Deference Quotes - Page 3

• So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.

  Virginia Woolf

  Writing, Sacrifice, Hair

  Virginia Woolf, Hermione Lee (2000). “A room of one's own and other essays”

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• In deference to such spectacular carnage it is perhaps perverse to dwell upon one person's death, but we are creatures so constituted that the passing of one friend or one acquaintance has a profounder effect that that of 100,000 strangers. If there is any metaphorical truth in the Jewish proverb that he who saves one life saves the whole world, then there is equal metaphorical truth in the proposition that when one person dies, the whole world dies with them.

  Louis de Bernieres

  World, Stranger, Passing

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• The bonds between ourselves and another person exists only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.

  Marcel Proust

  Memories, Lying, Men

  Marcel Proust (2010). “In Search Of Lost Time, Vol 5: The Captive & The Fugitive”, p.515, Random House

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• Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend, will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof shuts out the sky.

  Charles Dickens

  Dog, Attitude, Philosophy

  Charles Dickens (1867). “Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].”

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• The Superior Man has nothing to compete for. But if he must compete, he does it in an archery match, wherein he ascends to his position, bowing in deference. Descending, he drinks the ritual cup.

  Confucius

  Character, Men, Archery

  "The Analects". Book by Confucius,

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• Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference

  Ambrose Bierce

  Military, Silence, Form

  Ambrose Bierce (2015). “Tales of Soldiers and Civilians”, p.11, Ambrose Bierce

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• Her companion's discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch, to nothing more than a short, decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met; and Catherine, after listening and agreeing as long as she could,with all the civility and deference of the youthful female mind, fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own sex is concerned, ventured at length to vary the subject.

  Jane Austen

  Sex, Men, Self

  Jane Austen, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Jane Austen: All novels, short stories, letters and poems”, p.974, GENERAL PRESS

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• The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.Men have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves.

  Mencius

  Men, Feelings, Humanity

  "The Mencius". 2A:6, as translated by Wing-tsit Chan in "A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy", p. 65, 1963.

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• One was kind, out of a bounty that could hardly be exhausted, to old governesses and gardeners, who could be relied upon to give thanks with proper abjection; one performed public duties, for which one was paid in full by deference; one was chaste, refusing to run away from one's husband with other men who for the most part did not ask one to do so, and who in any case had nothing better to offer than one's own home. Knowing no difficulties one was without fortitude; knowing no criteria but one's own achievements one was without taste.

  Rebecca West

  Running, Husband, Home

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Thinking Reed”, p.149, Open Road Media

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• It was before Vatican II and the liberalization of church doctrine. You weren't meant to eat meat on Friday in deference to Christ, who died on Friday. If you did, you went to hell, . . That way, Hitler would be in hell alongside someone who ate meat on Friday. I thought there was no justice there.

  Christopher Durang

  Friday, Justice, Church

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• Countries are effectively paid deference in direct and indirect ways if they're huge oil suppliers.

  R. James Woolsey, Jr.

  Country, Oil, Way

  "Gary Hart, James Woolsey: Oil Tied to Security". Interview with Daniel Stone, www.newsweek.com. August 05, 2010.

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• In deference to American traditions, my family put our oven to rare use at Thanksgiving during my childhood, with odd roast-turkey experiments involving sticky-rice stuffing or newfangled basting techniques that we read about in magazines.

  Jennifer Lee

  Turkeys, Childhood, Technique

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• It's funny, because in deference to conventional wisdom, I spent my struggling writer years trying to suppress my naturally baroque literary voice and write clean, spare prose. I finally gave up and embraced my baroque tendencies when I wrote the Kushiel series.

  Jacqueline Carey

  Wisdom, Struggle, Writing

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• Objectively, class differences in accent, dress, manners, and general style of life are very much smaller; and one cannot, strolling about the street or travelling on a train, instantly identify a person's social background as one can in England. Subjectively, social relations are more natural and egalitarian, and less marked by deference, submissiveness, or snobbery, as one quickly discovers from the cab-driver, the barman, the air-hostess and the drug-store assistant.

  Anthony Crosland

  Air, Class, Differences

  "The Future of Socialism". Book by Anthony Crosland, 1956.

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• We show deference to the civil authorities when they respect the divine origin of their power and when they serve the people with objective reference to the law of God.

  Angelo Scola

  Respect, Objectivity, Law

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• Kantians are saddled with absolutist views, Aristotelians are accused of vagueness, and there is almost no horror to which Consequentialists are innocent of, according to some critics. While all these families of views have been victimized in these ways, Consequentialists have gotten the worst of it. I think this may have something to do with the fact that Kant and Aristotle are acknowledged to be great philosophers, and we tend to read the greats sympathetically, while Consequentialism is a family of views not rooted in the work of a single great man to whom this kind of deference is owed.

  Dale Jamieson

  Men, Thinking, Views

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• [ Donald Trump] deference to the president [Barack Obama] whose legitimacy he questioned.

  George Stephanopoulos

  President, Legitimacy, Trump

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• I'm not the first to have raised these democratic concerns. Many have faulted the court for its lack of clarity in certain cases and many have criticized its recent lack of deference to decisions made by state legislatures and Congress.

  Mike DeWine

  Decision, Firsts, Clarity

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• I was always creatively stubborn, adverse to editing by others, and wanted to use the kind of Ukrainian we spoke among ourselves rather than the more artificial prescribed literary Ukrainian. The problem was the greatest in prose, where editors would change my language because "it sounded better this way." My poetry they left alone probably out of deference to that hallowed genre.

  Yuriy Tarnawsky

  Editing, Editors, Use

  "No Tall Tales". Interview with David Moscovich, www.raintaxi.com. 2012.

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• Near the centre of that State of New York lies an extensive district of country, whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and valleys.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, New York, Lying

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• The condition of leadership adds new degrees of solitariness to the basic solitude of mankind. Every order that we issue increases the extent to which we are alone, and every show of deference which is extended to us separates us from our fellows.

  Thornton Wilder

  Leadership, Order, Issues

  Thornton Wilder (1987). “The ides of March”, HarperCollins

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• Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild pigs-anything-but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their motorized relatives out. We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places.

  Edward Abbey

  Horse, Art, Museums

  Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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• It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Men, Advice, Desire

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• Washington society has always demanded less and given more than any society in this country--demanded less of applause, deference,etiquette, and has accepted as current coin quick wit, appreciative tact, and a talent for talking.

  M. E. W. Sherwood

  Country, Talking, Quick Wit

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• ... it would be impossible for women to stand in higher estimation than they do here. The deference that is paid to them at all times and in all places has often occasioned me as much surprise as pleasure.

  Frances Wright

  Would Be, Impossible, Surprise

  Frances Wright (1821). “Views of society and manners in America: in a series of letters from that country to a friend in England, during the years 1818, 1819, and 1820”, p.312

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