Distinction Quotes - Page 31

• To all my friends without distinction I am ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul.

  Antisthenes

  Lying, Soul, Opulence

  "Symposium" by Xenophon, (iv. 35),

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every man is equally entitled to protection by law. But when the laws undertake to add... artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges—to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful— the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.

  Andrew Jackson

  Powerful, Mean, Humble

  Veto Message on Bank Bill, 10 July 1832

  122 Copy quote

  Show source

• The superficial distinctions of Fascism, Bolshevism, Hitlerism, are the concern of journalists and publicists; the serious student sees in them only one root-idea of a complete conversion of social power into State power.

  Albert J. Nock

  Ideas, Roots, Serious

  "Our Enemy, The State". Book by Albert Jay Nock, Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Press, 1950.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The spectacle we find in true religions has as its purpose enchantment, not entertainment. The distinction is critical. By endowing things with magic, enchantment is a means through which we may gain access to sacredness. Entertainment is the means through which we distance ourselves from it.

  Neil Postman

  Distance, Mean, Magic

  Neil Postman (2005). “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, p.122, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fact -- not theory -- that evolution has occurred and the Darwinian theory as to how it occurred have become so confused in popular opinion that the distinction must be stressed.

  George Gaylord Simpson

  Confused, Stressed, Atheism

  50 Copy quote

• Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part 'sheer,' 'no-manfathomed,' 'cliffs of fall.

  Janet Burroway

  Girl, Fall, Musical

  4 Copy quote

• We need to make a distinction between misled Iraqis, those who believe that they are carrying weapons to liberate Iraq from what they call occupation, and criminal gangs that came from outside and wants to wage a deadly war on the Iraqi people, killing women and children in mosques and churches.

  Jalal Talabani

  Children, War, Lying

  8 Copy quote

• Newt Gingrich's job to capture the Congress was to give Republican candidates an edge and a distinction from their Democratic opponent. That required a very high profile, some very strong language.

  Pete du Pont

  Strong, Jobs, Giving

  8 Copy quote

• The popular distinction between 'constructive' and 'destructive' criticism is a sentimentality: the mind too weak to perceive in what respects the bad fails is not strong enough to appreciate in what the good succeeds. To be without discrimination is to be unable to praise. The critic who lets you know that he always looks for something to like in works he discusses is not telling you anything about the works or about art; he is saying 'see what a nice person I am.

  Brigid Brophy

  Strong, Art, Nice

  8 Copy quote

• When a company owns one precise thought in the consumer's mind, it sets the context for everything and there should be no distinction between brand, product, service and experience.

  Maurice Saatchi

  Mind, Should, Company

  4 Copy quote

• The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa).

  W. C. Sellar

  Scotch, Scotland, Mind

  5 Copy quote

• If one believes in a god, one is a Theist. If one does not believe in a god, then one is an A-theist — he is without that belief. The distinction between atheism and theism is entirely, exclusively, that of whether one has or has not a belief in God.

  Chapman Cohen

  Believe, Atheism, Doe

  8 Copy quote

• It is not His teachings which make Jesus so remarkable, although these would be enough to give Him distinction. It is a combination of the teachings with the man Himself. The two cannot be separated.

  Kenneth Scott Latourette

  Jesus, Teaching, Men

  Kenneth Scott Latourette (1953). “A History of Christianity”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• A good rant is cathartic. Ranting is what keeps me sane.
  They always come from a different place. Take the prime minister, for example. Sometimes when I rant about him, I am angry; other times, I am just severely annoyed-it's an important distinction.

  Rick Mercer

  Annoyed, Important, Example

  8 Copy quote

• There’s one thing that’s been 'learned' maybe from Tunisia and Egypt that I think is a mistake. And that is that the existing ruler has to resign. He doesn’t have to resign. You take all the supports out from under him; he falls. No matter what he wants to do. This is the distinction in the analyses between nonviolent coercion in which he has to resign, but he’s forced into it, and disintegration when the regime simply falls apart. There’s nobody left with enough power to resign.

  Gene Sharp

  Mistake, Fall, Thinking

  11 Copy quote

• The new painting has broken down every distinction between art and life.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Broken, Painting

  7 Copy quote

• In Western lands there is a distinct division between the religious and the secular life. There is one rule of conduct for laymen and another for clergymen. This distinction has never found its place in the life of the people of India. There, all of life is included in the word 'religion.'

  Virchand Gandhi

  Religious, Land, People

  4 Copy quote

• The inspired Scriptures make the clear distinction between false and true riches and make plain the reason why happiness is gained and fully enjoyed only by those who find true riches.

  Joseph Franklin Rutherford

  Happiness, Riches, Scripture

  10 Copy quote

• It doesn't annoy me but I think of myself as a presenter who is gay, rather than a gay presenter. It's a subtle distinction, but that's how I view it.

  Evan Davis

  Gay, Thinking, Views

  "Evan Davis: 'I'm a presenter who is gay rather than a gay presenter'". Interview With Miranda Sawyer, www.theguardian.com. May 7, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To the man who is truly ethical all life is sacred, including that which from the human point of view seems lower in the scale. He makes distinctions only as each case comes before him, and under the pressure of necessity, as, for example, when it falls to him to decide which of two lives he must sacrifice in order to preserve the other. But all through this series of decisions he is conscious of acting on subjective grounds and arbitrarily, and knows that he bears the responsibility for the life which is sacrificed.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Fall, Responsibility, Sacrifice

  Albert Schweitzer, Charles Rhind Joy (1947). “Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology”, Boston : Beacon Press

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that.

  Joe Biden

  Men, Rights, Liberty

  "Biden breaks down stance on same-sex marriage". "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, www.nbcnews.com. May 06, 2012.

  47 Copy quote

  Show source

• From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.

  David Hume

  Men, Order, Selfishness

  David Hume (2006). “An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”, p.48, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.

  Max De Pree

  Friendship, Running, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• Private property ... is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, or as payment for a just Debt.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Honor, Debt, Benefits

  Benjamin Franklin (1818). “The Works of Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [Autobiography”, p.468

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Motion pictures are of course a different medium of expression than the public speech, the radio, the stage, the novel, or the magazine. But the First Amendment draws no distinction between the various methods of communicating ideas.

  William O. Douglas

  Expression, Ideas, Different

  4 Copy quote