A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right
Interpretation
Silence can be deceptive, and true persuasion requires reason and morality, not just power.
This quote emphasizes the importance of honesty and the role of reason in effective communication. While brute force or silence might lead to temporary victories, true persuasion and convincing others require a foundation of reason and ethical consideration, which the speaker suggests is often lacking in forceful arguments.
In practice
During a public debate about ethics, you might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of reasoning over mere force.
A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.
Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.
Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude.
If it is nothingness that awaits us, let us make an injustice of it, let us fight against destiny, even without hope of victory.
Spiritual Love is born of sorrow. . . . For men love one another with spiritual love only when they have suffered the same sorrow together, when through long days they have ploughed the stony ground buried beneath the common yoke of a common grief. It is then that they know one another and feel one another and feel with one another in their common anguish, and so they pity one another and love one another.
Monks, when ignorance is abandoned, and knowledge arises in the monk, with the ending of ignorance and the arising of knowledge he clings neither to sense-pleasures, nor does he cling to views, nor to precepts and vows, nor to a Self-doctrine. Not clinking, he is not disturbed; not disturbed, he attains individually nibbana.
The person I am now, compared with the person in the dream, has been baffled and defeated and only supposes he enjoys a full life. In the dreams, I see what a full life really consists of, and it is not what I really have.
When one rows it is not the rowing which moves the ship: rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one compels a demon to move the ship.
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
Freedom exists only with power.
The entire world is my temple, and a very fine one too, if I'm not mistaken, and I'll never lack priests to serve it as long as there are men.
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