Critical Quotes - Page 24

• In a critical sense, doing nothing can mean doing something. Inaction can be action and embracing this paradox can save your life.

  Ben Sherwood

  Mean, Doing Nothing, Action

  Ben Sherwood (2009). “The Survivors Club: The secrets and science that could save your life”, p.14, Penguin UK

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• They reached the carriage house. When she turned the knob, he got all critical again. “Why isn’t this door locked?” “It’s Parrish. There’s not much point.” “We have crime here, just as any other place does. Keep this door locked from now on.” “Like that’s going to stop you. All you’d have to do is give it one good kick, and – “ “Not from me, you ninny!” “I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but if they find my body, you’re the one with the biggest grudge.” “It’s impossible to hold a rational conversation with you.

  Susan Elizabeth Phillips

  Hate, Doors, Giving

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• Although I am an anarch, I am not anti-authoritarian. Quite the opposite: I need authority, although I do not believe in it. My critical faculties are sharpened by the absence of the credibility that I ask for. As a historian, I know what can be offered.

  Ernst Junger

  Believe, Opposites, Needs

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• I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.

  Albert Einstein

  Art, Kindness, Men

  "Mein Weltbild". Book by Albert Einstein, 1931.

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• Perhaps the perusal of such works may, without injustice, be compared with the use of opiates, baneful, when habitually and constantly resorted to, but of most blessed power in those moments of pain and of langour, when the whole head is sore, and the whole heart sick. If those who rail indiscriminately at this species of composition, were to consider the quantity of actual pleasure it produces, and the much greater proportion of real sorrow and distress which it alleviates, their philanthropy ought to moderate their critical pride, or religious intolerance.

  Walter Scott

  Religious, Pain, Real

  Sir Walter Scott (1829). “The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart: Biographical and critical notices of eminent novelists”, p.256

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• All efforts at self-transformation challenge us to engage in on-going, critical self-examination and reflection about feminist practice, and about how we live in the world. This individual commitment, when coupled with engagement in collective discussion, provides a space for critical feedback which strengthens our efforts to change and make ourselves anew.

  Bell Hooks

  Commitment, Reflection, Self

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• One of the major differences I see in the political climate today is that there is less collective support for coming to critical consciousness – in communities, in institutions, among friends.

  Bell Hooks

  Differences, Support, Community

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• He's like a drug for you, Bella." His voice was still gentle, not at all critical. "I see that you can't live without him now. It's too late. but I would have been healthier for you. Not a drug; I would have been the air, the sun." The corner of my mouth turned up in a wistful half-smile. "I used to think of you that way, you know. Like the sun. My personal sun. You balanced out the clouds nicely for me." He sighed. "The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Fighting, Thinking, Clouds

  Stephenie Meyer (2008). “Eclipse”, Little Brown & Company

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• The time is a critical one, for it marks the beginning of the second half of life, when a metanoia, a mental transformation, not infrequently occurs. (on being 36 yrs old)

  Carl Jung

  Half, Transformation, Mark

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• Whenever he composes a critical review, I have been told, he gets an enormous erection.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Reviews, Enormous, Has Beens

  "Taking the pith", www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2001.

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• The search for a "suitable" church makes the man a critic where God wants him to be a pupil. What he wants from the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise- does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going.

  C. S. Lewis

  Attitude, Humble, Men

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• Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority. But a good first step would be to build up a critical mass of those willing to 'come out,' thereby encouraging others to do so. Even if they can't be herded, cats in sufficient numbers can make a lot of noise and they cannot be ignored.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Cat, Thinking

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.27, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Part of abandoning the all-or-nothing mentality is allowing yourself room for setbacks. We are bound to have lapses on the road to health and wellness, but it is critical that we learn how to handle small failures positively so that we can minimize their long-term destructive effects. One setback is one setback—it is not the end of the world, nor is it the end of your journey toward a better you.

  Jillian Michaels

  Journey, Long, Self Improvement

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• When I began to write fiction that I knew would be published as science fiction, [and] part of what I brought to it was the critical knowledge that science fiction was always about the period in which it was written.

  William Gibson

  Writing, Would Be, Fiction

  "The cyberpunk arrives at the present" by Adam Dunn, www.cnn.com. February 4, 2003.

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• What do you look at while you’re making up your mind? Ours is not a reflective culture, we do no raise our eyes up to the hills. Most of the time we decide the critical things while looking at the linoleum floor of an institutional corridor, or whispering hurriedly in a waiting room with a television blatting nonsense.

  Thomas Harris

  Eye, Waiting Rooms, Mind

  Thomas Harris (1999). “Hannibal”

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• If there was one life skill everyone on the planet needed, it was the ability to think with critical objectivity

  Josh Lanyon

  Thinking, Objectivity, Skills

  Josh Lanyon (2011). “Come Unto These Yellow Sands”, p.21, Samhain Publishing

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• Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to institute new kinds of hierarchies based on sets of values unrecognised by, and critical of, those of the majority.. They have provided us with persuasive and consoling reminders that there is more than one way of succeeding in life.

  Alain de Botton

  Art, Philosophy, Majority

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• I'm going to tell you the most important secret of human life. The most critical need of the human soul is to be kind.

  David O. McKay

  Soul, Secret, Important

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• The difference between magic and meditation methods is the difference between drugs and diet—medicines will do swiftly what diet can only effect slowly, and in critical cases there is no time to wait for the slow processes of dietetics, so it must be either medicines or nothing. Nevertheless, drugs are no substitute for right diet and wholesome regime, and although magic enables a speedy and potent result to be attained, is is only by means of right understanding and right ethics that the position which has been won can be held.

  Dion Fortune

  Mean, Medicine, Differences

  Dion Fortune (2016). “The training and work of an initiate”, p.45, Dion Fortune

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• If, however, you take a moment to observe how you actually feel immediately after you criticise someone, you'll notice that you will feel a little deflated and ashamed, almost like you're the one who has been attacked. The reason this is true is that when we criticise, it's a statement to the world and to ourselves, "I have a need to be critical." This isn't something we are usually proud to admit.

  Richard Carlson

  Needs, World, Proud

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• The conventional explanation for Jewish success, of course, is that Jews come from a literate, intellectual culture. They are famously "the people of the book." There is surely something to that. But it wasn't just the children of rabbis who went to law school. It was the children of garment workers. And their critical advantage in climbing the professional ladder wasn't the intellectual rigor you get from studying the Talmud. It was the practical intelligence and savvy you get from watching your father sell aprons on Hester Street.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Children, Father, Book

  Malcolm Gladwell (2008). “Outliers: The Story of Success”, p.230, Penguin UK

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• Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.

  Brené Brown

  Differences, Addiction, Anxiety

  "The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are". Book by Brené Brown, August 27, 2010.

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• The problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Doe, Problem

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.20, W. W. Norton & Company

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• To have faith in the Word, Scripture must not grasp us in our critical thought, but in the life of the soul.

  Abraham Kuyper

  Soul, Have Faith, Scripture

  Abraham Kuyper (2007). “The Work of the Holy Spirit”, p.78, Cosimo, Inc.

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• You can’t look too far ahead. Do that and you’ll lose sight of what you’re doing and stumble. I’m not saying you should focus solely on the details right in front of you, mind you. You’ve got to look ahead a bit or else you’ll bump into something. You’ve got to conform to the proper order and at the same time keep an eye out for what’s ahead. That’s critical, no matter what you’re doing.

  Haruki Murakami

  Eye, Sight, Order

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