Distasteful Quotes - Page 4

• A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

  William James

  Family, Power, Men

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.67, Harvard University Press

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• One of the tricks of the west is to use or create images, they create images of a person who doesn't go along with their views and then they make certain that this image is distasteful, and then anything that that person has to say from thereon, from thereon in, is rejected.

  Malcolm X

  Views, West, Use

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• Prostitution is said to be the world's oldest profession. It is, indeed, a model of all professional work: the worker relinquishes control over himself... in exchange for money. Because of the passivity it entails, this is a difficult and, for many, a distasteful role.

  Thomas Szasz

  Passivity Is, Roles, World

  "The Second Sin". Book by Thomas Szasz, 1973.

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• This is the true liberty of Christ, when a free man binds himself in love to duty. Not in shrinking from our distasteful occupations, but in fulfilling them, do we realize our high origin.

  Frederick William Robertson

  Men, Liberty, Shrinking

  Frederick William Robertson (1873). “Sermons Preached at Brighton”, p.362

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• From the standpoint of freedom of speech and the press, it is enough to point out that the state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them... It is not the business of government to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine.

  Tom C. Clark

  Religious, Real, Government

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• We stand for free speech. This means we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits. We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it.

  Yishan Wong

  Mean, Speech, Bans

  "Reddit Defines What Free Speech Means on Reddit" by Rebecca Greenfield, www.theatlantic.com. October 17, 2012.

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• You have to give everybody another recourse as some means other than violence, no matter how distasteful it may be to have to deal with them and what they represent.

  Anthony Zinni

  Mean, Giving, May

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• I feel like a lot of life is distasteful and embarrassing. And you just push through it. You fix what you can, and you let time pass.

  Curtis Sittenfeld

  Life Is, Embarrassing, Time Passes

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• Each voice carries a portion of value, no matter how unpalatable or distasteful that voice may be: no one person, government, ideology, transnational, or religious institution can own and dominate the whole.

  B. W. Powe

  Religious, Government, Voice

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• Compassion allows us to use our own pain and the pain of others as a vehicle for connection. This is a delicate and profound path. We may be adverse to seeing our own suffering because it tends to ignite a blaze of self-blame and regret. And we may be adverse to seeing suffering in others because we find it unbearable or distasteful, or we find it threatening to our own happiness. All of these possible reactions to the suffering in the word make us want to turn away from life.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Pain, Regret, Compassion

  Sharon Salzberg (2008). “The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion”, p.24, Sounds True

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• Repentance and faith are distasteful to the unregenerate; they would sooner repeat a thousand formal prayers than shed a solitary tear of true repentance.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Prayer, Tears, Repentance

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1963). “Sermons on Sin, Salvation, and Service”

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• Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself. If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend, rather than the gloss of a sweet-lipped flatterer there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.

  Francis Quarles

  Friendship, Sweet, Lying

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• Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect — don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security; it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he shall prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hurt, Believe, Play

  Ambrose Bierce, S. T. Joshi (2000). “The Collected Fables of Ambrose Bierce”, p.15, Ohio State University Press

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