A man speaking sense to himself is no madder than a man speaking nonsense not to himself.
Interpretation
Talking to oneself can be rational, whereas even nonsensical thoughts can be considered sane if they are not vocalized.
This quote by Tom Stoppard suggests that self-reflection and inner dialogue are not signs of madness, unlike societal perceptions might imply. In fact, it highlights the idea that speaking rationally to oneself is no more crazy than holding nonsensical thoughts without expressing them. It challenges the notion of sanity and asks us to consider the nature of our thoughts and how we communicate with ourselves.
In practice
In a motivational speech about mental wellness, you could use this quote to encourage self-reflection.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
Wall Street is always too biased toward short-term profitability and biased against long-term growth.
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
With about a dozen assorted ongoing conflicts in the news every day, and with the stories becoming more horrific, the level of sadness becomes unbearable. And what becomes of our planet when that sadness becomes apathy? Because we feel helpless. And we turn our heads and turn the page.
It was not in her nature, however, to increase her vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having performed her duty, and to fret over unavoidable evils, or augment them by anxiety, was not part of her disposition.
I like to question cultural biases wherever I go, and I question Islamophobia as much as I question anti-western sentiment because I think all extremist ideologies are very similar.
Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our soul is engaged. For this reason it is good to repent each day as the act of repentance is unending.
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