Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
VoltaireRead
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Interpretation
Voltaire critiques the inconsistencies in the designation of the Holy Roman Empire.
This quote by Voltaire highlights the contradictions inherent in the title of the Holy Roman Empire, suggesting that it fails to embody the characteristics implied by its name. By stating that it is neither holy, nor Roman, nor truly an empire, Voltaire is engaging in a form of satirical commentary on the political and religious authority that the empire claimed to possess, and he raises questions about legitimacy and identity within historical contexts.
In practice
Discussing the historical context of empires during a lecture on European history.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development. I think that religion may be some random by-product of mammalian reproduction. If that's true, would non-mammalian aliens have a religion?
You've confused a war on your religion with not always getting everything you want.
Many of the prophets of Jesus's time were thought to just be mad men, just sort of crazy people who were claiming to channel the divine. Perhaps that means we should be a little less judgmental of some of our own crazies talking about God on the corner. They might actually have found a pretty comfortable place in Jesus's time.
The American grips himself, at the very sources of his consciousness, in a grip of care: and then, to so much of the rest of life, is indifferent. Whereas, the European hasn't got so much care in him, so he cares much more for life and living.
I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that I was fooling somebody - I don't know who or what - maybe myself. I have feelings some days where there are scenes with a lot of responsibility, and I'll wish, 'Gee, if only I had been a cleaning woman.'
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.
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