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 wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our necks that must bow under the yoke.
I know only one method of operation: to be as honest with others as I am with myself.
To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
The farther you look back, the farther you can look ahead.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
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