Life & Wisdom Quote by Fredrik Bajer

Bajer’s sentence is a small demolition charge aimed at political self-congratulation. In a room full of parliamentarians, he refuses the comforting fantasy that moral change is just a matter of the right phrasing, the right petition, the right “reasonable” appeal. The line works because it flatters no one: it assumes everyone present already understands how conversion actually happens in politics, and it dares them to admit it out loud.

The intent is tactical. Bajer is drawing a boundary around what a letter can do: it can register conscience, signal organized pressure, and create a paper trail of accountability. What it cannot do is transform an opponent’s core commitments once they’ve calcified into identity, party loyalty, or economic interest. That’s the subtext: persuasion isn’t blocked by ignorance; it’s blocked by incentives. “Converted” isn’t casual language either. It borrows the intensity of religious awakening to underline how rare genuine shifts are in public life - and how absurd it is to pretend a politely composed appeal will spark one.

The context matters. As a 19th-century liberal reformer and peace advocate, Bajer operated in an era when parliamentary politics was being sold as the engine of progress. He’s puncturing that sales pitch from the inside. The mild, parliamentary diction (“members present here,” “letter of appeal”) is the camouflage; the message is blunt: if you want conversion, you’ll need more than rhetoric. You’ll need leverage, social movements, consequences - the messy, collective force that makes stubborn men suddenly discover new principles.