I found this little list of 'mistakes' while reading something else, and thought how profound they were, even in this day and age. They were originally written by Marcus Tallus Cicero, a Roman philosopher who was born in 106 BC. Cicero was a great lawyer, a persuasive orator, an important politician, a prolific writer, and a natural philosopher. So it's not surprising that so many of his works have survived the centuries. But these six short maxims seem to have had a lasting impact on mankind, and after all this time, we are still re-discovering and re-learning the same profound truths.
The Six Mistakes of Man:
1. The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
Enough said!
Isn't this incredible!? The same goes on in today's society. Those mistakes- we are still make them, as if we have learned nothing in all that past gone by. It's really quite sad.
ReplyDeleteSo true Evelyn - we don't need to learn, discover or create new lessons. If we could learn the lessons that were taught back in 100 BC, we'd be just fine!
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