It belongs to the very substance of nonviolence never to destroy or damage another person's feeling of self worth, even an opponent's. We all need, constantly, an advance of trust and affirmation.
Interpretation
Nonviolence requires respecting others' self-worth, even in conflict. Trust and affirmation are essential for human interaction.
This quote emphasizes that nonviolence is not merely the absence of physical harm but involves a deep respect for another person's dignity and self-esteem. Even in adversarial situations, maintaining a sense of trust and affirmation is crucial, as it fosters a more humane and constructive dialogue, allowing relationships to flourish rather than descend into contempt and hostility.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about conflict resolution to highlight the importance of empathy.
Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity -- an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.
But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt. He [Capablanca] wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It's a terrible game now. Very uncreative.
It seems to me that all the things we keep in sealed boxes are both alive and dead until we open the box, that the unobserved is both there and not.
Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.
Goodness in words creates trust, goodness in thinking creates depth, goodness in giving creates love.
The world being unworthy to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her.
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