External Forces Quotes

• To know the brain...is equivalent to ascertaining the material course of thought and will, to discovering the intimate history of life in its perpetual duel with external forces.

  Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  Brain, History Of Life, Intimate

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• There is also purpose in life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Attitude, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

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• Sometimes, it is an external force that makes you realize your real potential.

  Arjun Kapoor

  Real, Sometimes, Realizing

  Source: www.indiawest.com

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• It is true that water will flow indifferently to east and west, but will it flow equally well up and down? Human nature is disposed toward goodness, just as water tends to flow downwards. There is no water but flows downwards, and no man but shows his tendency to be good. Now, by striking water hard, you may splash it higher than your forehead, and by damming it, you may make it go uphill. But, is that the nature of water? It is external force that causes it to do so. Likewise, if a man is made to do what is not good, his nature is being similarly forced.

  Mencius

  Men, Water, East

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• There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.

  Leo Buscaglia

  Positive, Gratitude, Pain

  LEO BUSCAGLIA, PH.D. (1982). “LIVING, LOVING & LEARNING”

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• When who you are and what you are is not decided by any external forces, then you are in dignity.

  Jaggi Vasudev

  Dignity, Decided, Who You Are

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• The world is so unpredictable. Things happen suddenly, unexpectedly. We want to feel we are in control of our own existence. In some ways we are, in some ways we're not. We are ruled by the forces of chance and coincidence.

  Paul Auster

  Unpredictable Things, World, Want

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  Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense. Our threat is from the insidious forces working from within which have already so drastically altered the character of our free institutions - those institutions we proudly called the American way of life.

  Douglas MacArthur

  War, Character, Way

  Douglas MacArthur's speech to the Michigan Legislature in Lansing (May 15, 1952) as quoted in "General MacArthur Speeches and Reports 1908-1964" edited by Edward T. Imparato (p. 206), June 14, 2000.

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• The body is a cell state in which every cell is a citizen. Disease is merely the conflict of the citizens of the state brought about by the action of external forces.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Cells, Citizens, Body

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• A war must be avoided at all costs. Russia is against any type of use of external force.

  Vladimir Yakunin

  War, Russia, Cost

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• I wish my life and decisions to depend upon myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. I wish to be the instrument of my own, not other men's, acts of will. I wish to be the subject, not an object...I wish to be somebody, not nobody; a doer - deciding, not being decided for, slef-directed and not acted upon by external nature or by other men as if I were a thing, or an animal, or a slave incapable of playing a human role, that is, of conceiving goals and policies of my own and realizing them.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Men, Animal, Goal

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• There comes a point where the disappointments in your life accrue faster than you can find external forces to blame them on.

  Christian Finnegan

  Disappointment, Blame, Faster

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• Empowerment is the inner joy of knowing that external force isn't necessary to be at harmony with oneself.

  Wayne Dyer

  Knowing, Joy, Empowerment

  Dyer, Wayne (2005). “Everyday Wisdom”, p.219, Hay House, Inc

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• A complete theory of evolution must acknowledge a balance between "external" forces of environment imposing selection for local adaptation and "internal" forces representing constraints of inheritance and development. Vavilov placed too much emphasis on internal constraints and downgraded the power of selection. But Western Darwinians have erred equally in practically ignoring (while acknowledging in theory) the limits placed on selection by structure and development what Vavilov and the older biologists would have called "laws of form.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Law, Theory Of Evolution, Balance

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History”, p.144, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life's pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Simple, Pool Table, Way

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History”, p.16, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.
  Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.

  Octavia Butler

  Mean, Civilization, Intelligence

  Octavia E. Butler (2017). “Earthseed: The Complete Series”, p.121, Open Road Media

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• When he tries to extend his power over objects, those objects gain control of him. He who is controlled by objects loses possession of his inner self... Prisoners in the world of object, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter! They are pressed down and crushed by external forces: fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind!... What a pity!

  Zhuangzi

  Fashion, Self, Choices

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• I don't really think there have been transitional periods to socialism. There have been efforts, but they have usually been destroyed by a combination of external force and internal corruption.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Effort, Socialism

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

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• In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that’s just ridiculous. It’s as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it’s for a reason.

  William S. Burroughs

  Running, Believe, Thinking

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• More women speaking up and seizing the helm of power can create its own momentum. It can change the culture that helps perpetuate those external forces.

  Nancy Birdsall

  Speaking Up, Momentum, Culture

  "Why I Want My Daughters — and Son — to Read Lean In" by Nancy Birdsall, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 12, 2013.

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• Believers often forget that most atheists used to be religious, that many non-believers used to think they had a personal relationship with their God and they used to 'feel' the power of prayer. They've since learned that it was all a farce, that their feelings were internal emotions and not some external force.

  David G. McAfee

  Religious, Atheist, Prayer

  FaceBook post by David G. McAfee from Oct 27, 2012

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• A republic of this kind, able to withstand an external force, may support itself without any internal corruptions. The form of this society prevents all manner of inconveniences.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Support, Republic

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2014). “The Federalist Papers”, p.39, Courier Corporation

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• Though Satan instils his poison, and fans the flames of our corrupt desires within us,we are yet not carried by any external force to the commission of sin, but our own flesh entices us, and we willingly yield to its allurements.

  John Calvin

  Yield, Flames, Desire

  John Calvin (2012). “John Calvin's Commentaries On Genesis 1-23 (Annotated Edition)”, p.523, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Don't worry about society's conditioning and the labels that are put on you by external forces. Hold onto your true self.

  Gugu Mbatha-Raw

  Self, Worry, Labels

  Source: aalbc.com

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• Man is a machine which reacts blindly to external forces and, this being so, he has no will, and very little control of himself, if any at all. What we have to study, therefore, is not psychology-for that applies only to a developed man-but mechanics. Man is not only a machine but a machine which works very much below the standard it would be capable of maintaining if it were working properly.

  P.D. Ouspensky

  Men, Psychology, Would Be

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