Devising Quotes

• I feel like I am involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell me the rules, and who smiles all the time.

  Neil Gaiman

  Dark, Dice, Cards

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• God does not play dice [with the universe].
  [Ger., Gott wurfelt nicht.]

  Albert Einstein

  God, Play, Gambling

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• There is the happiness which comes from creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.

  Henry Miller

  Dream, Song, Writing

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• So the people will pay the penalty for their kings' presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.

  Hesiod

  Kings, People, Evil

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• Never forget posterity when devising a policy. Never think of posterity when making a speech.

  Robert Menzies

  Thinking, Speech, Never Forget

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• Scientists have stated that embryonic stem cells provide the best opportunity for devising unique treatments of these serious diseases since, unlike adult stem cells, they may be induced to develop into any type of cell.

  Eliot Engel

  Unique, Opportunity, Cells

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• The only realistic view is that a human life arises gradually, which is not much help in making personal decisions or devising public policy.

  George C. Williams

  Views, Decision, Helping

  George C. Williams (2014). “The Pony Fish's Glow: And Other Clues To Plan And Purpose In Nature”, p.160, Basic Books

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• I hate to say it but I think it has become very obvious that our system for devising trade agreements, so very important to this country's functioning around the world, has not only broken, but it has broken completely.

  Xavier Becerra

  Country, Hate, Thinking

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• In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed... It means facing a system that does not lend its self to your needs and devising means by which you change that system.

  Ella Baker

  Meaningful, Self, Order

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• God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, ie., everybody, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

  Terry Pratchett

  Moving, Dark, Player

  "Good Omens". Book by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, 1990.

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• Evil is always devising more corrosive misery through man's restless need to exact revenge out of his hate.

  Ralph Steadman

  Revenge, Hate, Men

  "Fictional character: David Rossi". "Criminal Minds". Season 8, Episode 2: "The Pact", October 10, 2012.

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• I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.

  Jacques Delors

  People, Incentives, Provision

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• Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.

  Donald A. Norman

  Powerful, Effort, Gone

  "The Design of Everyday Things". Book by Don Norman, ch. 6, 1988.

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• Adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good.

  Dave Ramsey

  Children, Feel Good, Adults

  Twitter post from Nov 12, 2015

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• Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.

  Audre Lorde

  Women, Responsibility, Gay

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.115, Crossing Press

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• The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.

  Randy Pausch

  Strong, Book, Writing

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• Before devising any blueprint that includes the assumption of Having It All, we need to ask ... Why do we need Everything?

  Letty Cottin Pogrebin

  Needs, Assumption, Blueprints

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• Superstition is not, as has been defined, an excess of religious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it on vanities of man's devising.

  Richard Whately

  Religious, Men, Vanity

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.59

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• The scientific method ... is nothing but the exclusion of subjective opinions as far as possible, by the devising of experiments where observation can give objective answers, yes or no, to questions whether events are causally connected.

  Gavin de Beer

  Science, Giving, Events

  Sir Gavin De Beer (1956). “Science and the humanities”

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• Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are considered more expert, if a little pedantic.

  Diane Ackerman

  Sex, Latin, Vocabulary

  Diane Ackerman (2002). “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden”, G K Hall & Company

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• For many people, the only reason to do anything is that it's best for them individually. And I think that's why planners have to be more realistic about devising policies so the stakeholders will say, "I see what you mean - that'll help me." I think expecting people to do the right thing for the right reason leads to a lot of failure in public policy.

  Donald Shoup

  Mean, Thinking, People

  Source: la.streetsblog.org

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• We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.

  William Ellery Channing

  Mean, Political, Waste

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• Computer Science is a science of abstraction -creating the right model for a problem and devising the appropriate mechanizable techniques to solve it.

  Alfred Aho

  Learning, Creating, Technique

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• American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.

  James Madison

  Country, Mean, Law

  James Madison, Robert Allen Rutland (1996). “The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series”

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• The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it.

  James Madison

  Evil, Slavery, Merit

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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