One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy.
Honore De BalzacRead
Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.
Interpretation
Equality is an ideal that may exist as a principle, but achieving true equality is a complex challenge.
This quote by Honore De Balzac suggests that while equality is recognized as a fundamental right, it cannot simply be enforced or realized through power or authority. It hints at the notion that the existence of equality in theory does not guarantee its presence in reality, and that societal structures, prejudices, and power dynamics can obstruct the attainment of true equality among individuals.
In practice
In a speech advocating for social justice, one could use this quote to emphasize the challenges of achieving equality.
One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy.
Loyalty in time of need is possibly one of the noblest of victories a courtier can win over himself.
Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?
However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?
Love is a religion, and its rituals cost more than those of other religions. It goes by quickly and, like a street urchin, it likes to mark its passage by a trail of devastation.
Power is a disease one has no desire to be cured of.
In my day, MI6 - which I called the Circus in the books - stank of wartime nostalgia. People were defined by secret cachet: one man did something absolutely extraordinary in Norway; another was the darling of the French Resistance. We didn't even show passes to go in and out of the building.
That's a spiritual lifestyle, being willing to admit that you don't know everything and that you were wrong about some things. It's about making a list of all the people you've harmed, either emotionally or physically or financially, and going back and making amends. That's a spiritual lifestyle. It's not a fluffy ethereal concept.
Any theology that does not lead to song is, at a fundamental level, a flawed theology.
It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights...
The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.