I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought.
Alexander HerzenRead
There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the idea that once someone has made up their mind, it's incredibly difficult to change their beliefs or opinions.
Alexander Herzen's quote reflects on the stubbornness of human conviction, likening it to a corpse that remains unyielding and unchangeable regardless of external force. It emphasizes the challenge of persuading someone who is firmly set in their beliefs, suggesting that once a perspective is ingrained, attempts to alter it are often futile.
Themes
StubbornnessBeliefsConvictionPersuasionChange
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate about the difficulty of changing entrenched views.
More from Alexander Herzen
All quotes →I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement.
Alexander HerzenRead
Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.
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False gods must be repudiated, but that is not all: The reasons for their existence must be sought beneath their masks.
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History is the autobiography of a madman.
Alexander HerzenRead
Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, "just in case," in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.
Alexander HerzenRead
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