Promising too much can be as cruel as caring too little.
Interpretation
Overpromising can lead to disappointment, just as lack of care can hurt others.
This quote emphasizes the importance of balance in our commitments to others. It suggests that making grand promises without the ability or intention to fulfill them can be just as damaging to relationships as neglecting to show care and concern. Trust is built on reliability, and both overpromising and underdelivering can harm that foundation.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of honest communication in relationships, this quote could highlight potential pitfalls.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
Living together is an art. It's a patient art, it's a beautiful art, it's fascinating.
Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams.
One of the things that makes a Negro unpleasant to white folk is the fact that he suffers from their injustice. He is thus a standing rebuke to them.
There are people who cannot risk loneliness with the experience. They always have to be in a flock and have human contact.
There was a time you saw me once, one afternoon, in the dormitories. There was no one else around, and I was playing this tape, this music. I was sort of dancing with my eyes closed and you saw me.' '...yes, I remember that occasion. I still think about it from time to time.' 'That's funny, so do I.
When you protect yourself from pain, be sure you do not protect yourself from love.
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