Incapable Quotes - Page 24

• [The blame for the future 'plight of civilization] must rest on scientific men, equally with others, for being incapable of accepting the responsibility for the profound social upheavals which their own work primarily has brought about in human relationships.

  Frederick Soddy

  Hard Work, Responsibility, Acceptance

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• Instinct is intelligence incapable of self-consciousness.

  John Sterling

  Self, Intuition, Natural Instinct

  John Sterling (1848). “Essays and tales, collected and ed., with a memoir, by J.C. Hare”, p.146

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• I have been Europe's last hope. She proved incapable of refashioning herself by means of voluntary reform. She showed herself impervious to charm and persuasion. To take her I had to use violence. (26th February)

  Adolf Hitler

  Mean, Europe, Reform

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• The habit of an opinion often leads to the complete conviction of its truth, it hides the weaker parts of it, and makes us incapable of accepting the proofs against it.

  Jons Jacob Berzelius

  Truth, Acceptance, Science

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• If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder: then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, Children, War

  Sun Tzu, Julius Caesar, Einhard, Niccolò Machiavelli, Carl von Clausewitz (2016). “Strategy Six Pack”, p.24, Lulu.com

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• For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.

  Blaise Pascal

  Life, Time, Nature

  "Pensées" by Blaise Pascal, (Section II: The Misery of Man without God), 1669.

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• I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Educational, Ideas, Mind

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.194, Hackett Publishing

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• Nearly all great civilizations that perished did so because they had crystallized, because they were incapable of adapting themselves to new conditions, new methods, new points of view. It is as though people would rather die than change.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Change, Views, Civilization

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• If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free.

  James A. Baldwin

  Giving, Justice, Diversity

  "Letter from a Region in My Mind". www.newyorker.com. November 17, 1962.

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• If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is.

  Blaise Pascal

  Atheist, Loss, Knowing

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• The view that women are infantile and emotional creatures, and as such, incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women's self-respect.

  Karen Horney

  Responsibility, Emotional, Self

  Karen Horney (1967). “Feminine Psychology”

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• People who create things nowadays can expect to be prosecuted by highly moralistic people who are incapable of creating anything. There is no way to measure the chilling effect on innovation that results from the threats of taxation, regulation and prosecution against anything that succeeds. We'll never know how many ideas our government has aborted in the name protecting us.

  Joseph Sobran

  Ideas, Creating, Government

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• Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.

  Harry Browne

  Government, Liberty, Principles

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• If you have no conditions you can enjoy life infinitely. If you have conditions, because of them you become incapable.

  Rajneesh

  Enjoy Life, Miscellaneous, Conditions

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• Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

  Joseph Joubert

  Appreciate, Crucible, Criticism

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• The wonders of the music of the future will be of a higher & wider scale and will introduce many sounds that the human ear is now incapable of hearing. Among these new sounds will be the glorious music of angelic chorales. As men hear these they will cease to consider Angels as figments of their imagination.

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  Inspiration, Angel, Men

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• Science is wonderful at destroying metaphysical answers, but incapable of providing substitute ones. Science takes away foundations without providing a replacement. Whether we want to be there or not, science has put us in the position of having to live without foundations. It was shocking when Nietzsche said this, but today it is commonplace; our historical position-and no end to it is in sight-is that of having to philosophise without 'foundations'.

  Hilary Putnam

  Science, Sight, Historical

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• This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Solitude, Capability, Misfortunes

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• Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being taught, except a little ancient geography and history. The school as a means of education to me was simply a blank. During my whole life I have been singularly incapable of mastering any language. Especial attention was paid to versemaking, and this I could never do well. I had many friends, and got together a good collection of old verses, which by patching together, sometimes aided by other boys, I could work into any subject.

  Charles Darwin

  Teaching, Mean, School

  Charles Darwin (2016). “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution”, p.25, VM eBooks

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• How is it that there are so many minds that are incapable of understanding mathematics? ... the skeleton of our understanding, ... and actually they are the majority. ... We have here a problem that is not easy of solution, but yet must engage the attention of all who wish to devote themselves to education.

  Henri Poincare

  Science, Skeletons, Understanding

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• In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Science, Medicine

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• This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, Earth, Return

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.459, Psychology Press

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• he's incapable of suffering for a long time, or being happy for a long time. Which means that he's incapable of anything really worth while.

  Albert Camus

  Mean, Long, Suffering

  ALBERT CAMUS (1971). “NOBEL PRIZE LIBRARY”

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• I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it.

  Barbara Jordan

  Women, Believe, Compassion

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• The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.

  Frank Chodorov

  Peace, Giving Up, War

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