Catastrophe Quotes

• Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

  H. G. Wells

  Education, Appreciation, Witty

  Outline of History (1920) vol. 2, ch. 41, pt. 4

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• This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open.

  Saint Augustine

  Risk, Doe, Awful

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• The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.

  Ernest Dimnet

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

  "What We Live by". Book by Ernest Dimnet, p. 238, 1932.

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• What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind's habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.

  Isaac Asimov

  Habit, Muttering, Obvious

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• Catastrophe and creation are twins.

  Barbara Marx Hubbard

  Creativity, Chaos, Twins

  Barbara Marx Hubbard (2010). “Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential”, p.150, New World Library

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• Why, if it was an illusion, not praise the catastrophe, whatever it was, that destroyed illusion and put truth in it's place?

  Virginia Woolf

  Illusion, Praise, Ifs

  Virginia Woolf (2007). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.572, Wordsworth Editions

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• What I know for sure is that behind every catastrophe, there are great lessons to be learned. Among the many that we as a country need to get is that as long as we play the "us and them" game, we don't evolve as people, as a nation, as a planet.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Success, Country, Business

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• How small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem, at a distance of a few million miles.

  H. G. Wells

  Distance, May, Apocalypse

  H. G. Wells (2015). “The Door in the Wall: H. G. Wells Collections”, p.24, 谷月社

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• Only a catastrophe gets our attention. We want them, we depend on them. As long as they happen somewhere else.

  Don DeLillo

  Somewhere Else, Long, Want

  Don DeLillo (2011). “White Noise”, p.77, Pan Macmillan

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• One may as well be optimistic. The road to catastrophe will be rougher if it's paved with dread.

  John Perry Barlow

  Optimistic, May, Dread

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• Living things have been doing just that for a long, long time. Through every kind of disaster and setback and catastrophe. We are survivors.

  Robert Fulghum

  Long, Survivor, Kind

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• The concept of progress must be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things are 'status quo' is the catastrophe

  Walter Benjamin

  Ideas, Progress, Status Quo

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings (2003). “Selected Writings: 1938-1940”, p.184, Harvard University Press

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• We need not stride resolutely towards catastrophe, merely because those are the marching orders.

  Noam Chomsky

  Order, Needs, Stride

  Noam Chomsky (2001). “9-11 [neuf-onze]”, p.70, Seven Stories Press

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• Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience.

  Bruce Lee

  Mma, Differences, Inconvenience

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living”, p.221, Tuttle Publishing

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• Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Risk

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe, and the threat is outrunning our response.

  Sam Nunn

  Race, Cooperation, Threat

  "Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction". Panel Discussion, www.belfercenter.org. June 27, 2005.

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• Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

  Edward Teller

  Visible

  Edward Teller (1980). “The Pursuit of Simplicity”, Pepperdine Press

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• It's not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it's the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

  Virginia Woolf

  Birthday, Running, People

  1922 Jacob's Room, ch.6.

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• Congress should be forward thinking in the policies we set, instead of waiting until catastrophe looms.

  Bill Frist

  Thinking, Waiting, Should

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• Have you noticed that life, with murders and catastrophes and fabulous inheritances, happens almost exclusively in newspapers?

  Jean Anouilh

  Inheritance, Fabulous, Murder

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• A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.

  Le Corbusier

  Beautiful, New York, Design

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• The concern around probable questions, which in a sense have been hidden, will grow around the world and the matter is critical, the reason we are doing all this is so we can respond correctly to what is reported to be a major catastrophe on the African continent.

  Thabo Mbeki

  World, Matter, Reason

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• It's sort of well-known that anytime any catastrophe happens anywhere in the world, they can count on the United States for help.

  Morgan Freeman

  United States, World, Helping

  "Benefits for Hurricane Victims". www.cnn.com. September 01, 2005.

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• Human beings will line up for miles to buy a bucket of catastrophes, but don't try selling sunshine and light - you'll go broke.

  Chuck Jones

  Sunshine, Light, Trying

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• To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe.

  Bruce Chatwin

  Notebook, Worry, Passports

  "The Songlines". Book by Bruce Chatwin, 1987.

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