We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
OvidRead
Minds that are ill at ease are agitated by both hope and fear.
Interpretation
Unsettled minds experience turmoil from their hopes and fears.
This quote by Ovid reflects on the human condition, emphasizing how uncertainty breeds anxiety. When our minds are not at peace, we find ourselves caught in a cycle of longing for what we hope for and dreading what we fear, highlighting the mental struggles we face as we navigate our desires and anxieties.
In practice
In a motivational speech about mental health, one could use this quote to illustrate the impact of our emotions.
We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.
All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.
Fas est ab hoste doceri._x000D_ One should learn even from one's enemies.
Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.
The end doesn't justify the means.
I believe in everything until it's disproved.
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.
A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.
The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.
Jews are frequently compared to the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine,' an enduring signal for when the world is failing to meet its obligations in tackling bigotry. It has never been clearer to me just how widely understood that truism is.
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
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