Benign Quotes - Page 5

• I wasn't raised Catholic; I just really like the image of a neutral and benign Mary floating around somewhere, being nice to people.

  Moby

  Nice, People, Catholic

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• A ready means of being cherished by the English is to adopt the simple expedient of living a long time. I have little doubt that if, say, Oscar Wilde had lived into his nineties, instead of dying in his forties, he would have been considered a benign, distinguished figure suitable to preside at a school prize-giving or to instruct and exhort scout masters at their jamborees. He might even have been knighted.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  School, Mean, Simple

  Malcolm Muggeridge, Ian Hunter (2003). “The Very Best of Malcolm Muggeridge”, p.40, Regent College Publishing

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• The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel is too easy, and His Christ is too common.

  David F. Wells

  Grace, Church, Today

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• While the gentleman cherishes benign rule, the small man cherishes his native land. While the gentleman cherishes a respect for the law, the small man cherishes generous treatment.

  Confucius

  Men, Law, Land

  Confucius (1979). “Lunyu”

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• Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

  Michael Pollan

  Powerful, Garden, Carbon Footprint

  "Why Bother?". www.nytimes.com. April 22, 2008.

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• When I seek him, root my values and desires in him, when I found my relationships and sense of self on him, my capacity for joy increases. The more I "have" Jesus, the deeper my enjoyment of him. He increases my desire for those things that are good, adds value to that which is benign, and diminishes the strength of the negative (the evil) that threatens to throttle me. My dependence on material values and experiences as the means by which I define or please myself decreases.

  Gregory S. Paul

  Jesus, Mean, Self

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• There is an ultimate wildness in all this, for the universe, as existence itself, is a terrifying as well as a benign mode of being. If it grants us amazing powers over much of its functioning we must always remember that any arrogance on our part will ultimately be called to account. The beginning of wisdom in any human activity is a certain reverence before the primordial mystery of existence, for the world about us is a fearsome mode of being. We do not judge the universe.

  Thomas Berry

  Judging, Arrogance, World

  Thomas Berry (2011). “The Great Work: Our Way into the Future”, p.50, Crown

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• Benign neglect, bordering on sloth, remains the hallmark of our investment process.

  Warren Buffett

  Sloth, Investment, Hallmark

  "In Soccer and Investing, Bias Is Toward Action" by Carl Richards, bucks.blogs.nytimes.com. May 13, 2013.

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• There is no explanation in the Big Bang theory for the seemingly fortuitous fact that the density of matter has just the right value for the evolution of a benign, life supporting universe.

  Robert Jastrow

  Bangs, Density, Matter

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• Naturalism is the view that the physical world is a self-contained system that works by blind, unbroken natural laws. Naturalism doesn't come right out and say there's nothing beyond nature. Rather, it says that nothing beyond nature could have any conceivable relevance to what happens in nature. Naturalism's answer to theism is not atheism but benign neglect. People are welcome to believe in God, though not a God who makes a difference in the natural order.

  William A. Dembski

  Atheist, Believe, Self

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• I chose to believe that God, a benign God, would understand our sufferings and forgive us our trespasses.

  Jojo Moyes

  Believe, Forgiving, Suffering

  Jojo Moyes (2012). “Me Before You: A Novel”, p.117, Penguin

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• Just heard the best word in the English language: benign. (And I don't need to see that doctor again for five years.)

  Jeff Jarvis

  Doctors, Years, Needs

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• Factory-farm lobbyists are so powerful and so well funded and they do everything in their power to hide the truth about farming. They keep the farms and slaughterhouses in places that most people never visit; they execute huge marketing campaigns in an effort to make animal production look like a happy, nice, benign institution.

  Moby

  Powerful, Nice, Animal

  VegNews Interview, www.vegnews.com. December 1, 2008.

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• You were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid - things you liked - on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Don’t do music. You’re not going to be a musician. Don’t do art. You're not going to be an artist - benign advice, now profoundly mistaken.

  Ken Robinson

  Art, Jobs, Motivation

  "How Do Schools Kill Creativity?". "TED Radio Hour" with Guy Raz, www.npr.org. October 3, 2014.

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• Market bashers ... might understand the claim that in some particular field, markets required no intervention--though they'd be skeptical--but the notion that, on general principle, complex systems ran themselves just fine without benign intervention seemed like it could only be the product of a quasi-religious faith. ... Of course, this gets things almost precisely backwards. It is the idea that all order must be explained by a functioning mind at the helm, not its denial, that has the closet affinity to the religious instinct.

  Julian Sanchez

  Religious, Order, Ideas

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• Justice is getting what you deserve.
  Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
  And grace is getting what you absolutely don't deserve.
  ...... benign good will. unprovoked compassion. the unearnable gift

  Cathleen Falsani

  Compassion, Justice, Grace

  Cathleen Falsani (2008). “Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace”, p.14, Harper Collins

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• The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason.

  Samuel Pisar

  Men, Holocaust, Moral

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• You can make fun with Saddam Hussein jokes ... but you can't make fun of, say, the concentration camps. I think my target was not so much evil, but benign stupidity people doing stupid things without realising or, instead, thinking they were doing good.

  Tom Lehrer

  Fun, Stupid, Thinking

  "Stop clapping, this is serious". Sydney Morning Herald Interview, www.smh.com.au. March 1, 2003.

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• I shall take my present leave - but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication [prayer] that since he has been pleased to favour the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparellelled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

  George Washington

  Wise, Prayer, Humble

  "How Will Trump's Inauguration Speech Stack Up Against History?" by Scott Martelle, www.latimes.com. January 20, 2017.

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• I would say, as far as heckling, there's benign and there's malignant; like tumors man. Sometimes you get really nice hecklers. I'd say percentage-wise it's only about 10 to 20 percent the whole year.

  Godfrey

  Wise, Nice, Men

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• Yes, we have been visited and it appears that our visitors are prepared to help us if we allow them. It is a benign contact, however there are those who think that we also have been visited by those who do not wish us well, but I can't speak to that. I just know we have been visited, and I believe that we're being observed, and perhaps we can be helped in a crucial time if we're ready for that.

  Edgar Mitchell

  Believe, Thinking, Wish

  Source: www.edgemagazine.net

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• Some Harvard guy said that acid would open our minds, pot wouldn't hurt us, and cocaine was benign.

  Chevy Chase

  Hurt, Guy, Mind

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• Sure, integrating schools may sound benign. But whats the use of living in a gated community if my kids go to school and get poor all over them?

  Stephen Colbert

  School, Kids, Community

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• Inflation is not a benign element in the economy's operation. It is, as it has always been, the most dangerous and destructive form of taxation.

  Robert Higgs

  Elements, Taxation, Economy

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• Benign environmentalists are opposed to pollution, as all sensible people are; malign environmentalists are opposed to energy and most of what it enables.

  Kevin D. Williamson

  People, Energy, Pollution

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