Counterproductive Quotes - Page 2

• Myth, legend, and ritual ... function to maintain a status quo. That makes them singularly bad in coping with change, indeed counterproductive, for change is the enemy of myth.

  Elizabeth Janeway

  Change, Enemy, Legends

  Elizabeth Janeway (1981). “Powers of the weak”, William Morrow & Co

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• I do not oppose violence simply because it is counterproductive. I oppose it because it betrays animal rights philosophy. Those who resort to such tactics really have not understood that animal rights is about the extension of moral concern to all sentient beings--humans obviously included.

  Andrew Linzey

  Philosophy, Animal, Rights

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• There always comes a point beyond which lying becomes counterproductive. This point is reached when the audience to which the lies are addressed is forced to disregard altogether the distinguishing line between truth and falsehood in order to be able to survive.

  Hannah Arendt

  Lying, Order, Lines

  Hannah Arendt (1972). “Crises of the Republic: Lying in Politics; Civil Disobedience; On Violence; Thoughts on Politics and Revolution”, p.17, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We should clearly understand that only the voluntary and conscientious acceptance by a people of its guilt can ensure the healing of a nation. Unremitting reproaches from outside are counterproductive.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Healing, Acceptance, People

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

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• In any walk of life, a positive, upbeat outlook trumps any adversarial act. Revenge is counterproductive. Unproductive emotions limit one's ability to move forward, to focus, to think positively, to act creatively.

  Jon Huntsman, Jr.

  Revenge, Kindness, Moving

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• What makes it possible for politicians to do so many things that are economically counterproductive is that neither the public nor the media know enough of the basics to understand what's wrong with what they're saying.

  Thomas Sowell

  Media, Politician, Enough

  Source: www.minneapolisfed.org

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• I write from seven to about noon. I used to try to write longer, but I read and I found that I was always getting myself tired by working in the afternoon and then I was just throwing out what I wrote in the afternoon, so writing then was counterproductive.

  Robert Caro

  Writing, Tired, Trying

  "The Round Table: Fiction, Biography And The Use Of Power". Interview with Kurt Vonnegut, www.robertcaro.com. 1999.

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• guilt politics ... I regard as conveniently paralyzing, ripe for backlash defensiveness, counterproductive, and boring.

  Robin Morgan

  Guilt, Politics, Boring

  Robin Morgan (2014). “Saturday's Child: A Memoir”, p.334, Open Road Media

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• The mug is a tool. My ace in the hole. To have looks is the bonus on top of what motivates me to be an actor. Not to realize they're an asset would be counterproductive to the cause; they serve the common good.

  Billy Zane

  Acting, Would Be, Tools

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• Together they [President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger] pursued ends that frequently had a tenuous link with reality, using means that were not merely disproportionate but counterproductive and untrue to those values they were meant to defend. In fact neither man demonstrated much faith in those values.

  William Shawcross

  Mean, Reality, Men

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• Vision without implementation is counterproductive.

  Douglas B. Reeves

  Vision, Implementation

  Douglas B. Reeves (2012). “Transforming Professional Development into Student Results”, p.57, ASCD

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• Race is a constant factor in American life. Yet reacting to every incident,real or imagined, is crippling, tiring, and ultimately counterproductive.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Real, Race, Tire

  Condoleezza Rice (2010). “Extraordinary, Ordinary People”, p.157, Three Rivers Press

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• It is not just that it is profoundly offensive to the leaders and people of a democratic Germany to paint Hitler on the wall (or on the remnants of the Wall). It is also consummately counterproductive. Such sauce does not make the meat of substantive criticism more interesting. It means that the whole dish is pushed away. It does not mean that Britain's voice is listened to more attentively in the councils of Europe. It means that it is listened to even less.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Wall, Mean, Europe

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• I thought of telling him that if it wasn't for Oklahoman cowboys and Mexican whores having a bit of fun, there would've been no Texans, but that would be counterproductive.

  Ilona Andrews

  Fun, Cowboy, Mexican

  Ilona Andrews (2012). “Magic Bites: A Special Edition of the First Kate Daniels Novel”, p.18, Penguin

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• Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive . . . [It] reeks with injustice, and is fundamentally un-American

  Ronald Reagan

  Unjust, Impossible, Injustice

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• Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed.

  Barack Obama

  Inspiring, Real, Practice

  A More Perfect Union, delivered 18 March 2008, Philadelphia, PA

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• It's a terrible and tragic and counterproductive policy to avoid communicating with people who disagree with us.

  Jimmy Carter

  Communication, People, Tragic

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• I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places, and should be. We really need a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment...Our imprisonment policies are counterproductive.

  William J. Clinton

  Marijuana, Thinking, Needs

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• We have begun a throw away culture. This tendency is seen on the level of individuals and whole societies; and it is being promoted! In circumstances like these, solidarity, which is the treasure of the poor, is often considered counterproductive, opposed to the logic of finance and the economy. While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling.

  Pope Francis

  Majority, Crumbling, Income

  Pope Francis (2016). “Care for Creation: A Call for Ecological Conversion”, p.35, Orbis Books

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• The decision to attack the entire nation [of Yugoslavia] has been counterproductive, and our destruction of civilian life has now become senseless and excessively brutal. ... The United States' insistence on the use of cluster bombs, designed to kill or maim humans, is condemned almost universally and brings discredit on our nation (as does our refusal to support a ban on land mines). Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means.

  Jimmy Carter

  Mean, Land, Yugoslavia

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• In training, don't be afraid to be an oddball, eccentric, or extremist. Only by daring to go against tradition can new ways of training be learned. The trick is recognizing quickly when a new approach is counterproductive.

  Benji Durden

  Training, Eccentric, Way

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• Of one thing I am sure. Complaining is self-perpetuating and counterproductive. Whenever I express my complaints in the hope of evoking pity and receiving the satisfaction I so much desire, the result is always the opposite of what I tried to get. A complainer is hard to live with, and very few people know how to respond to the complaints made by a self-rejecting person. The tragedy is that, often, the complaint, once expressed, leads to that which is most feared: further rejection.

  Henri Nouwen

  Self, Opposites, People

  Henri J.M. Nouwen (2016). “The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight”, p.80, Convergent Books

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• Hmm. Petty? Yes. Ineffectual? Yes. Infuriating and off-putting? Yes. Counterproductive? Yes. It's got to be a product of the French Foreign Ministry.

  Glenn Reynolds

  Ministry, Politics, Infuriating

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• I think it is inflationary. I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing jobs from people who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

  Paul Ryan

  Jobs, Thinking, People

  "Rep. Paul Ryan: “He underplayed the enormity of the task before us, which is to confront a debt crisis”, cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com. February 13, 2013.

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• In effect, Gore is unwittingly characterizing a large segment of the US population as the next 'Willie Horton.' This is unfortunate and counterproductive to any dialogue between those who 'believe' and those who don't.

  Ron Barrier

  Believe, Scary, Population

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