Adequacy Quotes

• Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifestation of vanity. But one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Running, Vanity, Expression

  J. Robert Oppenheimer's letter to his brother Frank Oppenheimer (October 14, 1929), as quoted in "Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections" edited by Alice Kimball Smith (p. 136), 1995.

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• It is presumed that there exists a great unity in nature, in respect of the adequacy of a single cause to account for many different kinds of consequences.

  Immanuel Kant

  Nature, Science, Unity

  Immanuel Kant, David Walford, Ralf Meerbote (2003). “Theoretical Philosophy, 1755-1770”, p.155, Cambridge University Press

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• At least one indication of unbelief is the tendency to measure life's challenges against our own adequacy instead of God's promises. To enter our Sabbath rest, we must put an end to self-reliance - trusting in our own abilities to overcome difficulties, rise above challenges, escape tragedies, or achieve personal greatness.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Greatness, Self, Challenges

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• Life is supplied with a basic adequacy.

  E. Stanley Jones

  Life Is

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• Adequacy is sufficient.

  Adam Osborne

  Sufficient

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• There is, first, the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige

  Abraham Maslow

  Achievement, Independence, Desire

  Abraham Maslow “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Lulu.com

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• Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Courage, Absence, Discouraging

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• The adequacy of performance attainments depends upon the personal standards against which they are judged

  Albert Bandura

  Standards, Self Efficacy, Attainment

  Albert Bandura (1986). “Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory”, Prentice Hall

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• We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Teacher, Real, Teaching

  Malcolm Gladwell (2007). “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”, p.40, Hachette UK

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• What is adequacy? Adequacy is no standard at all.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, Standards

  Winston Churchill (1966). “Churchill in His Own Words: Years of Greatness, Memorable Speeches of the Man of the Century”

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• Adequacy is sufficient. All else is superfluous.

  Adam Osborne

  Superfluous, Sufficient

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• One key to success is demanding more than adequacy, never settling for good enough and always doing a little bit more.

  Michael Josephson

  Keys, Never Settle, Littles

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• Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Sympathy, Thank You, Mother

  Speech accepting an award from the National Institute for Immigrant Welfare, Biltmore Hotel, New York, May 11, 1933.

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• To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Happy, Running, Trying

  J. Robert Oppenheimer's letter to his brother Frank Oppenheimer (October 14, 1929), as quoted in "Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections" edited by Alice Kimball Smith (p. 136), 1995.

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• Our problems may stay, our circumstances may remain, but we know God is in control. We are focused on His adequacy, not our inadequacy.

  Charles Stanley

  Optimistic, May, Problem

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• It is not his business to argue men into faith, for that cannot be done; but it is his business to demonstrate the intellectual adequacy of the biblical faith and the comparative inadequacy of its rivals, and to show the invalidity of the criticisms that are brought against it. This he seeks to do, not from any motive of intellectual self-justification, but for the glory of God and His gospel.

  J. I. Packer

  Biblical, Men, Self

  J. I. Packer (1958). “"Fundamentalism" and the Word of God”, p.34, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• ...we see God working in terms of Jewish culture to reach Jews, yet, refusing to impose Jewish customs on Gentiles. Instead non-Jews are to come to God and relate to Him in terms of their own cultural vehicles. We see the Bible endorsing, then, a doctrine we call biblical sociocultural adequacy in which each culture is taken seriously but none advocated exclusively as the only one acceptable to God.

  Charles H. Kraft

  Taken, Biblical, Doctrine

  Charles H. Kraft (1996). “Anthropology for Christian Witness”

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• Artistic inevitability lies in the complete adequacy of the external to the emotion.

  T. S. Eliot

  Lying, Emotion, Artistic

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• The glory does not lie in our inadequacy, but lies in the adequacy of Christ discovered in our weakness and in our insufficiency.

  Alistair Begg

  Lying, Weakness, Doe

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• Adequacy is the enemy of excellence.

  Peter Drucker

  Enemy, Excellence

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• If we respect students abilities to define their own experiences, to generate their own hypotheses, and to discover new ways of categorizing the world, we might not be so quick to evaluate the adequacy of their answers. We might, instead, begin listening to their questions. Out of the questions of students come some of the most creative ideas and discoveries.

  Ellen Langer

  Discovery, Ideas, Creative

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• War challenges virtually every other institution of society - the justice and equity of its economy, the adequacy of its political systems, the energy of its productive plant, the bases, wisdom and purposes of its foreign policy.

  Walter Millis

  War, Justice, Political

  Walter Millis (1941). “The Faith of an American”

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• The pragmatist turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal solutions, from bad a priori reasons, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended absolutes and origins. He turns toward concreteness and adequacy, towards facts, towards action, and towards power.

  William James

  Principles, Facts, Action

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• The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life-that is the heart of existentialism.

  Walter Kaufmann

  Philosophy, Heart, School

  Walter Kaufmann (2016). “Existentialism From Dostoevsky To Sartre”, p.10, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Judgments of adequacy involve social comparison processes

  Albert Bandura

  Judgment, Social, Process

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