Listen to the Narration:
A beautiful orchid grew at the top of a high bluff in the forest, and no one had ever laid eyes upon it. One day a falcon landed on the bluff, and lingered there to admire the orchid.
“You might be the only creature who ever sees how fair I am,” the orchid said to the falcon. “Won’t you compliment me on my beauty?”
“But words can make nothing better or worse,” the falcon said, “and beauty doesn’t come from praise. If you were fair before I saw you, then my compliments would make you no fairer.”
For Parents: What Stoic Quote Does This Story Illustrate?
“Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient: praise is no part of it. At any rate, praise does not make anything better or worse. This applies even to the popular conception of beauty, as in material things or works of art. So does the truly beautiful need anything beyond itself? No more than law, no more than truth, no more than kindness or integrity. Which of these things derives its beauty from praise, or withers under criticism? Does an emerald lose its quality if it is not praised? And what of gold, ivory, purple, a lyre, a dagger, a flower, a bush?”
Marcus Aurelius
