Wool and Milk, Not Grass
Never proclaim yourself a philosopher. Do not make much talk among the ignorant about your principles. Show them by actions. At an entertainment, do not discourse how people ought to eat. Eat as you ought. Socrates avoided ostentation so thoroughly that when people asked him to introduce them to philosophers, he took them and introduced them. He bore being overlooked. If the ignorant discuss principles, be for the most part silent. There is great danger in hastily throwing out what is undigested. If anyone tells you that you know nothing, and you are not nettled, you have really entered on your work. Sheep do not throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten. They digest inwardly and produce wool and milk.
Key Insight
Exhibition of principles is undigested grass. Wool and milk are what digestion looks like: conduct that does not need a caption. Not being nettled when someone says you know nothing is the entrance exam the dinner speech cannot replace.
“For sheep do not hastily throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten, but, inwardly digesting their food, they produce it outwardly in wool and milk.”Explore full theme analysis
