Half Measures Quotes

• The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

  Winston Churchill

  Procrastination, Entering, Delay

  Sir Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Never Give In!: Winston Churchill's Speeches”, p.126, A&C Black

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• I am not one for half measures or half-hearted efforts.

  Jay Inslee

  Effort, Half, Hearted

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• Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You.'

  C. S. Lewis

  Giving, Want, Christ

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

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• The division between faith and reason is a half-measure, till it is frankly admitted that faith has to do with fiction, and reason with fact.

  Leslie Stephen

  Faith, Religion, Atheism

  Leslie Stephen (1873). “Essays on Freethinking and Plainspeaking”, p.52

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• No half measures. Some things can’t be cut in half. You can’t half-love someone. You can’t half-betray, or half-lie.

  Mark Lawrence

  Lying, Cutting, Half

  Mark Lawrence (2013). “Emperor of Thorns”, p.61, Penguin

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• They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement, and meanwhile the debt accumulates.

  Henry David Thoreau

  School, Debt, Half

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.303, Simon and Schuster

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• I am a stranger to half measures. With life I am on the attack, restlessly ferreting out each pleasure, foraging for answers, wringing from it even the pain. I ransack life, hunt it down. I am the hungry peasants storming the palace gates. I will have my share. No matter how it tastes.

  Marita Golden

  Pain, Answers, Half

  Marita Golden (2008). “Migrations of the Heart: An Autobiography”, p.33, Anchor

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• The essence of liberalism is negotiation, a cautious half measure, in the hope that the definitive dispute, the decisive bloody battle, can be transformed into a parliamentary debate and permit the decision to be suspended forever in an everlasting discussion.

  Carl Schmitt

  Essence, Decision, Forever

  Carl Schmitt (2010). “Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty”, p.63, University of Chicago Press

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• Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Good Life, Fighting, Men

  "The Temper of Our Time". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1967.

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• Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

  Adrian Tan

  Apology, Cells, Loving Someone

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• Hannibal Lecter: We live in a primitive time - don't we, Will? - neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.

  Thomas Harris

  Wise, Book, Giving

  Thomas Harris (2009). “Red Dragon”, p.437, Penguin

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• I am a stranger to half measures.

  Marita Golden

  Half, Stranger

  Marita Golden (2008). “Migrations of the Heart: An Autobiography”, p.33, Anchor

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• The war is not going well and it is time to say why. It has been fought with half-measures. It has been fought with an eye on the wishes of our "coalition partners." It has been fought to assuage the Arab "street." It has been fought to satisfy the diplomats rather than the generals... Why have we not loosed the B-52s and the B-2s to carpet-bomb Taliban positions? And why are we giving the Taliban sanctuary in their cities? We could drop leaflets giving civilians 48 hours to evacuate, after which the cities become legitimate military targets.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Military, War, Eye

  "Not Enough Might" by Charles Krauthammer, www.washingtonpost.com. October 30, 2001.

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• I believe that alternative healing methods are much more than just temporary or half measures.

  Andrew Saul

  Believe, Healing, Alternatives

  "Helping People Doctor Themselves". Interview with Richard A. Passwater, wholefoodsmagazine.com. January 18, 2013.

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• That there is a continuous link from humans to gorillas, with the intermediate species merely long dead, is beyond the understanding of speciesists. Tie the label Homo sapiens even to a tiny piece of insensible embryonic tissue, and its life suddenly leaps to infinite, incomputable value.... Self-styled pro-lifers, and others that indulge in footling debates about exactly when in its development a foetus becomes human, exhibit the same discontinuous mentality. Human, to the discontinuous mind, is an absolutist concept. There can be no half measures. And from this flows much evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Self, Indulge In, Ties

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• This will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.

  George W. Bush

  Military, Victory, Campaigns

  "Bush: 'No outcome except victory" By Bryan Long, www.cnn.com. March 20, 2003.

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• To venture into space we must be strong-willed and determined. We must be fully committed to its exploration and discovery; space permits no half measures and is unforgiving of mistakes.

  Henry Joy McCracken

  Being Strong, Mistake, Discovery

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• One cannot ignore half of life for the purposes of science, and then claim that the results of science give a full and adequate picture of the meaning of life. All discussions of 'life' which begin with a description of man's place on a speck of matter in space, in an endless evolutionary scale, are bound to be half-measures, because they leave out most of the experiences which are important to use as human beings.

  Colin Wilson

  Men, Space, Giving

  "Religion and the Rebel". Book by Colin Wilson, p. 309, 1957.

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• My life, in some ways, has been a half-measure. I didn't commit myself all the way to my marriage and family, because I would have given up more. And I didn't go all the way with just being completely selfish. I always wonder where my career would be if I was more selfish.

  Alec Baldwin

  Selfish, Careers, Would Be

  "Why Me?" by Ian Parker, www.newyorker.com. September 8, 2008.

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• If my cup won't hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?

  Sojourner Truth

  Mean, Justice, Half

  Sojourner Truth (2017). “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Unabridged): Including her famous Speech Ain't I a Woman? (Inspiring Memoir of One Incredible Woman)”, p.104, e-artnow

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• Pakistan's political leadership needs to make a clear choice to fight the Taliban decisively, not with half measures, the burden is on Prime Minister Sharif to show he can unite the country to defend its children.

  Bruce Riedel

  Leadership, Country, Children

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• I can at once refute the statement that the people of the West object to conservation of oil resources. They know that there is a limit to oil supplies and that the time will come when they and the Nation will need this oil much more than it is needed now. There are no half measures in conservation of oil.

  Herbert Hoover

  Oil, People, Needs

  United States. President (1929-1933 : Hoover), Herbert Hoover (1974). “Herbert Hoover: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President”

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• We must be honest in acknowledging that neither Germany nor the US has the luxury of assuming that we can skate by on half-measures in Afghanistan and Pakistan and not risk suffering the consequences.

  Susan Rice

  Luxury, Risk, Suffering

  "Each Side Has to Do More". Interview with Gregor Peter Schmitz, www.spiegel.de. July 21, 2008.

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