Disaster Quotes - Page 10

• The tears are invisible. I'm in a complete state of panic before I begin something because I'm sure that it's going to be a complete disaster. I'm going to do a worse job than anybody could ever imagine anybody doing on the planet earth.

  Maira Kalman

  Jobs, Tears, Earth

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• One does not learn anything except by believing something, and -- conversely -- if one doubts everything one learns nothing. On the other hand, believing everything uncritically is the road to disaster. The faculty of doubt is essential. But as I have argued, rational doubt always rests on faith and not vice versa. The relationship between the two cannot be reversed.

  Lesslie Newbigin

  Believe, Hands, Two

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• There's a joke about the balloon boy who has a balloon mum and a balloon dad and he goes to a balloon school with balloon friends ad a balloon principal. And one day, the balloon boy decides to take a pin to his balloon school, which is, of course, a disaster. And he's called into the balloon principal's office, and the balloon principal tells him, 'You've let me down, you've let your school down, you've let your parents down, you've let your friends down. But most importantly you've let yourself down'.

  Gabrielle Williams

  Dad, School, Boys

  Gabrielle Williams (2010). “Beatle Meets Destiny”, p.216, Marshall Cavendish

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• It is not permitted to a man, who takes up pen or chisel, to seek originality, for passion is his only business, and he cannot but mould or sing after a new fashion because no disaster is like another.

  William Butler Yeats

  Fashion, Passion, Men

  William Butler Yeats (1998). “Mythologies”, p.339, Simon and Schuster

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• A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future.

  Peter Drucker

  Years, Decision, Risk

  Peter Drucker (2013). “People and Performance”, p.31, Routledge

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• Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so: we still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Heart, Thinking

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.196, Jazzybee Verlag

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• One can make one's life a complete misery, worrying about burglaries and shipwrecks, but ask anyone, anyone you know ... earth-shattering disasters and fabulous inheritances all seems to take place exclusively in the newspapers.

  Jean Anouilh

  Worry, Inheritance, Earth

  Jean Anouilh (1991). “The rehearsal or Love punished”, Methuen

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• An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him...He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate.

  Solon

  Men, Desire, Riding

  "The Histories Bk. 1". Book by Herodotus, trans. Robin Waterfield, ch. 32, pp. 15-16.,

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• Life is much the same when it's going well-- resonant and unremarkable. But who, not under disaster's seal, can understand what life is like when it begins to crumble?

  Mary Oliver

  Life, Wells, Seals

  Mary Oliver (1986). “Dream Work”, p.71, Atlantic Monthly Press

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• There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.

  William S. Burroughs

  Government, Law, Cities

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.416, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The world was arrogant and self-satisfied, but behind all this confidence there was an uneasy sense of impending disaster. The old creeds, both religious and political, were largely in the process of dissolution, but we did not realise the fact, and therefore did not look for new foundations.

  John Buchan

  Religious, Self, Political

  "A University's Bequest to Yout". John Buchan's speech in Toronto (October 10, 1936), as quoted in John Buchan "Canadian Occasions", 1940.

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• War is a culture, bellicosity is addictive, defeat for a community that imagines itself to be history's eternal victim can be as intoxicating as victory. How long will it take for the Serbs to realize that the Milosevic years have been an unmitigated disaster for Serbia, the net result of Milosevic's policies being the economic and cultural ruin of the entire region, including Serbia, for several generations? Alas, one thing we can be sure of, that will not happen soon.

  Susan Sontag

  War, Years, Long

  "Why Are We in Kosovo?" by Susan Sontag, www.nytimes.com. May 2, 1999.

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• Stoutly as we may affirm that our disasters and vices are chargeable to luck, we never dream of ascribing our meritorious deeds, in the slightest degree to its agency. In such cases we quite unconsciously blink out of sight the magic power of the latter principle, so wondrous and all-controlling in its influence at other times, and coolly appropriate to ourselves not merely the lion's share, but the whole glory of our position.

  William Matthews

  Dream, Agency, Sight

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• The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.

  Philip Roth

  Epic, Terror, Unforeseen

  Philip Roth (2004). “The Plot Against America: A Novel”, p.114, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Turned the wrong way around, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied in "History", harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.

  Philip Roth

  Epic, Pages, Way

  FaceBook post by Philip Roth from Dec 22, 2016

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• In loss itself I find assuagement: having lost the treasure, I've nothing to fear.

  Juana Inés de la Cruz

  Loss, Treasure, Lost

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• As a comedian, I'm like one of those on-the-scene reporters. I will actually go and try to find disasters so I can write jokes as the disasters unfold.

  Paul Provenza

  Writing, Comedian, Trying

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• The foundations and the intent of the Affordable Care Act are laudable. The way it's being implemented is a disaster.

  Patrick Soon-Shiong

  Care, Way, Foundation

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• I came into acting with that sort of dull, meet-with-triumph-and-disaster-the-same philosophy and it's been the right one for me.

  Jamie Sives

  Philosophy, Acting, Triumph

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• A great many people never really discover themselves until ruin stares them in the face. They do not seem to know how to bring out their reserves until they are overtaken by an overwhelming disaster, or until the sight of their blighted prospects and of the wreck of their homes and happiness stirs them to the very center of their beings.... There is something in defeat which puts new determination into a man of mettle.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Determination, Home, Men

  Orison Swett Marden (1907). “The Optimistic Life”

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• Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed...We have no option. If it isn't controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war.

  Prince Philip

  War, Long, Growth

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• With so much evidence of depleting natural resources, toxic waste, climate change, irreparable harm to our food chain and rapidly increasing instances of natural disasters, why do we keep perpetuating the problem? Why do we continue marching at the same alarming beat?

  Yehuda Berg

  Irreparable Harm, Toxic Waste, Climate

  "What the @#$% is Going On?" by Yehuda Berg, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 10, 2010.

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• The times in which we're currently living unfortunately, our great leader [George W. Bush] is such a disaster and the entire country is in disastrous shape because of him. It's very frightening, actually, to think that this country has become what it's become and that so many people voted for a man like that. It's terrifying.

  Lauren Bacall

  Country, Men, Thinking

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• I wrote these two songs ["Coming Out of the Dark" and "Always Tomorrow"] as a celebration of hope. And I want to send it out to all of those people who are suffering through this terrible disaster [Hurricane Katrina], and please know that you are not alone - and you will not be.

  Gloria Estefan

  Song, Dark, Two

  "Larry King Live", transcripts.cnn.com. September 10, 2005.

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• The oppressive weight of disaster and tragedy in our lives does not arise from a high percentage of evil among the summed total of all acts, but from the extraordinary power of exceedingly rare incidents of depravity to inflict catastrophic damage, especially in our technological age when airplanes can become powerful bombs. (An even more evil man, armed only with a longbow, could not have wreaked such havoc at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.)

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Powerful, Airplane, Men

  "I Have Landed". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, p. 390: "The Good People of Halifax", 2002.

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