Circumstances Quotes - Page 28

• From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey, a fox-hunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's rights?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Horse, Player

  Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.389

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• It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful.

  Samuel Johnson

  Youth, Easy, Delightful

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.239

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• Great artists are products of their own time: they do not spring forth fully equipped from the head of Jove, but are formed by the circumstances acting upon them since birth. These circumstances include the ambiance created by the other, lesser artists of their own time, who have all done their part in creating the pressure that forces up an exceptional talent. Unjustly, but unavoidably, the very closeness of a great artist to his colleagues and contemporaries leads to their eclipse.

  Germaine Greer

  Spring, Artist, Creating

  Germaine Greer (2001). “The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work”, p.134, Tauris Parke Paperbacks

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• Most people die in improvised circumstances of harassment and confusion, whether in hospital or out of it.

  Germaine Greer

  People, Confusion, Harassment

  "The Madwoman's Underclothes". Book by Germaine Greer, 1986.

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• We can put women on Prozac and they will think they are happy, even though they are not. Disturbed animals in the zoo are given Prozac too, which rather suggests that misery is a response to unbearable circumstances rather than constitutional.

  Germaine Greer

  Zoos, Thinking, Animal

  "The Whole Woman". Book by Germaine Greer, 1999.

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• Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them. Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement, should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Land, Should, Settlement

  "Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace to War". Book by Shabtai Teveth, p. 32, 1985.

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• The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is something.

  Simone Weil

  Powerful, Believe, Men

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.122, Psychology Press

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• If I have accomplished anything, I owe it, among other fortunate circumstances, to the fact that through the early training bestowed on me by my father, I started, I may fairly say, with an advantage of a quarter of a century over my contemporaries.

  John Stuart Mill

  Father, Training, May

  John Stuart Mill (2013). “Autobiography”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

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• I can fully appreciate the fury and anger that a person can feel when put through a humiliating experience by a cop, but I would recommend strongly that a person maintain his cool, and in no circumstances lose his temper. If you lose your temper, you are playing right into the cop's hands.

  William Powell

  Hands, Appreciate, Cop

  "The Anarchist Cookbook". Book by William Powell, "Postscript", p. 154, 1971.

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• I think that Ronald Reagan had it right, being against abortion except in certain limited, defined circumstances.

  John Bolton

  Thinking, Abortion, Certain

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• I've always been open to doing reality again. Just under certain circumstances.

  Lauren Conrad

  Reality, Certain

  "Lauren Conrad Returns To MTV With A Series About Her New Clothing Line" by Tracey Lomrantz Leter, www.glamour.com. September 27, 2010.

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• All gambling is the telling of a fortune, but of a monstrously depleted fortune, empty of everything save one numerical circumstance, shorn of all such richness as a voyage across the water, a fair man that loves you, a dark woman that means you harm.

  Rebecca West

  Love You, Mean, Dark

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Thinking Reed”, p.193, Open Road Media

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• No, there is now no circumstance known in which it can be affirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves. Those who affirm it have been duped by illusions, by ill-conducted experiments, spoilt by errors that they either did not perceive or did not know how to avoid.

  Louis Pasteur

  Errors, Parent, World

  Address at the "Sorbonne Scientific Soirée" on April 7, 1864. "The Life of Pasteur". Book by René Vallery-Radot, translated by R .L. Devonshire, p. 142, archive.org. 1902.

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• There are in life conjunctions of circumstances when the reproach that we are not Voltaires is least of all appropriate.

  Anton Chekhov

  Confluence, Reproach

  "Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

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• Great wealth may be to its owner a blessing or a curse. Alas! I fear it is too often the latter. It hardens the heart, blunts the finer susceptibilities, and transforms into a fiend what under more favourable circumstances might have been a human being.

  Arnold Bennett

  Heart, Blessing, May

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• We feel public misfortunes just so far as they affect our private circumstances, and nothing of this nature appeals more directly to us than the loss of money.

  Livy

  Loss, Appeals, Feels

  "History of Rome". Book by Livy. Book XXX, section 44,

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• The vision of the Divine presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require.

  Alexander MacLaren

  God, Vision, Divine

  Alexander MacLaren “MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture”, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• Happy family: The existence and maintenance of [this] is thought to make a politician fit for public office. According to this theory, the public are less concerned by whether or not they are effectively represented than by the need to be assured that the penises and vaginas of public officials are only used in legally sanctioned circumstances.

  John Ralston Saul

  Office, Needs, Maintenance

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense”, p.156, Simon and Schuster

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• Eden ha[s] put his country in a position where she sustained the greatest diplomatic reverse since Bismarck in similar circumstances had called Palmerston's bluff in the matter of Schleswig-Holstein...Further damage was done when Russia proved by her action in Spain, that she was not a good European as Mr. Eden had assured the world was the case.

  Anthony Eden

  Country, Russia, Eden

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• In every remodelling of the present, the existing condition of things must be supplanted by a new one. Now every variety of circumstances in which men find themselves, every object which surrounds them, communicates a definite form and impress to their internal nature. This form is not such that it can change and adapt itself to any other a man may choose to receive; and the end is foiled, while the power is destroyed, when we attempt to impose upon that which is already stamped in the soul a form which disagrees with it.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Men, Soul, May

  "The Limits of State Action". Book by David Sidorsky. Chapter 16, 1792.

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• When Arthur Ashe plays tennis, his purpose each day is to play the game in a way he has never played it before. It may be a backhand he uses, one that he may never have used before in that circumstance. His play is a fresh integration of his world at the instant of action. A really great scientist has the whole past at his disposal. At any instant he is rebuilding the world, molecule by molecule, in his subconscious. That is what you want in an athlete or a scientist.

  Edwin Land

  Athlete, Past, Games

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• There's no scientist I know who wouldn't rather be a charlatan. And when circumstances allow you to be both, why it's great fun!

  Edwin Land

  Fun, Scientist, Charlatans

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• I have been allowed to inhabit different shades of human nature and different colours of truth indifferent circumstances.

  Tom Hiddleston

  Different, Shade, Human Nature

  "Marvel Avengers Assemble - Tom Hiddleston interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• When you experience your origin as a reality, you are happy. Be constant under all circumstances and relate to one thing - you are a part of Infinity and always lean on that power - then you'll never be unhappy.

  Harbhajan Singh Yogi

  Happiness, Reality, Unhappy

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• The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem-solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.

  Elliot W. Eisner

  Art, Children, Opportunity

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