Education (1902)
Context: I am not of those who believe in lackadaisical methods. On the contrary, I advocate a vigorous, thorough, exact mental training which shall fit the mind to expand upon and grasp large things and yet properly to perceive in their just relation the significance of small ones to discriminate accurately as to quantity and quality and thus to develop individual judgment, capacity and independence.
But at the same time I am of those who believe that gentleness is a greater, surer power than force, and that sympathy is a safer power by far than is intellect. Therefore would I train the individual sympathies as carefully in all their delicate warmth and tenuity as I would develop the mind in alertness, poise and security.
Nor am I of those who despise dreamers. For the world would be at the level of zero were it not for its dreamers gone and of today. He who dreamed of democracy, far back in a world of absolutism, was indeed heroic, and we of today awaken to the wonder of his dream.
“Your gentleness shall force
More than your force move us to gentleness.”
Source: As You Like It
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William Shakespeare 699
English playwright and poet 1564–1616Related quotes
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Context: It was the warrior within
Who called 'Awake, prepare for fight:
Yet lose not memory in the din:
Make of thy gentleness thy might:
'Make of thy silence words to shake
The long-enthroned kings of earth:
Make of thy will the force to break
Their towers of wantonness and mirth.
“Actually, I think it's more immoral to use less force than necessary, than it is to use more.”
if you use less force, you kill off more of humanity in the long run, because you are merely protracting the struggle.
Mission with LeMay: My Story (1965), p. 382.
Mission with LeMay: My Story (1965), p. 382.
Letter to George Washington (November 1779)
“May the ability to see many points of view keep us gentle.”
Coda, p. 167
Towards a Canada of Light (2006)
“Your personal brand when consciously built can be a force for good, or a force for destruction.”