“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
The Weight of Glory (1949)
Context: It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
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Clive Staples Lewis 272
Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist 1898–1963Related quotes
Public Talks, The State of the Onion 11
Source: The Mismeasure of Man (1996), p. 36
“Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it.”
“Those that merely talk and never think,
That live in the wild anarchy of drink.”
XLVII, An Epistle, Answering to One That Asked to Be Sealed of the Tribe of Ben, lines 9-10. Comparable to: "They never taste who always drink; They always talk who never think", Matthew Prior, Upon a passage in the Scaligerana.
The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio (1640), Underwoods
'Greased piglet' Boris Johnson could pass deal says David Cameron https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/17/greased-piglet-boris-johnson-could-pass-deal-says-david-cameron Guardian (17 October 2019}
2010s, 2019
“I’m merely talking about learning to be less bothered by the actions of people.”
Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life
“You can never solve a problem without talking to people with whom you disagree.”
As quoted in "Andrea Mitchell's exclusive interview with Sen. Olympia Snowe" by Weesie Vieira (29 February 2012) http://info.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/29/10541107-transcript-andrea-mitchells-exclusive-interview-with-sen-olympia-snowe.
Context: What are our obligations to the country and to the people we represent? It's the coming up with effective solutions, sitting down and working with the issues. Sitting around table and sorting through the differences.
You can never solve a problem without talking to people with whom you disagree. The United States Senate is predicated and based on consensus building. That was certainly the vision of the founding fathers. And if we abandon that approach, then we do it at the expense of the country and the issues that we need to address to put us back on track.
