This Maxim points out that there is nothing wrong with actually being wealthy providing that you have acquired your money in a just fashion. In fact, it encourages us to take the steps to acquire a healthy amount of wealth. This does not mean that we should gain our wealth from the harming of others…

This is an interesting Maxim in that we should not flee from our enemies but to flee from enmity itself. We should do what we can to avoid incurring enmity in the first place. This is not always easy as we travel through life and encounter other people, their actions, and their feelings. We bump…

This Maxim is one that tells us to recognize when it is appropriate to speak or not to speak, both within ritual settings and about them. It does not tell us that we should be completely silent during worship, but that we should not cause interruptions or disruptions by speaking out of turn. We should…

This Maxim has a simple message “when you are mighty do not boast of it”. It is a warning against hubris and the consequences of that arrogance. As I write this I am reminded of the results of hubris with the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans being marked by another hurricane hitting…

This is one of the Maxims that ishard for me to deal with as I am getting older myself. We live in a society that apparently has a fetish for youth and this makes it hard to accept being ‘old’. Becoming old is, for a mortal, a fact of life and it is because of…

This Maxim reminds us that there are more important things in our lives than pursuing enmity with someone. In fact, it advises us to actively seek to end the enmities instead of pursuing them. This is probably because it takes a lot out of us when we have enemies and that is energy better spent…

This Maxim speaks of proper timing while it speaks of due measure. It is because of this that it feels to me that this Maxim is about the fruits of a person’s labors. People used to be compensated for their work with a share of the crops hence the phrase “due measure”. But we are…

This Maxim could, in my opinion, be equally well translated as “Pursue what is beneficial”. Our society, however, has tended to bias our perceptions of ‘profit’ as being primarily about money, but I believe this particular Maxim is about far more than mere money. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole…

This Maxim is interesting in that it flies in the face of ‘popular’ wisdom. After all, who has not fantasized at one point or another about being the boss? But if we are to follow the teaching of Delphi we should look closer at this phenomenon. To rule implies controlling something, and if we are…

Trust is a very important thing in our lives. And the ability to keep secrets is a big part of what inspires trust in others. This Maxim could also be phrased as “Keep secrets”. But the importance of those secrets is not only to the person whose secrets they are but to the people who…