Defiance Quotes - Page 8

• The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Сrown. It may be frail - its roof may shake - the wind may blow through it - the storm may enter - the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter.

  William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

  Kings, Rain, Blow

  William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham's speech on the Excise Bill in the House of Commons (March 1763), as quoted in Lord Brougham "Historical Sketches of Statesmen Who Flourished in the Time of George III, Volume I" (p. 42), 1839.

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• News people were holding me up as a symbol of defiance to the boycott and I couldn't even run.

  Gerry Lindgren

  Running, People, News

  Interview with Mick Grant, John Molvar, www.youthrunner.com. January 12, 2011.

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• There is yet another kind of matrimonial dialect (which naturally succeeds this of talking at each other), which may very properlybe styled The Language Contradictory.... In the former, however plain the object of satire may be exhibited to the whole company, yet there always remains some little covering.... But in this last method, the defiance becomes more open and the impetuosity with which these contradictions are uttered (although the subjects of them are often of the most indifferent nature) evidently prove that they arise from passion.

  Sarah Fielding

  Marriage, Passion, Talking

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• That is why I think, in defiance of Plato, that there is at once error and vulgarity in saying that poetry is a lie, except in the sense that Cocteau wrote one day: I am a lie who always tells the truth. The only poetry which lies purely and simply is academic, pseudo-classical, conceptually repetitive poetry, and it is not poetry.

  Jacques Maritain

  Plato, Lying, Thinking

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• Touch is... one of the most ancient transactions, a defiance of the plasma membrane and the loneliness it brought.

  Natalie

  Loneliness, Ancient, Membranes

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• Mutual defiance made them alike.

  Harper Lee

  Made, Finches, Jem

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• All violation of established practice implies in its own nature a rejection of the common opinion, a defiance of common censure, and an appeal from general laws to private judgment: he, therefore, who differs form others without apparent advantage, ought not to be angry if his arrogance is punished with ridicule; if those whose example he superciliously overlooks, point him out to derision, and hoot him back again into the common road.

  Samuel Johnson

  Law, Practice, Rejection

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson...”, p.178

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• A sound of cornered-animal fear and hate and surrender and defiance . . . like the last sound the treed and shot and falling animal makes as the dogs get him, when he finally doesn't care about anything but himself and his dying.

  Ken Kesey

  Dog, Fear, Hate

  Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.287, Penguin

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• Through centuries of struggle, Jews across the world have been witnesses not only against the crimes of men, but for faith in God and God alone. Theirs is a story of defiance and oppression, and patience in tribulation reaching back to the exodus and their exile. That story continued in the founding of the state of Israel. That story continues in the defense of the state of Israel.

  George W. Bush

  Struggle, Men, Israel

  "Bush Speaks At Holocaust Memorial Event". CNN Live Event/Special, www.cnn.com. April 19, 2001.

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• For there have risen many who have given to the plain words of Holy Writ some arbitrary interpretation of their own, instead of its true and only sense, and this in defiance of the clear meaning of words. Heresy lies in the sense assigned, not in the word written; the guilt is that of the expositor, not of the text.

  Hilary of Poitiers

  Lying, Guilt, Arbitrary

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• The ever increasing intensity of despair depends upon the degree of consciousness or is proportionate to this increase: the greater the degree of consciousness, the more intensive the despair. This is everywhere apparent, most clearly in despair at its maximum and minimum. The devil's despair is the most intensive despair, for the devil is sheer spirit and hence unqualified consciousness and transparency; there is no obscurity in the devil that could serve as a mitigating excuse. Therefore, his despair is the most absolute defiance. . . .

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Despair, Devil, Degrees

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• When earth is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance and of the best quality.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Yield, Environmental, Quality

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• You all have learned reliance
  On the sacred teachings of Science,
  So I hope, through life, you will never decline
  In spite of philistine Defiance
  To do what all good scientists do.
  Experiment.
  Make it your motto day and night.
  Experiment.
  And it will lead you to the light.

  Cole Porter

  Teaching, Learning, Science

  Cole Porter (1954). “103 lyrics”

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• I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.

  Siegfried Sassoon

  Military, War, Believe

  Siegfried Sassoon (1983). “Siegfried Sassoon's long journey: selections from the Sherston memoirs”, Oxford University Press, USA

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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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• No one ever wrote a story yet without some real emotional drive behind it--and I have not that drive except where violations of the natural order ... defiances and evasions of time, space, and cosmic law ... are concerned.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Real, Emotional, Order

  H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, James Turner (1976). “Selected Letters 1934-1937”, Arkham House Publishers

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• The modern moralists extol ... the cult of practical activity in defiance of the disinterested life.

  Julien Benda

  Modern, Cult, Practicals

  Julien Benda (2011). “The Treason of the Intellectuals”, p.146, Transaction Publishers

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• To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under your gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgment.

  Primo Levi

  Men, Looks, Violence

  Primo Levi (1996). “Survival In Auschwitz”, p.150, Simon and Schuster

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• I write out of defiance.

  Jamaica Kincaid

  Writing

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• Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity. Enthusiasm flourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown. The terrors of persecution only serve to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amidst hosts of enemies.

  Thomas Chalmers

  Integrity, Adversity, Enemy

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• To look for a continuation in harmony between a number of independent unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Independent, Numbers, Age

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.24

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• As one, they leap, laughing, and that is where we leave them - mouths open, arms spread wide, fingers splayed to take in the whole world, bodies flying high in defiance of gravity, as if they will never fall.

  Libba Bray

  Fall, Flying High, Laughing

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• What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.

  Barnett Newman

  Fall, Men, Garden

  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Barnett Newman, Lawrence Alloway (1966). “Barnett Newman, the stations of the cross, lema sabachthani”

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• It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of slavery. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.

  Frederick Douglass

  Long, Rose, Forever

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

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• The anchor of meaning resides in an abyss, deeper than the reach of despair. Yet the abyss is not not infinite; its bottom may suddenly be discovered within the confines of a human heart or under the debris of might doubts. This may be the vocation of man: to say "Amen" to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Heart, Men, Anchors

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.80, Stanford University Press

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