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Miguel de Unamuno on Winning But Not Convincing

The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge (W.W. Norton & Company: June 17, 2007), p. 217. A speech on October 12, 1936 at the University of Salamanca before being put under house arrest.

This is the temple of intelligence and I am its hight priest. I have always been, despite the words of the proverb, a prophet in my own country. You will win but you will not convince. You will win because you have more than enough brute force; but you will not convince because to convince means to persuade. And to persuade you need something which you lack: right and reason.