Sophocles - "To the man afraid everything rustles" What are your thoughts on this Quote?

I’ve never seen this quote before. I like it.

I think it means that if you go about your life with a fearful attitude, you will find reasons to be afraid of even benign things.

I agree with @Likeradar. Every little thing will be viewed with suspicion and fear. There’s a lot of that going around in the US right now. :(

I like the answers!

It reminds me of the age of McCarthyism, the fear of communist/nuclear proliferation. With fear being the most basic, primal emotion, it seems so simple a task for those in control to use it. I like what Edward R. Murrow said about it:

“The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our own history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthty’s methods to keep silent. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”

That whole thing about not being descended from fearful men always gets me.

My instinct says “essay for English class.”

Or “things that go bump in the night.”

I agree with @Likeradar. If you live life being afraid, then everything in the world will frighten you. GA @Likeradar.

Just out of curiousity—how long an essay do you all think could be written about this?

“A thief must suspect everyone of stealing.”

(Sigh.)

@Allie why thank you.

This explains everything.

To me, it’s telling me that being afraid will make you a parenoid, nervous person who is incapable of trusting anything about your surroundings.

Instead you should go about your way being alert and cautious – but not afraid. This way you’re not wasting your time with every little sound you hear.

It gives me a picture of someone walking through the woods, and because they are afraid, every small noise sparks something sinister in they’re mind. So i guess that can also be in your life, how if you afraid of the world and the people in it, you will see everything that happens as something dangerous or threatening to you…
maybe =)

@fathippo Almost exactly my response. When you are lying in the grass, observing and trying with all your being to look like a clump of grass. Xenophobia kind of kicks in. Every rustle in the grass is an enemy. You are Scared, for yourself, that you communicate what you see clearly and succinctly, and get away without getting perforated.

It’s been my experience in life that you “reap what you sow” so to speak. So the quote (which I love by the way) to me says that if you travel through life being scared of everything you will attract into your life only fear and bad experiences. Your life experiences themselves may not be bad ones but your perception of them will make them so. If you, instead, go though life with an attitude of expectation of only good things happening, yes you may well be disappointed from time to time but mostly others will respond positively to your attitude and good things will come of it.

I spend all day at work smiling at my customers, chatting away (even when i feel horrible or I’m in pain) and get smiles back. I even have customers who tell me they always look for me to see which checkout I’m on, how lovely is that, it makes my job so worthwhile, silly wee worthless job that it is lol.

If you are afraid of the unknown, I do think you’ll attract negative things and experiences. So, I do try everyday to be positive and I’m convinced that it helps.

No river is too shallow for the man who cannot swim

Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean you aren’t being followed.