Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
One may recognize the better course but still choose the worse due to weakness.
In plain terms
I know what is right but I choose to do what is wrong.
What can you take from it?
Awareness of right does not guarantee action.

Where it applies

  • ethical dilemmas
  • habitual behavior
  • personal struggle

Putting it to work

  • identify triggers for poor choices
  • align actions with values

Questions to consider

  • When have you chosen the worse path knowingly?
  • What helps you act on what you know is right?

Another view

It may excuse inaction rather than encourage change.

More from Ovid

  1. Translation: We can learn even from our enemies.

    Permalink to quote #24

  2. Sunt superis sua iura

    Permalink to quote #26

  3. Fas est et ab hoste doceri.

    Permalink to quote #23

Related quotes

  1. We're at war with Japan. We were attacked by Japan. Do you want to kill Japanese, or would you rather have Americans killed?

    Curtis LeMayCurtis LeMay quote #6

  2. I often feel that worse than the most fiendish Nazis were those Germans who went along with the persecution of the Jews not because they really disliked them b…

    Christopher IsherwoodChristopher Isherwood quote #8

  3. To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.

    George SantayanaGeorge Santayana quote #18