Western people ask me whether it is a paradox that I am King but support democracy. I have to tell them that in Thailand, the King is the guarantor of democracy.
Bhumibol AdulyadejRead
People get angry at others who express a different opinion, while, in fact, they should be angry at themselves. But we must be angry at ourselves the most when we say something today, only to say something else tomorrow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and consistency in our beliefs and opinions.
Bhumibol Adulyadej highlights a common human tendency to react with anger towards others for differing opinions rather than confronting our own contradictions. He suggests that we should recognize our own flaws and inconsistencies in thought as a greater source of frustration, as it undermines our integrity and credibility when we change our statements or beliefs over time.
Themes
Self-ReflectionConsistencyOpinionAngerIntegrity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about political beliefs, one might use this quote to remind participants to consider their own changing views.
More from Bhumibol Adulyadej
All quotes →My mother praised me when I did something good, and then the next moment, she would say, 'Don't float.' She put me in a balloon and then pricked it.
Bhumibol AdulyadejRead
They say that a kingdom is like a pyramid: the king on top and the people below. But in this country, it's upside down.
Bhumibol AdulyadejRead
Similar quotes
In short, is American life of the future to be characterized by freedom or by servitude, strength or weakness? The answer must be clear and unequivocal if we are to avoid the pitfalls toward which we are now heading with such certainty. In many respects it is not to be found in any dogma of political philosophy but in those immutable precepts which underlie the Ten Commandments.
Douglas MacarthurRead
God the Father, the supreme Architect, had already built this cosmic home we behold, the most sacred temple of His godhead, by the laws of His mysterious wisdom.
Giovanni Pico Della MirandolaRead
It is not man who is the enemy of the human species. It is the irrational; it is the spiritual when it is divorced from the material; from the lesson in one beating heart or one bleeding vein.
Anne RiceRead
The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.
Gertrude SteinRead
Je est un autre. (I is someone else).
Arthur RimbaudRead
I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will.
Margaret AtwoodRead