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Ian Maclaren was a Scottish author and theologian. Today he is regarded as one of the principal writers of the Kailyard school. It is thought that Maclaren was the original source of the quotation "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle," now widely misattributed to Plato or Philo of Alexandria. The oldest known instance of this quotation is in the 1897 Christmas edition of The British Weekly, penned by Maclaren: "Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle."