Impartial - unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy.
Interpretation
Being impartial means not having a personal bias or gaining from either side of a dispute.
Ambrose Bierce's definition of impartiality highlights the importance of objectivity in assessing controversies. Being unable to perceive any potential personal advantage from supporting one side over the other suggests that true impartiality requires a disinterest that allows for fair evaluation and understanding of differing perspectives.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate to emphasize the importance of neutrality.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.
It's not the wickedness of the pagan that breaks my heart. It's the compromise of the Christian that grieves my soul.
Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion.
Time is of your own making;_x000D_ _x000D_ Its clock ticks in your head._x000D_ _x000D_ The moment you stop thought_x000D_ _x000D_ Time too stops dead.
The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.
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