"The best plan is to profit by the folly of others"
About this Quote
The counsel is both shrewd and double-edged: let others pay the tuition for errors you do not need to make. Profit does not have to be narrowly financial; it can mean safety, time, insight, or strategic advantage. The phrase reframes prudence as an active practice of observation. Watch closely as people and institutions overreach, misprice, misjudge, or succumb to vanity, and let their missteps map the terrain for you. The cheapest lessons are the ones you do not suffer yourself.
The line suits a Roman temperament that prized utilitas and prudentia. Pliny the Elder, an encyclopedist and imperial administrator, collected facts, anecdotes, and cautionary tales into a vast repository of practical knowledge. That project assumes that experience, especially failed experience, can be harvested and reused. The best plan, then, is not to trust luck or genius but to build advantage from the world’s constant supply of examples.
There is an ethical tension. One reading encourages opportunism: buy when others panic, outmaneuver a reckless rival, exploit a badly drafted contract. Roman moralists like Cicero drew lines between cleverness and turpitude, between gain that honors the commonwealth and gain that corrodes it. Another reading is more austere and humane: let others’ folly instruct you so you avoid the same pitfalls. Learn from a general’s overconfidence without celebrating the casualties; learn from a merchant’s speculation without cheering the ruin.
Both senses coexist in practical life. Investors study bubbles to avoid the next one. Engineers read postmortems to keep systems from failing again. Policymakers dissect past crises to design backstops. Entrepreneurs watch competitors ship half-baked features and time their own launches. The plan is best not because it is ruthless, but because it is realistic: folly is inevitable, and attention converts it into value.
Taken this way, the line urges a disciplined opportunism with a conscience: observe widely, extract lessons rigorously, take fair advantage, and refuse the kind of profit that makes you someone else’s cautionary tale.
The line suits a Roman temperament that prized utilitas and prudentia. Pliny the Elder, an encyclopedist and imperial administrator, collected facts, anecdotes, and cautionary tales into a vast repository of practical knowledge. That project assumes that experience, especially failed experience, can be harvested and reused. The best plan, then, is not to trust luck or genius but to build advantage from the world’s constant supply of examples.
There is an ethical tension. One reading encourages opportunism: buy when others panic, outmaneuver a reckless rival, exploit a badly drafted contract. Roman moralists like Cicero drew lines between cleverness and turpitude, between gain that honors the commonwealth and gain that corrodes it. Another reading is more austere and humane: let others’ folly instruct you so you avoid the same pitfalls. Learn from a general’s overconfidence without celebrating the casualties; learn from a merchant’s speculation without cheering the ruin.
Both senses coexist in practical life. Investors study bubbles to avoid the next one. Engineers read postmortems to keep systems from failing again. Policymakers dissect past crises to design backstops. Entrepreneurs watch competitors ship half-baked features and time their own launches. The plan is best not because it is ruthless, but because it is realistic: folly is inevitable, and attention converts it into value.
Taken this way, the line urges a disciplined opportunism with a conscience: observe widely, extract lessons rigorously, take fair advantage, and refuse the kind of profit that makes you someone else’s cautionary tale.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|
More Quotes by Pliny
Add to List
