“Know thyself, Nothing too much; Upon
these all other precepts depend.”
Plutarch (circa 120 BCE)
First of
all, thank you for reading my blog. Today, our focus will be on the second
inscription of Plutarch - moderation. Seneca (circa 60 BCE), a contemporary of
Plutarch, also emphasized the point of moderation when he said that moderation,
which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned
the field; it has now come to this – that to want only what is enough is a sign
both of boorishness and of utter destitution. Think about this for a moment and
reread the statement again. Even back then, people abandoned moderation in
favour of excess, because, as he said, moderation was considered a sign of rudeness
and impoverishment.
He could
just as well have made that statement yesterday, somewhere in a mall on this
planet. How do you think, will other people see (and label) you if you live a
life of moderation? Well, frankly, I don’t care what they think, and I hope you
do not care too. What is of importance, is that we live right.
Moderation
naturally refers to all aspects of life, not only to accumulating things, eating
and drinking, and certainly not only to that which may be harmful to you, for
even having too much of a good thing, is not good. A Tamil (southern Indian and
northern Sri Lanka) proverb says that even nectar is poisonous whenever taken
in excessive quantities. Then there is a Tibetan proverb which says that even
the nibbling rabbit can gorge itself to death.
In
your daily talk, this also applies, for it is better to utter one word less
than one too many. Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation, said
Benjamin Franklin, let us rather be moderate in this regard. William Londen (1650’s)
said that if you want to ensure good health, then you should do the following:
eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain
an interest in life. The key word, therefore, is moderation, nothing in excess.
Don’t deny yourself anything good, just apply moderation.
The topic of moderation…
Does it really need any explanation?
Not doing things in excess,
may avert any possible future mess.
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