A man speaking sense to himself is no madder than a man speaking nonsense not to himself.
Interpretation
Talking to oneself can be rational, whereas even nonsensical thoughts can be considered sane if they are not vocalized.
This quote by Tom Stoppard suggests that self-reflection and inner dialogue are not signs of madness, unlike societal perceptions might imply. In fact, it highlights the idea that speaking rationally to oneself is no more crazy than holding nonsensical thoughts without expressing them. It challenges the notion of sanity and asks us to consider the nature of our thoughts and how we communicate with ourselves.
In practice
In a motivational speech about mental wellness, you could use this quote to encourage self-reflection.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery.
When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
I feel that my environment reflects my belief in the grace and art and elegance of living simply.
One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.
A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.
It is nothing but fanaticism and beautiful soulism to expect very much (or even, much only) from humanity when it has forgotten how to wage war.
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