Diminish Quotes

• The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them.

  Stephen King

  Important, Ashamed, Hardest

  Stephen King (2016). “Different Seasons”, p.309, Simon and Schuster

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• A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Wisdom, Atheist

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Any woman's death diminishes me.

  Adrienne Rich

  1974 Poems: Selected and New,'FromanOldHouse inAmerica,16'. See Donne 281:85.

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• The most important things are the hardest to say

  Stephen King

  I Love You, Valentines Day, Communication

  Stephen King (2016). “Different Seasons”, p.309, Simon and Schuster

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• Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life

  Octavio Paz

  Views, Community, Culture

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• In daily practice, reflect on the benefits of love, compassion and kindness, then reflect on the disadvantages of anger. Such continuous contemplation, the growing appreciation of love, has the effect of reducing our inclination towards hatred and increasing our respect for love. By this means even anger can be diminished.

  Dalai Lama

  Appreciation, Inspirational Love, Kindness

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• No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Color, Doe, Tasks

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.87, Modern Library

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• Humans, like all other creatures, must make a difference; otherwise, they cannot live. But unlike other creatures, humans must make a choice as to the kind and scale of difference they make. If they choose to make too small a difference, they diminish their humanity. If they choose to make too great a difference, they diminish nature, and narrow their subsequent choices; ultimately, they diminish or destroy themselves. Nature, then, is not only our source but also our limit and measure.

  Wendell Berry

  Differences, Choices, Humanity

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• Meditation may also be thought of as a technique by which we diminish the force of old thought habits and develop new ones.

  Dalai Lama

  Meditation, Technique, May

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• Postpone joy, it will diminish. Postpone a problem, it will grow.

  Paulo Coelho

  Joy, Problem, Grows

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Nov 01, 2009

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• The habit of dwelling on the past, has a narrowing as well as a debilitating influence. Behind us, there is a small, - an almost insignificant measure of time; before us, there is an eternity. It is the natural tendency of the mind to magnify the one, and to diminish the other.

  Harriet Martineau

  Past, Dwelling, Perspective

  Harriet Martineau (1836). “Philosophical essays. Essays on the art of thinking. Sabbath musings. Moral essays. Parables. Poetry”, p.221

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• Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.

  William E. Gladstone

  Inspirational, Men, Sorrow

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• Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.

  Dave Ramsey

  Dishonesty, Wealth, Increase

  Twitter post from Aug 13, 2013

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• Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.

  Audre Lorde

  Accepting, Used

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.146, Crossing Press

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• Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, --will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, --or to diminish something of their pains.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Add, Able

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• But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.

  Tom Robbins

  Running, Soul, Mediocrity

  Tom Robbins (2010). “Half Asleep In Frog Pyjamas”, p.174, Random House

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• To describe happiness is to diminish it.

  Stendhal

  Happiness, Laughter, Joy

  Stendhal (1955). “The private diaries of Stendhal [pseud.]”

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• It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though-- and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger-- he was angry only because his position was so weak.

  Lev Grossman

  Strong, Contradiction, Weak

  Lev Grossman (2009). “The Magicians: A Novel”, p.320, Penguin

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• All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated....As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

  John Donne

  Book, Men, Islands

  1624 Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation no.17.

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• Honer and self sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier. We shall remember.

  Eric S. Nylund

  Sacrifice, Self, Soldier

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• I found that as I flipped the days on the calendar, the worries I had about our relationship had began to diminish.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Worry, Calendars, Our Relationship

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• A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole, and a carefree superlative has the power to destroy, for the reader, the object of the writer's enthusiasm.

  E. B. White

  Enthusiasm, Carefree, Reader

  William Strunk Jr., E.B. White (1962). “the Elements of Style”

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• A man's weaknesses may intrude on his faith but they do not diminish it.

  Robert Ludlum

  Men, Weakness, May

  Robert Ludlum (2013). “The Jason Bourne Series 3-Book Bundle: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum”, p.1944, Bantam

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• No, if there's any ultimate redemption, it would be because I passed though your life without scarring you, and did not diminish who you are.

  Dean Koontz

  Would Be, Redemption, Scarring

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• Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence neither speed up nor slow down add to nor diminish it is an imponderably valuable gift.

  Maya Angelou

  Gratitude, Time, Add

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Apr 30, 2013

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