Facts Quotes - Page 40

• Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.

  William James

  Mother, Lying, Mystical Experiences

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• All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ.

  Eric Hoffer

  Reality, Faithful, Doctrine

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The fact is that certain ideas exist almost everywhere and at all times and can even spontaneously create themselves quite independently of migration and tradition.

  Carl Jung

  Ideas, Unity, Migration

  Carl Gustav Jung (1969). “Psychology and religion: west and east”

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• Many people meditate in order that a third eye may open. For that they feel they should close their two physical eyes. They thereby become blind to the world. But the fact is that the third eye will never open. We can never close our eyes to the world in the name of spirituality. Self-realization is the ability to see ourselves in all beings. This is the third eye through which you see, even while your two eyes are open. We should be able to love and serve others, seeing ourselves in them. This is the fulfillment of spiritual practice.

  Mata Amritanandamayi

  Spiritual, Eye, Self

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• You can think of my films as cautionary tales, but you might even think of them as despairing tales, because at least in a cautionary tale, you have this idea that by listening to the story you can assure a better outcome. Whereas I'm not at all convinced that's the case. In fact, if anything, I'm convinced that it's the opposite.

  Errol Morris

  Thinking, Opposites, Ideas

  "The Eleven-Minute Psychiatrist". Interview with James Hughes, Stop Smiling Magazine, www.errolmorris.com. March 2006.

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• The real resistance now is to an art which forces its audience to recognize and accept imaginatively, in their nerve ends, not the facts of life but the facts of death and violence: absurd, random, gratuitous, unjustified, and inescapably part of the society we have created.

  Al Alvarez

  Art, Real, Resistance

  Al Alvarez (2013). “The Savage God: A Study of Suicide”, p.283, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Hollywood is a strange place. The class structure here is more rigid than almost anyplace I've ever experienced. It's made more difficult by the fact that it's constantly changing. You never know what class you belong to unless you're one of the two or three people that have been in the same echelon for a long, long time.

  Alan Arkin

  Strange Places, Class, Two

  "What I've Learned: Alan Arkin" by Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. February 25, 2007.

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• Here's a strange fact: murder a man, and you feel responsible for his life - ''possessive'', even. You know more about him than his father and mother; they knew his fetus, but you know his corpse. Only you can complete the story of his life, only you know why his body has to be pushed into the fire before its time, and why his toes curl up and fight for another hour on earth.

  Aravind Adiga

  Mother, Father, Fighting

  "The White Tiger". Book by Aravind Adiga, 2008.

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• When Nietzsche praises egoism it is always in an aggressive or polemical way, against the virtues, against the virtue of disinterestedness (Z III "Of the three evil things"). But in fact egoism is a bad interpretation of the will, just as atomism is a bad interpretation of force. In order for there to be egoism it is necessary for there to be an ego.

  Gilles Deleuze

  Order, Evil, Ego

  Gilles Deleuze (2006). “Nietzsche and Philosophy”, p.7, A&C Black

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• The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put the interests of his political party ahead of America's security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe.

  Howard Dean

  Party, America, Political

  "Bush ordered leaking of Iraq secrets, ex-aide tells court" by Francis Harris, www.telegraph.co.uk. August 4, 2006.

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• The more important point, however, is not about what the money does. It's about what has to be done to get the money. The effect of the money might be (democratically) benign. But what is done to secure that money is not necessarily benign. To miss this point is to betray the Robin Hood fallacy: the fact that the loot was distributed justly doesn't excuse the means taken to secure it.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Taken, Mean, Missing

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• Monopolies are not justified by theory; they should be permitted only when justified by facts. If there is no solid basis for extending a certain monopoly protection, then we should not extend that protection. This does not mean that every copyright must prove its value initially. That would be a far too cumbersome system of control. But it does mean that every system or category of copyright or patent should prove its worth. Before the monopoly should be permitted, there must be reason to believe it will do some good -- for society, and not just for monopoly holders.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Believe, Mean, Patents

  "May the Source Be With You". www.wired.com. December 21, 2001.

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• Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither acknowledges the fact to himself.

