Mindful Listening – Selections from “Morals” by Plutarch (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

Plutarch (vegetarian) was a renowned Greek Platonist philosopher and historian of the first and second centuries AD. Born in Chaeronea, Boeotia, Plutarch embarked on a remarkable career as a philosopher, priest, and statesman. In today’s program, we present readings of “Morals” by Plutarch (vegetarian), where we learn the importance of listening in shaping positive emotions and virtues.

On Listening to Lectures

“For while many places and parts of the body make way for vice to enter through them and fasten itself upon the soul, virtue's only hold upon the young is afforded by the ears if they be uncontaminated and kept from the outset unspoiled by flattery and untouched by vile words.” “For surely the fact is plain, that the young man who is debarred from hearing all instruction and gets no taste of speech not only remains wholly unfruitful and makes no growth towards virtue but may also be perverted towards vice, and the product of his mind, like that of a fallow and untilled piece of ground, will be a plentiful crop of wild oats.” “And if young men have not the power to listen or the habit of getting some profit through listening, the speech brought forth by them is windy indeed and void of repute and unheeded beneath the clouds it is scattered.”