I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.
Robert Green IngersollRead
Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles.
Interpretation
Kindness has the power to uplift and improve behavior, while cruelty leads to a decline in character.
This quote by Robert Green Ingersoll emphasizes the transformative power of kindness in contrast to the destructive nature of cruelty. It suggests that acts of kindness can refine and elevate a person's character, leading to personal growth and positive change, while cruelty can lead to a hardening of the heart and a degradation of moral fiber.
In practice
In a speech about building a compassionate community, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of kindness over cruelty.
I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.
If the guardians of society, the protectors of 'young persons,' could have had their way, we should have known nothing of Byron or Shelley. The voices that thrill the world would now be silent.
The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.
There is no slavery but ignorance.
In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.
I believe that there is something far nobler than loyalty to any particular man. Loyalty to the truth as we perceive it - loyalty to our duty as we know it - loyalty to the ideals of our brain and heart - is, to my mind, far greater and far nobler than loyalty to the life of any particular man or God. . . .
What I'm concerned with is what I would call the missing history - the invisible imprint of our stay on Earth and in time.
If power corrupts, the reverse is also true; persecution corrupts the victims though perhaps in subtler and more tragic ways.
The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.
I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.
I believe in mysticism, with an interior goal, and you are your own temple and your own priest. I dont believe anymore in religions, because you see today there are religious wars, prejudice, false morals, and the woman is despised. Religion is too old now; its from another century, its not for today.
Non-violence is a permanent attitude we bring to the breakfast table and bring to bed at night.
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