Absolutes Quotes - Page 22

• The problem is that it has become politically awkward to draw attention to absolutes of bad and good. In place of manners, we now have doctrines of political correctness, against which one offends at one's peril: by means of a considerable circular logic, such offences mark you as reactionary and therefore a bad person. Therefore if you say people are bad, you are bad.

  Lynne Truss

  Mean, People, Political

  "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door". Book by Lynne Truss, 2005.

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• I will defend the absolute value of Mozart over Miley Cyrus, of course I will, but we should be wary of false dichotomies. You do not have to choose between one or the other. You can have both. The human cultural jungle should be as varied and plural as the Amazonian rainforest. We are all richer for biodiversity. We may decide that a puma is worth more to us than a caterpillar, but surely we can agree that the habitat is all the better for being able to sustain each.

  Stephen Fry

  Habitat, May, Able

  Stephen Fry (2012). “The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography”, p.160, The Overlook Press

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• Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. And an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable…it would have complete power to decide what we are to be given and on what terms. It would not only decide what commodities and services were to be available and in what quantities; it would be able to direct their distributions between persons to any degree it liked.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Country, Powerful, Choices

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• In mysticism that love of truth which we saw as the beginning of all philosophy leaves the merely intellectual sphere, and takes on the assured aspect of a personal passion. Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools. Hence whilst the Absolute of the metaphysicians remains a diagram —impersonal and unattainable—the Absolute of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive.

  Evelyn Underhill

  Philosophy, Passion, School

  Evelyn Underhill (2012). “Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness”, p.38, Courier Corporation

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• When he turned to face her, the drawn look on his face was one of absolute agony as if Luce had just ripped his heart out

  Lauren Kate

  Heart, Agony, Looks

  Lauren Kate (2013). “The Fallen Series: 4-Book Collection”, p.595, Delacorte Press

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• Will suspected Jem was in fact cleverer than he was himself - but he lacked Will's tendency to assume the absolute worst about people and proceed from there.

  Cassandra Clare

  People, Facts, Assuming

  Cassandra Clare (2013). “The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess”, p.388, Simon and Schuster

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• The world is not that black and white, Rachel. There are no moral absolutes. It is complex.

  Emily Giffin

  Black And White, World, Moral

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• What was love, really? Flowers, chocolate, and poetry? Or was it something else? Was it being able to finish someone's jokes? Was it having absolute faith that someone was there at your back? Was it knowing someone so well that they instantly understood why you did the things you did—and shared those same beliefs?

  Richelle Mead

  Love, Flower, Knowing

  Richelle Mead (2013). “Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection”, p.1367, Penguin

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• One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!

  Pema Chodron

  Inspirational, Appreciation, Buddhist

  Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.2, Shambhala Publications

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• A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Thinking, Silence, Noise

  "Fictional character: George". "A Single Man", www.imdb.com. 2009.

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• One must never allow oneself to acquire an exaggerated sense of one's own importance. There's no necessity to burden oneself with absolutes

  Ayn Rand

  Burden, Importance, Oneself

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.231, Penguin

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• It wasn't about wanting to die or having nothing left to live for; it was about letting go. You live your life doing what you're supposed to do, following the rules, following your conscience no matter what your gut tells you - and most times, that's okay. Control is good. It allows you to believe in certainty and absolutes, like lining up the perfect shot. But when you hold on for so long, and hold on so tight, every once in a while you have to close your eyes and jump." Kelley Armstrong - Exit Strategy

  Kelley Armstrong

  Letting Go, Believe, Eye

  Kelley Armstrong (2010). “Exit Strategy”, p.24, Seal Books

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• Absolute seriousness is never without a dash of humor.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Seriousness

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2001). “Letters and Papers from Prison”, p.141, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• I find the treatment of royalty distinctly peculiar. The royal family lives in palaces heavily screened from prying eyes by fences, grounds, gates, guards, all designed to ensure the family absolute privacy. And every newspaper in London carried headlines announcing PRINCESS ANNE HAS OVARIAN CYST REMOVED. I mean you're a young girl reared in heavily guarded seclusion and every beer drinker in every pub knows the precise state of your ovaries.

  Helene Hanff

  Girl, Princess, Eye

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• I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable

  Henry Miller

  Lonely, Artist, Men

  Henry Miller (1962). “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”, p.49, New Directions Publishing

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• We three belong to the Middle Ages. We have this need of heroism, and there is no place for such feelings in modern life. That is our tragedy. Once I wanted to be a saint. It seemed the only absolute act left to do, for what is most powerful in me is the craving for purity, greatness.

  Anais Nin

  Powerful, Greatness, Feelings

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• My absolute favourite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.

  Douglas Adams

  Fall, Tree, Sloth

  Douglas Adams (2005). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.110, Del Rey

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• I used to think that paired opposites were a given, that love was the opposite of hate, right the opposite of wrong. But now I think we sometimes buy into these concepts because it is so much easier to embrace absolutes than to suffer reality. I don't think anything is the opposite of love. Reality is unforgivingly complex.

  Anne Lamott

  Hate, Reality, Thinking

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.104, Anchor

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• he'd know that I think that . . . well, that bending an enemy's will through military force is the absolute last way a nation ought to go about solving their problems.

  Meg Cabot

  Military, Thinking, Enemy

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• Nothing — the only perfection, the only absolute. Infinite and eternal nothing.

  Aldous Huxley

  Perfection, Infinite, Eternal

  Aldous Huxley “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley”

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• To see and feel one's beloved naked for the first time is one of life's pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.

  Dan Simmons

  Sex, Pain, Mistake

  Dan Simmons (2011). “Rise of Endymion”, p.403, Spectra

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• He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.

  Jon Krakauer

  Couple, Mistake, Thinking

  Jon Krakauer (2011). “Into the Wild”, p.18, Pan Macmillan

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• this is one of my absolute favourite quotes its from the evernight series (stargazer) charity to Balthazar You remind me of too much. you remind me of what it felt like to be alive, to think of sunlight as something you could enjoy instead of something you could bare, to breath and have it change you, refresh you, awaken you, instead of just churning on and on some old useless habit that taunts you with what you use to be, to sigh and feel relief, to cry and let your sadness pass, instead of having it all bottled up inside of you forever and ever until you don't know who you are any more.

  Claudia Gray

  Sadness, Thinking, Forever

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• There are few times when we know with absolute certainty we are going to do something for the last time. Life has a way of moving in circles, bringing us back to places we didn’t expect and taking us away from those we do. There are too many times we don’t pay close enough attention, and moments are lost in our assumption we’ll have another chance.

  Megan Hart

  Moving, Circles, Another Chance

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• What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me - that I understand. And these two certainties - my appetite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle - I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my conditions?

  Albert Camus

  Lying, Mean, Two

  "The Myth of Sisyphus". Book by Albert Camus, 1942.

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