The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Interpretation
Reason and critical thinking are skills that everyone can use, not just experts.
This quote emphasizes the importance of reason and logical thinking as tools that are not limited to specialists or professionals. It suggests that every individual has the capacity to engage with and apply rational thought in various aspects of life, making it a universal skill that can benefit society as a whole.
In practice
In a debate, one might quote this to emphasize the value of reasoned arguments accessible to all participants.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
The Book of Proverbs deals very hard blows against sluggards, and Christian ministers do well frequently to denounce the great sin of idleness, which is the mother of a huge family of sins.
The thing about information is that information is more valuable when people know it. There's an exception for business information and super timely information, but in all other cases, ideas that spread win.
Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things.
Never lie; never cheat; never steal. Don't whine; don't complain; don't make excuses.
Nothing puts a greater obstacle in the way of the progress of knowledge than thinking that one knows what one does not yet know.
Patience is that the heart does not feel anger towards that which is destined and that the mouth does not complain.
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