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About this quote

What does it mean?
Those who try to control or oversee others too closely may end up imprisoning them instead of helping them.
In plain terms
Trying to protect your brother too much can turn you into his jailer.
What can you take from it?
Over-helping or over-controlling can trap both parties.

Where it applies

  • parenting
  • governance
  • mentorship

Putting it to work

  • delegation
  • boundary setting
  • ethical leadership

Questions to consider

  • How do you help without controlling?
  • When does care become confinement?

Another view

Sometimes protection is necessary even if it limits freedom.

More from Eric Hoffer

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  2. There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.

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  3. The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.

    Permalink to quote #208

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