Jordan has a strange, haunting beauty and a sense of timelessness. Dotted with the ruins of empires once great, it is the last resort of yesterday in the world of tomorrow. I love every inch of it.
King Hussein IRead
God help us from those who believe that they are the sole possessors of truth. How we manage at times to agree willingly to become prisoners within our own minds and souls of beliefs and ideas on which we can never be flexible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against the danger of dogmatism and rigid beliefs that prevent open-mindedness.
King Hussein I highlights the peril of people who are convinced that their perspective is the only truth. This rigid adherence to beliefs creates mental and spiritual prisons, limiting personal growth and understanding. It suggests that flexibility in our thinking is essential for a more enlightened and collaborative existence.
Themes
TruthBeliefsOpen-MindednessDogmatismFlexibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about political ideologies, one might quote this to emphasize the need for open-mindedness.
More from King Hussein I
All quotes →I want to say a simple thing, that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel, but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.
King Hussein IRead
The link between peace and stability on the one hand, and social and economic growth on the other, is dialectic. Peace, poverty, and backwardness cannot mix in one region.
King Hussein IRead
Without peace and without the overwhelming majority of people that believe in peace defending it, working for it, believing in it, security can never really be a reality.
King Hussein IRead
In this life struggle, here I am among you fully cognizant that a true believer has no fear of what God has ordained for him. Those who are visited by fear live only for their present, under the illusion that the world began with them and will end with their departure.
King Hussein IRead
For our part, we shall continue to work for the new dawn when all the Children of Abraham and their descendants are living together in the birthplace of their three great monotheistic religions, a life free from fear, a life free from want - a life in peace.
King Hussein IRead
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