The thing about talking about human rights is that when one bears in mind the sharp end of it, one does not want to worry too much about semantics.
Interpretation
Human rights discussions should focus on real issues rather than getting caught up in the details of language.
Tom Stoppard's quote highlights the importance of addressing the core issues related to human rights rather than being distracted by linguistic precision. In the face of real suffering and injustice, the urgency of human rights often requires straightforward action and advocacy, rather than getting bogged down in semantics which can detract from the urgency of the situation.
In practice
During a human rights conference, this quote can emphasize the need for action over discussion.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
Man with all his shrewdness is as stupid about understanding by himself the mysteries of God, as an ass is incapable of understanding musical harmony.
There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.
Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.
Today's aikido is so dimensionless. It's hollow, empty on the inside. People try to reach the highest levels without even paying their dues. That's why it seems so much like a dance these days. You have to master the very basics solidly, with your body, and then proceed to develop to the higher levels.... Now we see nothing but copying or imitation without any grasp of the real thing.
I would never say I was an icon, but so many people have said I am, so I suppose I am. I mean, I can't not be what everyone says I am. But I don't feel like an icon.
We are not at war against Islam.
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