Saturday, October 29, 2011

Socrates on Dealing with the Ignorant

This is taken from the Memorabilia of Xenophon III, XIII.

One day a man came to Socrates furious because a another man had refused to acknowledge his greeting.

Socrates scolded the man replying;

"Ridiculous! You would not have been angry if you had met a man in worse health and yet you are annoyed because you have encountered someone with rude manners!"

Whenever we encounter a rude person consider them as someone who has a worse disposition and pity instead of getting angry at them. They might not be mentally able to entertain the concept of manners. Why should we get angry because they have a deficit. We don't get angry at someone who cannot run as fast as us or throw a ball farther than us. 




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