Mindful Listening – Selections from “Morals” by Plutarch (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

On Listening to Lectures

“[…] Skillful educators give us children with a good ear for speech by teaching them to hear much and speak little.” “And it is a common saying that nature has given each of us two ears and one tongue because we ought to do less talking than listening.” “But those who instantly interrupt with contradictions, neither hearing nor being heard, but talking while others talk, behave in an unseemly manner, whereas the man who has the habit of listening with restraint and respect takes in and masters a useful discourse, and more readily sees through and detects a useless or false one, showing himself thus to be a lover of truth and not a lover of disputation, nor forward and contentious. Wherefore it is […] necessary to take the wind of self-opinion and conceit out of the young […] if you wish to fill them with something useful; otherwise, being full of bombast and inflation, they have no room to receive it.”

“Now the man that is stung by the wealth, or repute, or beauty possessed by another, is merely envious; for he is depressed by the good fortune of others; but one who feels discontentment at an excellent discourse is vexed by what is for his own good.”