It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.
Interpretation
Belief cannot be forced; it must come from personal conviction.
John Henry Newman suggests that trying to persuade someone to believe something through argument is as unreasonable and ineffective as torturing them to achieve the same goal. True belief requires genuine conviction and cannot be imposed through coercion or debate.
In practice
During a debate on freedom of thought, this quote can highlight the limitations of argumentative persuasion.
A cloud of incense was rising on high; the people suddenly all bowed low; what could it mean? The truth flashed on him, fearfully yet sweetly; it was the Blessed Sacrament - it was the Lord Incarnate who was on the altar, who had come to visit and bless his people. It was the Great Presence, which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be - holy.
It is seldom we have the heart to throw ourselves, if I may so speak, on the Divine Arm; we dare not trust ourselves on the waters, though Christ bids us. We have not St. Peter's love to ask leave to come to him upon the sea. When we once are filled with that heavenly charity, we can do all things, because we attempt all things - for to attempt is to do.
Now what is it moves our very hearts, and sickens us so much at cruelty shown to poor brutes? I suppose this first, that they have done no harm; next, that they have no power whatever of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which makes their sufferings so especially touching.
A science is not mere knowledge, it is knowledge which has undergone a process of intellectual digestion. It is the grasp of many things brought together in one, and hence is its power; for, properly speaking, it is Science that is power, not Knowledge.
Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
How many writers are there... who, breaking up their subject into details, destroy its life, and defraud us of the whole by their anxiety about the parts.
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
I figure anytime you put an adjective before 'writer,' it's a way of dismissing the writer.
The Negro enslaved by his inferiority, the white man enslaved by his superiority alike behave in accordance with a neurotic orientation.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
Today is unique! It has never occurred and it will never be repeated. At midnight it will end, quietly, suddenly, totally. Forever. But the hours between now and then are opportunities with eternal possibilities.
Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
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