“Some condemnations praise; some praise damns.”
Il y a des reproches qui louent et des louanges qui médisent.
Maxim 148.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Original
Il y a des reproches qui louent et des louanges qui médisent.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
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François de La Rochefoucauld 156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680Related quotes
Source: Book of Ki (1976), p. 106
Context: Countless people have attempted to define the absolute power of the world of nature. Some praise it as God, some call it the Buddha, others call it truth. Still others convert nature into a philosophy by which they attempt to sound its deepest truth. Such attempts to define the power of nature are no more than striving to escape its effects.
All of the forces of science have been unable to conquer nature because it is too mystic, too vast, too mighty. It intensely pervades everything around us. Like the fish that, though in the water, is unaware of the water, we are so thoroughly engulfed in the blessings of nature that we tend to forget its very existence.
Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 436
Sunni Hadith
Antisthenes, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics
The Shared Patio (2005)
Context: Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is really worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
The Girl with the Swansdown Seat/Abode of Love/1848 (1956).
Context: The Victorians have been immoderately praised, and immoderately blamed, and surely it is time we formed some reasonable picture of them? There was their courageous, intellectually adventurous side, their greedy and inhuman side, their superbly poetic side, their morally pretentious side, their tea and buttered toast side, and their champagne and Skittles side. Much like ourselves, in fact, though rather dirtier.
