reflections over time, highlighting that a truly lived life is characterized by understanding and insight rather than just survival.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of learning from experiences.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.
Information work is thinking work.
Patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than ripping open a budding flower or demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.
Only fools, liars, and charlatans predict earthquakes
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.
Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.
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