Life & Wisdom Quote by David Borenstein

Borenstein’s line cuts against the self-help-era fantasy that every messy feeling can be “processed” into a neat, reasonable conclusion. The first sentence grants emotions their native function: they’re signals, not syllogisms. Jealousy, grief, lust, panic - they don’t arrive with an argument because they’re not trying to persuade anyone. They’re trying to move you.

The second sentence tightens into warning. “Dangerous” isn’t aimed at the person who feels too much; it targets the person who has turned feeling into a justification engine. To rationalize an emotion is to give it a respectable suit and a press pass. Anger becomes “principle.” Possessiveness becomes “love.” Fear becomes “realism.” The subtext is about moral laundering: once an emotion is dressed up as logic, it’s harder to challenge and easier to act on with a clean conscience. You’re no longer throwing a tantrum; you’re “telling hard truths.” You’re no longer controlling someone; you’re “setting boundaries.”

That’s why the quote works: it reframes rationality as a potential accomplice rather than a cure. In contemporary culture, where “accountability” language and therapy-speak often mingle with brand-building and online conflict, rationalized emotion is especially potent. It’s not raw feeling that causes the most harm; it’s feeling that has recruited reasoning to build a case, manufacture certainty, and pre-empt doubt. Borenstein is arguing for a quieter kind of honesty: admit the emotion as emotion before it metastasizes into ideology.