Deny Quotes

• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Letter to Henry L. Pierce and Others, 6 Apr. 1859

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• You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

  Stephen King

  Funny, Happiness, Smile

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  Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Inspiring, Happiness, Success

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.155, Feminist Press at CUNY

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  The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

  Ayn Rand

  Philosophy, Humor, Rights

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.125, Penguin

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• Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Technology, Ethos

  Joseph Campbell, Bill D. Moyers (1988). “The Power of Myth”, Harmony

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  Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

  Coretta Scott King

  Freedom, Believe, Justice

  Press Conference on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1994, Washington D.C., June 23, 1994.

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• If I deny myself something, I just get resentful, so what's the point?

  Vanessa Marcil

  Resentment, Resentful, Ifs

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• The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing.

  Leigh Hunt

  People

  Leigh Hunt (1870). “Table-talk: To which are Added Imaginary Conversations of Pope and Swift”, p.59

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• One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.

  William J. Clinton

  Wmd, Mass Destruction, Ethos

  Clinton, William J. (1999). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1998”, p.170, Best Books on

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• I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women.

  Daniel Defoe

  Christian, Country, Ethos

  Daniel Defoe (1843). “The works of Daniel De Foe [ed.] by W. Hazlitt”

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• To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Peace, Men, Soul

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi”

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• Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.

  Claude Levi-Strauss

  Children, Order, Punishment

  "Tristes Tropiques". Book by Claude Lévi-Strauss, translated by John and Doreen Weightman. Chapter 38: "A Little Glass of Rum," pp. 388-389, 1955.

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• The logical man must either deny all miracles or none.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Men, Miracle, Logical

  Charles Alexander Eastman, Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). “The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World”, p.7, World Wisdom, Inc

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• Nature says women are human beings, men have made religions to deny it. Nature says women are human beings, men cry out no!

  Taslima Nasrin

  Men, Being Me, Cry

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• Those who deny the existence of a supreme being have been turned into second-class citizens by a government that continuously sends messages that 'real Americans' believe in God.

  Michael Newdow

  Real, Believe, Government

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• I believe I am a person with unusual talents. I think I'd be a liar or stupid if I were to deny that.

  Joshua Lederberg

  Liars, Stupid, Believe

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• We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn't, we'd go crazy.

  Patty Duke

  Crazy, Ethos, Unbelievable

  Patty Duke (2010). “Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness”, p.6, Bantam

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• The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Hero, Men, Miracle

  Charles Alexander Eastman, Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). “The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World”, p.7, World Wisdom, Inc

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• If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.

  Denis Diderot

  Sublime, Essentials, Thieves

  "Rameau's Nephew". Book by Denis Diderot, 1805.

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• A God who is good knows no segregation amongst words or names. And were a God to deny his blessing to those who pursue a different path to eternity, there would be no human who should offer worship.

  Khalil Gibran

  Blessing, Names, Different

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• Part of me has always resisted the Western clichéd image of Muslim women, depicting them as nothing more than silent victims. My art, without denying 'repression,' is a testimony to unspoken female power and the continuing protest in Islamic culture.

  Shirin Neshat

  Art, Women, Islamic

  Interview with Dorna Khazeni, www.believermag.com. August 2003.

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• I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism... were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.

  Joseph Addison

  Faith, Atheist, Religion

  The Spectator, No. 185, October 2, 1711.

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• To deny women directors, as I suspect is happening in the States, is to deny the feminine vision.

  Jane Campion

  Ethos, Vision, Directors

  Jane Campion, Virginia Wright Wexman (1999). “Jane Campion: Interviews”, p.53, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• No one will deny that the excessive use of alcohol and alcoholic beverages would do more than any other single factor to make impossible a total war effort.

  William Lyon Mackenzie

  War, Ethos, Effort

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• The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

  Stephen Bayley

  Men, Assumption, Tradition

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