Mastodawn

Whene’er you lecture, be concise: the soul
Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole:
But pour in water when the vessel’s filled,
It simply dribbles over and is spilled.

[Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta
percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles:
omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 335ff (2.3.335-337) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/33634/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #advice #brevity #briefness #counsel #edification #keepitsimple #lesson #maxim #moral #moralizing #precept #succinct #teaching #wisdom

Horace - Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 "Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos]," l. 335ff (2.3.335-337) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)] | WIST Quotations

Whene'er you lecture, be concise: the soul Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole: But pour in water when the vessel's filled, It simply dribbles over and is spilled. [Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles: omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.] On teaching…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Feb 18

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

The cultivation of wide sympathies, given the instinctive germ, is mainly an intellectual matter: it depends upon the right direction of attention, and the realization of facts which militarists and authoritarians suppress. Take, for example, Tolstoy’s description of Napoleon going round the battlefield of Austerlitz after the victory. Most histories leave the battlefield as soon as the battle is over; by the simple expedient of lingering on it for another twelve hours, a completely different picture of war is produced. This is done, not by suppressing facts, but by giving more facts. And what applies to battles applies equally to other forms of cruelty. In all cases, it should be quite unnecessary to point the moral; the right telling of the story should be sufficient. Do not moralize, but let the facts produce their own moral in the child’s mind.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)

More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/375…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #aftermath #battle #cruelty #education #interpretation #meaning #moral #moralizing #story #storytelling #sympathy #teaching #theme #war #pedagogy

Russell, Bertrand - Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 "Affection and Sympathy" (1926) | WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations moves again!Dec 27, 2024

A quotation from Stevenson, Robert Louis:

«
If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say “give them up,” for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/stevenson-robert-louis/3734/

#quote #quotes #quotation #discouragement #dreariness #moralizing #morals

Essay (1888-12), "A Christmas Sermon," sec. 2, Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 4 - Stevenson, Robert Louis | WIST Quotations

If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people. Originally written in the winter of 1887-88.…

WIST Quotations

tripu Jan 3, 2024

“When you demonize those who #disagree with you, you invite treatment in kind. When you refuse to engage in political #argument and resort to performative #moralizing, you make it clear to any neutral observer that, for you, there’s only one side, one #opinion, one conformist crowd.”

https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-donald-trump-political-divide

Don’t Worry About Donald Trump. Worry About Yourself.

Martin Gurri on the political divide: When you demonize those who disagree with you, you invite treatment in kind. And believe me—you will reap the whirlwind.

The Free Press