Decades Quotes - Page 3

• Grant knew that people could not imagine geological time. Human life was lived on another scale of time entirely. An apple turned brown in a few minutes. Silverware turned black in a few days. A compost heap decayed in a season. A child grew up in a decade. None of these everyday human experiences prepared people to be able to imagine the meaning of eighty million years - the length of time that had passed since this little animal had died.

  Michael Crichton

  Children, Animal, Years

  Michael Crichton (1997). “Michael Crichton's Jurassic World”, Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

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• One can say that in the last decades chess has become more of a sport than of a science. I see it from an artistic point of view.

  Judit Polgar

  Sports, Views, Chess

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• Over the past decades...while many businesses have pursued what I call 'business as usual', I have been part of a different, smaller business movement, one that tried to put idealism back on the agenda.

  Anita Roddick

  Life, Change, Past

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• I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute and a half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.

  Steven Bradbury

  Sports, Thinking, Race

  "The Joy of Six: the Winter Olympics" by Russell Jackson, www.theguardian.com. February 6, 2014.

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• Under the rule of the "free market" ideology, we have gone through two decades of an energy crisis without an effective energy policy. Because of an easy and thoughtless reliance on imported oil, we have no adequate policy for the conservation of gasoline and other petroleum products. We have no adequate policy for the development or use of other, less harmful forms of energy. We have no adequate system of public transportation.

  Wendell Berry

  Two, Oil, Energy

  Wendell Berry (1993). “Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays”, Pantheon

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• For decades, our dependence on OPEC oil has dictated our national security decisions and tied us up in the Middle East at an incredible price. We've spent more than $5 trillion and thousands of American soldiers have died securing Middle East oil.

  T. Boone Pickens

  Oil, Decision, Soldier

  "Oil Prices Are Dropping. So What?" by T. Boone Pickens, www.politico.com. November 5, 2014.

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• A significant number of petroleum geologists believe that we will reach the global maximum of petroleum extraction within this decade or that we have already reached it. Peak Oil happened in 1970 in America, when over half of our oil that we gained from the soil was exhausted ... This is very disturbing, regardless of global warming.

  William J. Clinton

  Believe, America, Oil

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• The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades.

  James Hansen

  Energy, Climate, Would Be

  "Coal-fired power stations are death factories. Close them" by James Hansen, www.theguardian.com. February 14, 2009.

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• Carbon dioxide pollution is transforming the chemistry of the ocean, rapidly making the water more acidic. In decades, rising ocean acidity may challenge life on a scale that has not occurred for tens of millions of years. So we confront an urgent choice: to move beyond fossil fuels or to risk turning the ocean into a sea of weeds.

  Sigourney Weaver

  Weed, Moving, Ocean

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• And then you see right away it may well happen that you enter a decade or maybe even two, when the temperature cools relative to the present level...I'm definitely not one of the skeptics...However, we have to ask the nasty questions ourselves, or some other people will do it.

  Mojib Latif

  Two, People, Energy

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• By the end of this decade, a majority of our Navy and Air Force fleets will be based out of the Pacific, because the United States is and always will be a Pacific power.

  Barack Obama

  Memorable, Air, Navy

  Remarks by President Obama at the University of Queensland, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. November 15, 2014.

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• Whatever you think matters - doesn't. Follow this rule, and you will add decades to your life. Rodger Rosenblatt As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Death, Sleep, Thinking

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• I don't go by the ratings. I buy wine that tastes good. Statistically, anybody's ability to predict what will be a good wine a decade from now is limited.

  Richard Thaler

  Wine, Taste, Rating

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• Three decades into this crisis, let us set our sights on achieving the "three zeros" zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

  Ban Ki-moon

  Zero, Sight, Hiv

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• The underlying principles of sound investment should not alter from decade to decade, but the application of these principles must be adapted to significant changes in the financial mechanisms and climate.

  Benjamin Graham

  Intelligent, Significant Change, Sound

  Benjamin Graham (2009). “The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed”, p.4, Harper Collins

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• In my 20s I used to cry about why I wasn’t thinner or prettier, but I want to add that I also used to cry about things like: ‘I wish my hair would grow faster. I wish I had different shoes …

  Melissa McCarthy

  Hair, Wish, Tears

  "Melissa McCarthy's Emotional Interview: Finding Love, Coping with Critics and Becoming a Star – Her Way". Interview with Kate Coyne, people.com. June 25, 2014.

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• We should all be aware of the fact that when revolutionary - not evolutionary - changes come, things can get even worse. The intelligentsia should be aware of this. And it is the intelligentsia specifically that should keep this in mind and prevent society from radical steps and revolutions of all kinds. We've had enough of it. We've seen so many revolutions and wars. We need decades of calm and harmonious development.

  Vladimir Putin

  War, Gay, Mind

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• Earlier in this century, philanthropy often flowed from the wills of dead industrialists. In recent decades, it's as likely to have come from a very alive business leader, entertainer, artist or sports star. The most effective of these patrons begin the process of giving by asking what they care about passionately.

  Michael Milken

  Sports, Stars, Artist

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• While we cannot accurately predict the course of climate change in the coming decades, the risks we run if we don't change our course are enormous. Prudent risk management does not equate uncertainty with inaction.

  Steven Chu

  Running, Risk, Climate

  Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees, energy.gov. February 01, 2013.

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• We must understand the role of human rights as empowering of individuals and communities. By protecting these rights, we can help prevent the many conflicts based on poverty, discrimination and exclusion (social, economic and political) that continue to plague humanity and destroy decades of development efforts. The vicious circle of human rights violations that lead to conflicts-which in turn lead to more violations-must be broken. I believe we can break it only by ensuring respect for all human rights.

  Mary Robinson

  Believe, Rights, Circles

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• Earth has cooled since 1998 in defiance of the predictions by the UN-IPCC....The global temperature for 2007 was the coldest in a decade and the coldest of the millennium...which is why 'global warming' is now called 'climate change.'

  Richard Keen

  Climate, Earth, Temperature

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• The hard truth is carbon pollution has built up in our atmosphere for decades now. And even if we Americans do our part, the planet will slowly keep warming for some time to come.

  Barack Obama

  Atmosphere, Truth Is, Pollution

  Remarks by the President on Climate Change, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. June 25, 2013.

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• A low-carbon, clean energy economy can be an engine of growth for decades to come.

  Barack Obama

  Growth, Energy, Clean

  "US power sector to cut carbon emissions by 30% by 2030". "AM", www.abc.net.au. June 3, 2014.

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• For a theory to be scientific it must be capable of being refuted by the evidence. Given that we have had three decades of rising temperature followed by a decade of stable and slightly falling temperatures worldwide, how many decades would you require before you are convinced that the theory on which you are committing £400bn of taxpayers' money might be slightly wrong?

  Peter Lilley

  Fall, Rising, Might

  House of Commons debates, www.publications.parliament.uk. June 4, 2009.

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• Adaptation is the only means to reduce the now-unavoidable costs of climate change over the next few decades

  Nicholas Stern

  Mean, Climate, Cost

  Nicholas Stern, Great Britain. Treasury (2007). “The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review”, p.319, Cambridge University Press

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