Former Quotes - Page 32

• There are two ways of avoiding fear: one is by persuading ourselves that we are immune from disaster, and the other is by the practice of sheer courage. The latter is difficult, and to everybody becomes impossible at a certain point. The former has therefore always been more popular. Primitive magic has the purpose of securing safety, either by injuring enemies, or by protecting oneself by talismans, spells, or incantations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Practice, Two, Safety

  Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

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• A former congressman on his sexting habit: I have made terrible mistakes. I have not been honest with myself, my family, my constituents, my friends and supporters and the media.

  Anthony Weiner

  Mistake, Media, Religion

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• Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, 4th Of July, Pride

  Benjamin Franklin (2010). “Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography & Selected Writings”, p.64, American Liberty Press

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• "My former master taught me to accept birth and death." "Then what have you come to me for?" asked the master. "To learn to accept what lies in between."

  Anthony de Mello

  Spiritual, Lying, Taught

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• Your latter days are supposed to be greater than your former days.

  T. D. Jakes

  Age, Latter, Supposed To Be

  Twitter post from Nov 3, 2016

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• I didn't say 'former president,' I said 'president,' and I have the constitutional rights according to the constitution, including immunity from prosecution.

  Saddam Hussein

  Rights, Evil, President

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence.

  Karl Kraus

  Mean, Agreement, Civilization

  "In these great times" by Karl Kraus, translated by Harry Zohn, Montreal, pp. 73-74, ("In these great times"), 1976.

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• The question now at issue, whether the living species are connected with the extinct by a common bond of descent, will best be cleared up by devoting ourselves to the study of the actual state of the living world, and to those monuments of the past in which the relics of the animate creation of former ages are best preserved and least mutilated by the hand of time.

  Charles Lyell

  Science, Past, Issues

  Sir Charles Lyell (1863). “The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man: With Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation”, p.470

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• We have really, that I know of, no philosophical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vegetable kingdom does not culminate, as the animal kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common-wealth; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and unaccountable from the former point of view.

  Asa Gray

  Philosophical, Science, Animal

  Asa Gray (1973). “Letters of Asa Gray”

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• The works of Lavoisier and his associates operated upon many of us at that time like the Sun's rising after a night of moonshine: but Chemistry is now betrothed to the Mathematics, and is in consequence grown somewhat shy of her former admirers.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hard Work, Science, Night

  Luke Howard, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1976). “Luke Howard (1772-1864): His Correspondence with Goethe and His Continental Journey of 1816”

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• When we consider the incidents of former days, and perceive, while reviewing the long line of causes, how the most important events of our lives originated in the most trifling circumstances; how the beginning of our greatest happiness or greatest misery is to be attributed to a delay, to an accident, to a mistake; we learn a lesson of profound humility.

  Arthur Helps

  Mistake, Humility, Fate

  Sir Arthur Helps (1892). “Essays and Aphorisms”

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• I make a distinction between Buddhism with a Capital 'B' and buddhism with a small 'b'. Sri Lanka has the former, in which the state uses Buddhism as an instrument of power, so there are even Buddhists monks who say the Tamils should be eliminated. Thai Buddhists are not perfect either. Some Thai Buddhist monks have compromised with the kind and possess cars and other luxuries. In many Buddhist countries, the emphasis is on being goody-goody, which is not good enough. I am for buddhism with a small 'b' which is non-violent, practical and aims to eliminate the cause of suffering.

  Sulak Sivaraksa

  Country, Buddhist, Humility

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• In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.

  William J. Clinton

  Self, Years, Law

  William J. "Bill" Clinton's State of the Union address, millercenter.org. January 24, 1995.

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• We went all the way down the Himalayan chain for a day and a half. That was magnificent, except the Chinese told us they were going to shoot us down if we came out the far end. So I spent a lot of my time contacting former Prime Minister Tony Blair begging him to tell the Chinese we were coming in this direction by mistake and could he please say we have no nasty motives for flying into their territory.

  Richard Branson

  Mistake, Adventure, Flying

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• If you believe our president, a former oil businessman, is going to end our addiction to oil, shame on all of us.

  Dan Seals

  Believe, Oil, Addiction

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• The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists in this: In the former state a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or by his representative; in the latter, he is governed by the will of another. In the one case, his life and property are his own; in the other, they depend upon the pleasure of his master. It is easy to discern which of these two states is preferable.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Law, Two

  Alexander Hamilton (1842). “The Official and Other Papers ...”, p.12

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• Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Prayer, Believe, Home

  Charles H. Spurgeon (2012). “The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860: Unabridged Sermons In Modern Language”, p.528, New Leaf Publishing Group

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• CAIR officials or former officials have been arrested on charges related to terrorism yet all it offers is silence and stonewalling in discussing what are its real motives.

  Paul Weyrich

  Real, Silence, Terrorism

  "Questions for CAIR" by Paul Weyrich, www.newsmax.com. January 21, 2004.

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• Charity is an ugly trick. It is a virtue grown by the rich on the graves of the poor. Unless it is accompanied by sincere revolt against the present social system, it is a cheap moral swagger. In former times it was used as fire insurance by the rich, but now that the fear of Hell has gone along with the rest of revealed religion, it is used either to gild mean lives with nobility or as a political instrument.

  Rebecca West

  Mean, Fire, Justice

  Rebecca West, Jane Marcus (1982). “The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”, New York : Viking Press

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• Other conditions being equal, if one force is hurled against another ten times its size, the result will be the flight of the former.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, War, Size

  Sun Tzu, Julius Caesar, Einhard, Niccolò Machiavelli, Carl von Clausewitz (2016). “Strategy Six Pack”, p.23, Lulu.com

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• In an age of computer manipulation, surrealism has become banal, a shadow of its former self.

  Milton Glaser

  Technology, Self, Shadow

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• Remain strong in your faith, as you were in former years. In this faith, in its close-knit unity our people to-day goes straight forward on its way and no power on earth will avail to stop it.

  Adolf Hitler

  Strong, Years, People

  Adolf Hitler “The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939: An English Translation of Representative Passages Arranged Under Subjects and Edited by Norman H. Baynes”

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• There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.

  William Hazlitt

  Ignorance, Ignorant, Conversation

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.77

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• The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

  John Quincy Adams

  Government, Democracy, Age

  John Quincy Adams (1839). “The Jubilee of the Constitution: A Discourse Delivered at the Request of the New York Historical Society, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April, 1839; Being the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789 ...”, p.53

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• Former Vice President Al Gore starring in a new documentary about global warming. I believe it's called [Leno snores]. ... The film actually features Al Gore and explores his journey on how he first got interested in temperature change. It started back when he was vice president. He noticed how the temperature would change, like whenever Bill would walk into the room, it would get warm and whenever Hillary walked into the room, it got cold.

  Jay Leno

  Believe, Journey, President

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