Be kind anyway

I perked up at Pastor Allen’s quote about kindness in Sunday’s sermon. Not only is this a great aphorism, but it comes from Plato! Afterwards Huntley (to whom Allen had deferentially attributed his knowledge of the quotation) admitted she wasn’t 100% sure it was from Plato, and encouraged my intent to research the source for my blog this week. I told her I loved such detective work, and she agreed that the internet makes it easier than ever.

Or maybe not. The initial google search produced hundreds of references, just about evenly distributed between Plato and Philo of Alexandria (of whom I knew nothing, so I had a great time learning all about him on Wikipedia; perhaps more about him another time). However, none of the information I found about Philo of Alexandria mentioned this quotation directly. So I kept probing.

One of the things I discovered is that people who cite this quote write amazingly interesting (and often provocative and disturbing) blogs. Finally I ran across a scholar who pooh-poohed the quote coming from either gentleman, since searches of the complete works of either fail to uncover an actual writing in which this line appears. He also stated that most modern references to the quote seem to have emerged in the early twentieth century (although some say as early as 1880) and a great variety of attributions have been attached to it, including “anonymous,” “ancient Asian philosopher,” “a Russian proverb,” and “St. Philo” (ironic, since Philo was a Jew).

The quotation seems to have been popularized by one-time Australian prime minister John Watson. Although this was helpful information, I kept searching a bit more, since even one of this author’s statements was blatantly erroneous (he badly misunderstood a scripture reference to II Peter 1:7 regarding brotherly kindness). There was a discussion on one site about Plato’s influence on Philo of Alexandria, as well as several opinions expressed that this doesn’t “sound like Plato.” A frustrating find was a set of hundreds of Plato quotations on “Brainy Quotes” with absolutely no reference to any work they may have come from.

Three points need to be made here:

1. I do have a life, and for those who may be concerned, this whole process did not take more than thirty minutes. It was thirty minutes spent better than playing certain video games I could mention.

2. When quoting this great phrase in the future, it is perfectly acceptable to say “attributed to Plato” without any other explanation.

3. Be kind anyway. Remember, Pastor Allen was merely extending and illuminating Ephesians 4:32.

Oh, and the guy portrayed at the top is Philo, not Plato.