Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
VoltaireRead
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that our true feelings often influence what we say, even if we try to hide them.
Voltaire's quote highlights the disconnect that can occur between our genuine emotions and the words we express. It implies that when our hearts feel deeply, it becomes challenging for our mouths to articulate anything contrary, hinting at the importance of authenticity in communication and the way our inner truths can often betray our spoken words.
In practice
In a speech about honesty in relationships, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of speaking from the heart.
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.
The best counter to the kind of radicalization and marginalization that we've seen in other parts of the world is to create an inclusive society where everyone, including especially Muslim Canadians, have every opportunity to succeed, just like anybody else.
You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you.
Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.
How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me, my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running. So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes, and over our heads the grey light unwinds in turning fans.
Earnsha was not to be civilized with a wish, and my young lady was no philosopher, and no paragon of patience; but both their minds tending to the same point - one loving and desiring to esteem, and the other loving and desiring to be esteemed - they contrived in the end to reach it.
As I got older, I realised that people saw me as other things - sometimes Korean, sometimes Japanese, sometimes just Asian. When my family moved to a more affluent white neighbourhood, I started to see myself as 'other', this amorphous category. I didn't even know what 'not other' was, but I knew I wasn't it; I wasn't what was normal.
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