One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
Romain RollandRead
The greatest human ideal is the great cause of bringing together the thoughts of Europe and Asia; the great soul of India will topple our world.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of unity and collaboration between cultures, specifically Europe and Asia, highlighting India's influential spirit.
Romain Rolland reflects on the significant potential that arises from bridging Eastern and Western cultures, suggesting that the wisdom and spirit of India can lead to profound transformations in the world. This unity of thoughts between Europe and Asia is portrayed as a noble ideal, where the essence of India's great soul could inspire and elevate humanity.
In practice
In a speech about cultural diplomacy, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of collaboration.
One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it.
I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.
Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.
Each man must learn his own ideal and try to accomplish it: that is a surer way of progress than to take the ideas of another.
The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.
If you hate somebody, it's like a boomerang that misses its target and comes back and hits you in the head. The one who hates is the one who hurts.
I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: 'If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.' Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.
Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest has been to see how little actual spiritual curiosity there is in so many people.
Our original nature is...void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy - and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awakening yourself.
Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.
Balm of the summer night, balm of the ordinary, imperial joy and sorrow of human existence, the dreamed as well as the livedβ what could be dearer than this, given the closeness of death?
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