  Mikhail Lermontov

  Two Friends, Slave, Acknowledge

  Mikhail Lermontov (2015). “A Hero of Our Time”, p.95, Xist Publishing

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• The art of writing history is the art of emphasizing the significant facts at the expense of the insignificant. And it is the same in every field of knowledge. Knowledge is power only if a man knows what facts not to bother about.

  Robert Wilson Lynd

  Art, Writing, Men

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• It's the fact that fans still care. I like all the comics conventions: The smaller ones are easier, the bigger ones are exciting.... Each one I say: Never again. But they're all great.... These things are important because they keep the fans' interest alive in comics. They keep the fans reading and their imaginations stimulated.

  Stan Lee

  Reading, Imagination, Important

  "COMIC-CON 2010: Legend STAN LEE talks 'geek power,' new movies - & why he was embarrassed to be a comic-book writer". Interview with Michael Cavna, voices.washingtonpost.com. July 23, 2010.

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• Admittedly, I do have several bones... whole war fields full of bones, in fact... to pick with organised religion of whatever stripe. This should be seen as a critique of purely temporal agencies who have, to my mind, erected more obstacles between whatever notion of spirituality and Godhead one subscribes to than they have opened doors. To me, the difference between Godhead and the Church is the difference between Elvis and Colonel Parker... although that conjures images of God dying on the toilet, which is not what I meant at all.

  Alan Moore

  War, Doors, Differences

  "Correspondence: From Hell". Alan Moore and Dave Sim, "Cerebus" #220 (comic book series by Dave Sim), July 1, 1997.

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• Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates a sense of joy. It's exhilarating to come into contact with the things we write into being. And a real sense of play and abandon – even when we are relying on hard-won technique, and even when the aim is deadly serious. How often do we get the excuse to stop, think, and then stop thinking altogether and try to listen to what sits behind our outside of our thoughts? Poets are lucky.

  Tracy K. Smith

  Real, Writing, Thinking

  "Interview with Tracy K. Smith – 'Poets are Lucky'". Interview with Michael Klein, blog.pshares.org. May 30, 2012.

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• It is a curious fact that with 'Through the Looking-Glass' the faculty of making book illustrations departed from me... I have done nothing in that direction since.

  John Tenniel

  Book, Glasses, Illustration

  "The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll". Book by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood (p. 146), 1898.

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• The fact that ACPI was designed by a group of monkeys high on LSD, and is some of the worst designs in the industry obviously makes running it at any point pretty damn ugly.

  Linus Torvalds

  Running, Design, Groups

  Linux-kernel mailing list, July 31, 2005.

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• The fact is, there aren't just two sides to any issue, there's almost always a range of responses, and "it depends" is almost always the right answer in any big question.

  Linus Torvalds

  Two Sides, Issues, Answers

  Personal blog, torvalds-family.blogspot.ru. November 02, 2008.

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• C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.

  Linus Torvalds

  Use, Language, Easier

  Message to gmane.comp.version-control.git mailing list, article.gmane.org, September 9, 2007.

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• As success converts treason into legitimacy, so belief converts fiction into fact, and "nothing is but what is not.

  Samuel Laman Blanchard

  Fiction, Belief, Legitimacy

  "Sketches from Life" by Laman Blanchard. "That what Everybody Says must be True", 1846.

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• The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Moving, Successful, Power

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Chap. 7 : Majority Rules, 1960.

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• A true warrior does not fight because he wishes to but because he has to. A man who yearns for war, a man who enjoys his killing, he is a brute and a monster. No matter how much glory he wins on the battlefield, that cannot erase the fact that he is no better than a rabid wolf who will turn on his friends and family as soon as his foes.

  Christopher Paolini

  War, Fighting, Winning

  Christopher Paolini (2014). “The Inheritance Cycle Complete Collection: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance”, p.1968, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• While there are still imperialist aggressors, the state that has no defense power of its own to protect its sovereignty against the internal and external enemies is, in fact, not a fully independent and sovereign state.

  Kim Il-sung

  Independent, Enemy, Sovereign

  "On Some Problems of Our Party's Juche Idea and the Government of the Republic's Internal and External Policies". Mainichi Shimbun, September 17, 1972.

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