Foreseen Quotes

• Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.

  Kenneth Clark

  Men, Gdp, Opera

  Kenneth Clark, British Broadcasting Corporation (1970). “Civilization”, London : British Broadcasting Corporation

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• There may have been disillusionments in the lives of the medieval saints, but they would scarcely have been better pleased if they could have foreseen that their names would be associated nowadays chiefly with racehorses and the cheaper clarets.

  Hector Hugh Munro

  Names, May, Saint

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• It is far better to foresee even without certainty than not to foresee at all.

  Henri Poincare

  Absolute Certainty, Certainty, Foreseeing

  The Foundations of Science Science and Hypothesis (p. 129)

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• [Photography] is always like a state of grace, like the appearance of something that I hadn't foreseen, that surprises me and stops me. If I only did what I had in mind, there would be no emotion. It would be like keeping one's eyes shut rather than open, like theorizing rather than seeing.

  Sarah Moon

  Photography, Eye, Grace

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• O visions ill foreseen! Better had I Liv'd ignorant of future, so had borne My part of evil only.

  John Milton

  Evil, Ignorant, Vision

  John Milton, Henry John Todd (1852). “The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors; and with Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton, Derived Principally from Original Documents in Her Majesty's State-paper Office”, p.508

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• He only can create the greatest imaginable beauty who has endured all imaginable pangs, for only when we have seen and foreseen what we dread shall we be rewarded by that dazzling unforeseen wing-footed wanderer.

  William Butler Yeats

  Beauty, Wings, Dread

  William Butler Yeats (1998). “Mythologies”, p.332, Simon and Schuster

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• It is rather calming to remember that you really couldn't have foreseen what is happening to you.

  Margaret Widdemer

  Acceptance, Calming, Remember

  Margaret Widdemer (1917). “The Wishing-ring Man”

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• Lighter is the wound foreseen.

  Cato the Elder

  Fame, Lighters, Wounds

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• And he will manage the cure best who has foreseen what is to happen from the present state of matters.

  Hippocrates

  Statistics, Matter, States

  Hippocrates (1849). “The Genuine Works of Hippocrates”, p.234

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• All is foreseen but the choice is given.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Choices, Given

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• Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is granted.

  Rabbi Akiva

  Choices, Granted, Freedom Of Choice

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• We will continue to ignore political and economic forecasts, which are an expensive distraction for many investors and
  businessmen. Thirty years ago, no one could have foreseen the huge expansion of the Vietnam War, wage and price controls, two oil shocks, the resignation of a president, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a one-day drop in the Dow of 508 points, or treasury bill yields fluctuating between 2.8% and 17.4%.

  Warren Buffett

  War, Yield, Years

  Letter To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., www.berkshirehathaway.com. March 7, 1995.

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• Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Luck, Afternoon, Surprise

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• Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hopes of new pleasures, is it worth while to dress and undress? Does the sun shine on me today that I may reflect on yesterday? That I may endeavor to foresee and control what can neither be foreseen nor controlled - the destiny of tomorrow?

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Morning, Destiny

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (18??). “The Works of J. W. Von Goethe”

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• Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.

  Wayne Grudem

  People, Sovereign, Merit

  Wayne A. Grudem (2009). “Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine”, p.624, Harper Collins

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• In less than 70 hours, three astronauts will be launched on the flight of Apollo 8 from the Cape Kennedy Space Center on a research journey to circle the moon. This will involve known risks of great magnitude and probable risks which have not been foreseen. Apollo 8 has 5,600,000 parts and 1.5 million systems, subsystems and assemblies. With 99.9 percent reliability, we could expect 5,600 defects. Hence the striving for perfection and the use of redundancy which characterize the Apollo program.

  Jerome F. Lederer

  Moon, Journey, Circles

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• Columbus did not know where he was going, how far it was, nor where he had been after his return. With Apollo, there is no such lack of information. Nevertheless, the flight will involve risks of great magnitude and probably risks that have not been foreseen.

  Jerome F. Lederer

  Risk, Apollo, Information

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• But, on more accounts than one, I had had enough of moose-hunting. I had not come to the woods for this purpose, nor had I foreseen it, though I had been willing to learn how the Indian manvred; but one moose killed was as good, if not as bad, as a dozen.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Hunting, Moose, Purpose

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• I first learnt to program a computer when I was nine, when my dad got a ZX80, but I think I would have had to be a particularly perspicacious child to have foreseen the iPad or Twitter!

  Suw Charman-Anderson

  Children, Dad, Thinking

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• The denial of any distinction between foreseen and intended consequences, as far as responsibility is concerned, was not made by Sidgwick in developing any one 'method of ethics'; he made this important move on behalf of everybody and just on its own account; and I think it plausible to suggest that this move on the part of Sidgwick explains the difference between old-fashioned Utilitarianism and the consequentialism, as I name it, which marks him and every English academic moral philosopher since him.

  G. E. M. Anscombe

  Moving, Responsibility, Thinking

  G.E.M. Anscombe (2011). “Human Life, Action and Ethics: Essays by G.E.M. Anscombe”, p.190, Andrews UK Limited

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• Story involves action. Action towards an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Stories, Action, Ends

  Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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• I came to fantasy fairly late. For some ten years, I had been happily writing fiction and non-fiction for adults. But I always loved fantasy, whether for adults or young people; and at that particular point in my life, I wanted to try it, to understand it, as part of the process of learning to be a writer. The results were beyond anything I could have foreseen. As I've said often and elsewhere, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life.

  Lloyd Alexander

  Writing, Years, People

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• In creativity the way will be found for subject to pass into object, the identity of subject with object will be restored. All the great creators have foreseen this turning-point. Today, in the depths of culture itself and in all its separate spheres, this crisis of creativity is ripening.

  Nikolai Berdyaev

  Creativity, Identity, Depth

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• A short story relies on those values that make poetry and jazz what they are: tension, rhythms, inner beat, into unforeseen within foreseen parameters

  Julio Cortazar

  Stories, Jazz, Beats

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• Naturally enough, I couldn't have foreseen the vast sea change which has come upon that scene as a result of German reunification and associated events.

  Brian Ferneyhough

  Sea, Events, Enough

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