Decree Quotes - Page 8

• In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.

  John Locke

  Faith, Ideas, Judging

  John Locke (1836). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, p.530

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• What havoc, said I to myself, would these manners make in America! Our governors, our judges, our senators or representatives, and even our ministers, would be appointed by harlots, for money; and their judgments, decrees, and decisions, be sold to repay themselves, or, perhaps, to procure the smiles of profligate females.

  John Adams

  America, Judging, Decision

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: Autobiography (cont.) Diary. Notes of a debate in the Senate of the United States. Essays: On private revenge. On self-delusion. On private revenge. Dissertation on the canon and the feudal law. Instructions of the town of Braintree to their representative, 1765. The Earl of Clarendon to William Pym. Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford. Instructions of the town of Boston to their representatives, 1768. Instructions of the town of”, p.171

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• Authority is the spiritual dimension of power because it depends upon faith in a system of meaning that decrees the necessity of the hierarchical order and so provides for the unity of imperative control.

  Shoshana Zuboff

  Faith, Spiritual, Power

  Shoshana Zuboff (1988). “In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power”, New York : Basic Books

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• At the very heart and center of existence, pervading the whole manifestation of the divine Idea, there exists one predominant Law. This Law – insofar as it may be comprehended by humanity – decrees that the tendency to preserve harmonious equilibrium, shall always be stronger than the tendencies toward discordance.

  Geoffrey Hodson

  Heart, Ideas, Law

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• Kings don't beg, they decree. They have only one destiny and that's to reign. God has made you king. Reign and rule, refuse to beg!

  Chris Oyakhilome

  Kings, Destiny, Reign

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• Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Men, Law, Mind

  "Tractatus Politicus (TP)". Political paper by Baruch Spinoza, 1677.

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• God, a born extremist, is the diplomat's worst enemy. Quite apart from the fact that His decrees are irrevocable, the Absolute will not allow anyone to relativize matters.

  Regis Debray

  Worst Enemy, Matter, Diplomats

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• God made sun and moon to distinguish the seasons, and day and night; and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons. But God hath made no decrees to distinguish the seasons of His mercies. In Paradise the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in heaven it is always autumn. His mercies are ever in their maturity.

  John Donne

  God, Autumn, Maturity

  John Donne (1963). “John Donne's Sermons on the Psalms and Gospels: With a Selection of Prayers and Meditations”, p.182, Univ of California Press

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• Every man hath greater assurance that God is good and just than he can have of any subtle speculations about predestination and the decrees of God.

  John Tillotson

  Men, Subtle, Speculation

  John Tillotson (1717). “The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson containing two hundred sermons and discourses, on several occasions ...”, p.580

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• For we by conquest, of our soveraine might,And by eternall doome of Fate's decree,Have wonne the Empire of the Heavens bright.

  Edmund Spenser

  Fate, Heaven, Might

  Edmund Spenser (1758). “THE FAERIE QUEENE.”, p.429

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• U.S. Supreme Court on May 15, 1911, couched its decision in these clear terms: 'Seven men and a corporate machine have conspired against their fellow citizens. For the safety of the Republic we now decree that this dangerous conspiracy must be ended by November 15th.

  Jim Marrs

  Men, Safety, Decision

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• There is no etiquette rule that decrees one must give out personal information to anyone who asks.

  Judith Martin

  Women, Giving, Information

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• The NRA believes America's laws were made to be obeyed and that our Constitutional liberties are just as important today as 200 years ago. And by the way, the Constitution does not say Government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says 'The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'

  Ronald Reagan

  Believe, America, Government

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan)., Ronald Reagan, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• It is always the moralists who do the most harm. Abortion is the logical outcome of civilization, only the jungle gives birth and moulders away as nature decrees. Man plans.

  Max Frisch

  Men, Civilization, Giving

  Max Frisch (1994). “Homo Faber”, p.117, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The determinations of Providence are always wise, often inscrutable; and, though its decrees appear to bear hard upon us at times, is nevertheless meant for gracious purposes.

  George Washington

  Wise, Determination, Bears

  George Washington (1834). “Correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to the American revolution. June, 1775, to July, 1776 (v. 3); July, 1776, to July, 1777 (v. 4); July, 1777, to July, 1778 (v. 5); July, 1778, to March, 1780 (v. 6); March, 1780, to April, 1781 (v. 7); April, 1781, to December, 1783 (v. 8)”, p.247

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• For it is in our nature to endure patiently the decrees of fate, but not the ill-will of others.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Fate, Ill Will, Endurance

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2013). “Emile or Concerning Education”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

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• [E]conomic liberty and creative entrepreneurship are the basis of any solution to today's social and economic difficulties. Blaming business, setting wages, and attempting to run the economy by decree from Washington only exacerbates the problems. Consider the minimum wage. It seems so simple: Tell business to pay its workers more. But a hike in the minimum wage is essentially a tax, punishing precisely those companies that hire workers with the least skills.

  Doug Bandow

  Running, Simple, Government

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• I firmly believe that in this fiery ordeal, in this suffering, misery, and woe, the South is but undergoing a purification by fire and steel that will, in good time, and by God's decree, work out her own independence.

  Belle Boyd

  War, Believe, Fire

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• O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree!

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Luxury, Heaven

  Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.588

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• The Sphinx-riddle. Solve it, or be torn to bits, is the decree.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Marriage, Sphinx, Torn

  D. H. Lawrence, Michael Herbert (1988). “Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays”, p.216, Cambridge University Press

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• Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Night, Light

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• It is our duty to look to God's commands, and not to His decrees; to our own duty, and not to His purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many possibly have curiously pried to their own horror and despair; but few or none have ever pried into them to their own profit and satisfaction.

  Thomas Boston

  Ocean, Despair, Looks

  Thomas Boston (1812). “An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, with Respect to Faith and Practice, Upon the Plan of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, Comprehending a Complete Body of Divinity”, p.177

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• The poverty of the incapable, the distresses that come upon the imprudent, the starvation of the idle, and those shoulderings aside of the weak by the strong, which leave so many "in shallows and in miseries," are the decrees of a large, far-seeing benevolence.

  Herbert Spencer

  Strong, Poverty, Misery

  Herbert Spencer (2016). “The Man versus the State: Great Essays”, p.73, VM eBooks

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• When angels visit earth, the messengers Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind: Before the throne, they all are living fire.

  Emma Lazarus

  Angel, Fire, Wind

  Emma Lazarus (2002). “Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings”, p.236, Broadview Press

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• Holy Scripture could never lie or err...its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.

  Galileo Galilei

  Bible, Lying, Scripture

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