One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
Romain RollandRead
I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes those who glorify war without understanding its true horrors.
Romain Rolland expresses a strong disdain for war while emphasizing that the real issue lies with those who romanticize it without having experienced its brutal realities. He suggests that praising war is a shallow and irresponsible act, as only those who endure its consequences can truly grasp its detestable nature.
In practice
During a discussion on military history, this quote can highlight the dangers of glorifying war.
One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
The greatest human ideal is the great cause of bringing together the thoughts of Europe and Asia; the great soul of India will topple our world.
Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it.
Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.
Each man must learn his own ideal and try to accomplish it: that is a surer way of progress than to take the ideas of another.
The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.
Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.
When abroad, behaveto everyone as if interviewing an honored guest; in directing the people, act as if you were assisting at a great sacrafice; DO NOT DO TO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD NOT LIKE DONE TO YOURSELF: so there will be no murmuring against you in the country, and none in the family; your public life will arouse no ill-will nor your private life any resentment.
Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.
The lessons of religious toleration - a toleration which recognizes complete liberty of human thought, liberty of conscience - is one which, by precept and example, must be inculcated in the hearts and minds of all Americans if the institutions of our democracy are to be maintained and perpetuated. We must recognize the fundamental rights of man. There can be no true national life in our democracy unless we give unqualified recognition to freedom of religious worship and freedom of education.
I'd be so fascinated to talk to a psychologist or sociologist about the deep psychological impact of seeing oneself represented. I don't think we've really touched the surface of what it does to the psyche of a people if the only image of you out there is negative. Or if it's never out there.
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