"All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy"
- John Ruskin
About this Quote
John Ruskin's quote talks to the power of emotion and how it can distort our understanding of reality. He suggests that all strong feelings, whether positive or unfavorable, can lead to a "falseness" in our impressions of the world around us. This phenomenon is called the "worthless fallacy," which is the propensity to ascribe human feelings to inanimate items or natural phenomena. For example, an individual might explain a stormy sky as "mad" or a calm lake as "peaceful." This type of thinking is a form of projection, as we are associating our own feelings onto the environment. Ruskin's quote works as a suggestion to be conscious of our emotions and how they can affect our view of the world. It is very important to recognize that our emotions can be powerful and can lead us to make incorrect assumptions about the world around us.
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