We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn't need defending.
Interpretation
People often feel compelled to protect their uncertain beliefs, while certain beliefs do not require defense.
This quote by Madeleine L'Engle suggests that when we are unsure about our beliefs or opinions, we may feel the need to defend them vigorously. In contrast, when we have strong conviction in something, we naturally stand by it without needing to justify our stance to others. It highlights the paradox of how uncertainty can provoke defensiveness, revealing the inner conflict between our beliefs and our doubts.
In practice
During a debate, one might quote this to remind others that defensiveness often stems from uncertainty.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
I am a creationist and an evolutionist. Evolution is God's, or Nature's method of creation. Creation is not an event that happened in 4004 BC; it is a process that began some 10 billion years ago and is still under way.
I thought: hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.
She had lived her early years as though she were waiting for something she might, but never did, become.
If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.
To the ashes of the dead glory comes too late.
Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.
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