Defining Quotes - Page 12

• As far as a defining moment, that was a hugely successful and very busy time for me. 1975, 1976, 1977 - that whole time frame.

  Gary Wright

  Successful, Defining Moments, Busy

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

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• I think it is an accurate statement to say that some people consider feelings of same-gender attraction to be the defining fact of their existence. There are also people who consider the defining fact of their existence that they are from Texas or that they were in the United States Marines. Or they are red-headed, or they are the best basketball player that ever played for such-and-such a high school. People can adopt a characteristic as the defining example of their existence and often those characteristics are physical.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Basketball, School, Marine

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

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• The ultimate defining fact for all of us is that we are children of Heavenly Parents, born on this earth for a purpose, and born with a divine destiny.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Destiny, Parent

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

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• [Producers] promised me they wouldn't do that sort of "defining nature of my character is that Laurel is Latina [in How to Get Away with Murder] ." It has nothing to do with that. She just happens to be a Latina.

  Karla Souza

  Character, Murder, Latina

  Source: www.sheknows.com

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• Creativity is the foundation of wealth. All progress comes from the creative minority. Under capitalism, wealth is less a stock of goods than a flow of ideas, the defining characteristic of which is surprise. If it were not surprising, we could plan it, and socialism would work.

  George Gilder

  Creativity, Ideas, Creative

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• This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Retirement, Home

  "Obama evokes Roosevelt rhetoric". "The World Today with Eleanor Hall", www.abc.net.au. December 7, 2011.

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• When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Morning, Bed, Remember

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.103, Modern Library

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• Nation building is our central task, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And states, nations can't just be built with military power. Despite all difficulties, it's very inspiring to see how the Kurds, the Arab Sunnis and the Shiites are coming together here, how they're jointly defining the basis on which their state is to be built, the political course this state will pursue and who is to receive which cabinet positions.

  Zalmay Khalilzad

  Military, Iraq, Political

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• What you do that makes you happy and that makes your family, the people that love you, their opinion counts more than anybody out there that is putting a category on you or defining you according to the old phantasmal.

  Angelique Kidjo

  Love You, People, Opinion

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• One defining symptom of decadence is a fondness for vast and nonsensical extravagance.

  Robert Silverberg

  Extravagance, Nonsensical, Decadence

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• Maybe freedom means defining yourself any way you want to be.

  Amy Hill Hearth

  Mean, Want, Way

  Amy Hill Hearth (2012). “Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society: A Novel”, p.151, Simon and Schuster

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• The great virtue of bureaucracy - indeed, perhaps its defining characteristic ~ was that it was an institutional method for applying general rules to specific cases, thereby making the actions of government fair and predictable.

  Max Weber

  Government, Action, Virtue

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• Self-esteem is the basis for feminism because self-esteem is based on defining yourself and believing in that definition. Self-esteem is regarding yourself as a grown-up.

  Susan Faludi

  Self Esteem, Believe, Feminism

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• I think the consensus among our generation and people younger than us is that we do have a defining challenge in the moment, so I do like being involved in something bigger than the finger-doodling I do in art. It stimulates your brain in certain ways.

  Edward Norton

  Art, Thinking, Our Generation

  "Interview: 'Leaves of Grass' Star Edward Norton and Director Tim Blake Nelson". Interview with Landon Palmer, filmschoolrejects.com. March 28, 2010.

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• One of my defining beliefs is that Jesus Christ has taken all of my guilt before God, and that he has been raised from the dead. That gives incredible hope and meaning to every day of my life - that nothing done in this world is wasted when it's done for him and his glory, and that there will be a day of justice and reward for the entire world.

  Joshua Harris

  Jesus, Taken, Giving

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• Because the meaning of a story does not lie on its surface, visible and self-defining, does not mean that meaning does not exist. Indeed, the ambiguity of meaning, its inner private quality, may well be part of the writer's vision.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Lying, Mean, Self

  Joyce Carol Oates (1992). “The Oxford Book of American Short Stories”, p.8, Oxford University Press, USA

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• I think the difference between being miserable and finding happiness is just a matter of perspective. If you live your life defining yourself by what other people think of you, it's a form of self-torture.

  Sarah Silverman

  Thinking, Differences, Self

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• Our understanding of what constitutes intelligence is utterly relative. If an aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, for example, all of Western civilization would probably flunk. We have a very convenient and self-serving way of defining intelligence. If an animal does something, we call it instinct. If we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence.

  John Robbins

  Animal, Self, Civilization

  John Robbins (2011). “Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth”, p.38, H J Kramer

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• I've learned when to get out. I've never wasted too much time with the wrong person, and that's one thing I'm proud of. The longer you're with the wrong person, you could be completely overlooking or not having the chance to meet the right person. And if it doesn't feel right, it isn't right. How do you know if something feels right? I think the great defining factor for me is whether I want more. When they drive away, do I wish they would turn around at the end of the street and come back? Or am I fine that they're going home?

  Taylor Swift

  Home, Thinking, Wish

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• The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.

  Henry Petroski

  Book, Home, Mean

  Henry Petroski (2010). “The Book on the Bookshelf”, p.11, Vintage

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• Opportunity could be defined in so many ways. There's one way of defining it, equality of opportunity, which is in fact the equality of capability, but the libertarians got there first and they have - like the Americans getting onto the moon, naming every crater after something like an astronaut - they have got there and named "opportunity" in a way that we cannot get ownership of now.

  Amartya Sen

  Moon, Opportunity, Libertarian

  "Interview: Amartya Sen on power to our citizens". Interview with Liam Byrne, liambyrne.co.uk. 2009.

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• As I’ve said, I’ve never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist (since the prefix “a” means “not” or “without”). But I have problems with the word “atheism.” It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the band’s singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for.

  Greg Graffin

  Atheist, Mean, Atheism

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• There are defining moments in one's life when you learn about yourself, and you deposit that knowledge in the experience account, so you can draw on it at some later date.

  Jeffrey Archer

  Defining Moments, Deposits, About Yourself

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• We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

  Nelson Mandela

  Reality, Years, Achievement

  "Foes pay tribute as Mandela begins long goodbye" by Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com. March 26, 1999.

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• Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable.

  Louis Untermeyer

  Unforgettable, Term, Poetry Is

  Louis Untermeyer (1969). “The pursuit of poetry: a guide to its understanding and appreciation with an explanation of its forms and a dictionary of poetic terms”, Simon & Schuster

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