Importance Quotes - Page 23

• Obama has already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to change the limits of what one can say publicly. His greatest achievement up to now is that, in his refined non-provocative way, he has introduced into public speech topics which had hitherto been de facto unsayable: the continuing importance of race in politics, the positive role of atheists in public life, the necessity to talk with "enemies" like Iran or Hamas, and so on. This is just what US politics needs today more than anything, if it is to break out of its gridlock: new words which will change the way we think and act.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Atheist, Thinking, Race

  9 Copy quote

• Futurism and Cubism are comparable in importance to the invention of perspective, for which they substituted a new concept of space. All subsequent movements were latent in them or brought about by them.. ..the two movements cannot be regarded as in opposition to each other, even though they started from opposite points; I maintain [an idea approved by Appolinaire and later by Matisse that they are two extremes of the same sign, tending to coincide at certain points which only the poetic instinct of the painter can discover: 'poetry' being the content and 'raison d'tre' of art.

  Gino Severini

  Art, Opposites, Ideas

  "Letters of the great artists" by Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, (pp. 248-249), 1963.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is of greater importance than the right early instruction of youth.

  Peter Stuyvesant

  Youth, Instruction, Greater

  "Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York". Book by Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan and John Romeyn Brodhead, 1853.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Philosophy is the science of estimating values. The superiority of any state or substance over another is determined by philosophy. By assigning a position of primary importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been removed, philosophy thus becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative thought.

  Manly Hall

  Philosophy, Priorities, Substance

  "The Secret Teachings of All Ages". Book by Manly P. Hall, 1928.

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Although we are aware that North Korea is attaching importance to the liquidation of the past, that is difficult unless there is progress over the abduction issue.

  Koichi Haraguchi

  Past, Korea, Issues

  58 Copy quote

• Imports remain a concern with the currency holding at $US0.75 cents and cost pressures persist, in particular for power and transport.

  Christofer Drew

  Cost, Pressure, Currency

  4 Copy quote

• The caretaker needs to be taken care of, in wages and benefits. Not enough emphasis is put on the importance of these caretakers.

  Chad Urmston

  Taken, Needs, Wages

  4 Copy quote

• What is doing the damage is the fact that the U.K. is pulling in more imports, which shows the continued strength of the economy and the strength of sterling.

  Adam Cole

  Damage, Facts, Economy

  5 Copy quote

• If art could be absolutely verified as to importance in, say, the way gold can be judged for purity and weight, then it would of course be finished as mythic activity. Free of doubt, controversy, and the inexplicable fluctuation of reputation, art-making would bear the same relationship to creativity as cake mix does to baking.

  Harold Town

  Art, Creativity, Cake

  6 Copy quote

• Artists have made innovations in many areas... But whatever the nature of an artist's innovation, its importance ultimately depends on the extent of its influence on other artists.

  David Galenson

  Artist, Innovation, Influence

  David W. Galenson (2011). “Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity”, p.2, Princeton University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are good citizens, and we cannot protect ourselves because you allow the criminals to run wild. ... I'd like you to come and live in the inner city for a week and see the importance of having a weapon. ... Go after the criminals and not the good people.

  Jesse Lee Peterson

  Running, Cities, People

  11 Copy quote

• The importance of writing in the breakdown of the bicameral voices is tremendously important. What had to be spoken is now silent and carved upon a stone to be taken in visually.

  Julian Jaynes

  Taken, Writing, Voice

  Julian Jaynes (2000). “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• There can be no doubt that the knowledge of logic is of considerable practical importance for everyone who desires to think and to infer correctly.

  Alfred Tarski

  Thinking, Doubt, Desire

  Alfred Tarski (2013). “Introduction to Logic: and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences”, p.109, Courier Corporation

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whoever is acquainted with the cruel injustice and unjust subordination frequently manifested in the family, whoever sees matters of lasting and supreme importance relative to the beginning and continuance of the family determined by momentary fancy or unreasoning passion, cannot but desire the construction of a social fabric in which reason may rule with perfect justice.

  Charles Franklin Thwing

  Passion, Perfect, Justice

  Charles Franklin Thwing, Carrie Frances Butler Thwing (1886). “The Family: An Historical and Social Study”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need leadership that can elevate religion and morality to their position of paramount importance and thus eliminate growing selfishness, immorality and materialism.

  George W. Romney

  Selfishness, Needs, Growing

  "Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report", Volume 25, Part 3, p. 2388, 1967.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What gave transcendent importance to the aggressiveness of power was the fact that its natural prey, its necessary victim, was liberty, or law, or right.

  Bernard Bailyn

  Law, Liberty, Facts

  Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.57, Harvard University Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fact that the ministerial conspiracy against liberty had risen from corruption was of the utmost importance to the colonists.

  Bernard Bailyn

  Liberty, Facts, Corruption

  Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.138, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The egoist ... destroys the universal importance accorded to moral law by showing that life independent of it is possible. Secondly, and even more intolerably to the pious, he manages to do so with shameless enjoyment.

  John Carroll

  Independent, Law, Moral

  John Carroll (2010). “Break-Out from the Crystal Palace: The Anarcho-Psychological Critique: Stirner, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky”, p.26, Taylor & Francis

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are many examples of companies and countries that have improved their competitiveness and efficiency by adopting open source strategies. The creation of skills through all levels is of fundamental importance to both companies and countries.

  Mark Shuttleworth

  Country, Skills, Example

  "Go Open Source Puts R3m Into Building Linux Channel". tectonic.co.za. January 30, 2006.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

  Michael Crichton

  Religious, Fighting, Animal

  Michael Crichton (1996). “The lost world”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wouldn't overestimate the importance of my popularity in the country and abroad but at the end of the day it's not as important because I believe that my presence here could make some difference and it could encourage people.

  Garry Kasparov

  Country, Believe, Differences

  7 Copy quote

• Man has learned to cope with all questions of importance without recourse to God as a working hypothesis.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Men, Atheism, Hypothesis

  4 Copy quote

• Further, economic systems ... have never arranged themselves by themselves. It is men who do the ordering according to their attitudes, desires and understanding of things. Changes take place, not independent of man's will, but on account of man's wills. Civilization has progressed by man's interference with material conditions.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Attitude, Independent, Men

  "Atheism Questions and Answers". Book by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, 1980.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• It goes with the passionate intensity and deep conviction of the truth of a religious belief, and of course of the importance of the superstitious observances that go with it, that we should want others to share it - and the only certain way to cause a religious belief to be held by everyone is to liquidate nonbelievers. The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought to a few has been too great to justify our entrusting moral accountancy to religious belief.

  Peter Medawar

  Spiritual, Religious, Blood

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.210, Oxford University Press, USA

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best idea ever thought of in the history of humanity is useless unless someone communicates it. It will die in the test tube. And in our case, what we're communicating here to people is not necessarily something they want to hear. And so, our demeanor - how we deliver this message - takes on crucial, crucial importance.

  Phil Plait

  Ideas, People, Humanity

  8 Copy quote