Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Sometimes intelligent discussions are derailed by people who are overly confident in their opinions.
This quote by Miguel De Unamuno highlights how an engaging and meaningful conversation can be disrupted by someone who, despite having knowledge on a subject, presents their views in a way that is arrogant or dismissive. It serves as a reminder that a thoughtful exchange of ideas requires humility and openness, rather than just bombastically asserting one's expertise.
Themes
ArgumentsKnowledgeHumilityDiscussionCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about climate change, a participant could quote this to highlight the importance of humility in discussing complex topics.
More from Miguel De Unamuno
All quotes βOnly he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
If it is nothingness that awaits us, let us make an injustice of it, let us fight against destiny, even without hope of victory.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
Spiritual Love is born of sorrow. . . . For men love one another with spiritual love only when they have suffered the same sorrow together, when through long days they have ploughed the stony ground buried beneath the common yoke of a common grief. It is then that they know one another and feel one another and feel with one another in their common anguish, and so they pity one another and love one another.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness. Man is the more man - that is, the more divine - the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
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