Instance Quotes - Page 30

• To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.

  Idries Shah

  Struggle, Ideas, People

  Idries Shah (1983). “Reflections”, p.54, Octagon Press Ltd

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• For instance, I never complained that my birthday was overlooked; people were even surprised, with a touch of admiration, by my discretion on this subject. But the reason for my disinterestedness was even more discreet: I longed to be forgotten in order to be able to complain to myself... Once my solitude was thoroughly proved, I could surrender to the charms of a virile self-pity.

  Albert Camus

  Self, Order, People

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.85, Vintage

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• You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for instance, they taught you at school is founded on a misconception.

  H. G. Wells

  School, Ideas, Two

  H. G. Wells “The Works of Wells”, Lulu.com

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• It is true, of course, that there is no way of knowing for sure whether or not you can trust someone, for the simple reason that circumstances change all of the time. You might know someone for several years, for instance, and trust him completely as your friend, but circumstances could change and he could become very hungry, and before you knew it you could be boiling in a soup pot, because there is no way of knowing for sure.

  Daniel Handler

  Change, Trust, Simple

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• Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him.

  James M. Barrie

  Children, Father, Adventure

  James M. Barrie (2013). “Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) (Annotated Edition)”, p.17, Jazzybee Verlag

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• I cannot prove that gods do not exist. Nor can I prove that the world and everything in it was not created by an entity or entities in the distant past. But I can tell you that in the millennia we elves have studied nature, we have never witnessed an instance where the rules that govern the world have been broken. That is, we have never seen a miracle. Many events have defied our ability to explain, but we are convinced that we failed because we are still woefully ignorant about the universe and not because a deity altered the workings of nature.

  Christopher Paolini

  Past, Broken, Miracle

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• One realized all sorts of things. The value of an illusion, for instance, and that the shadow can be more important than the substance. All sorts of things.

  Jean Rhys

  Shadow, Important, Substance

  Jean Rhys (1981). “Quartet”

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• You show me what someone listens to, I’ll tell you everything you want to know about his soul. (For instance, a bunch of Nickelback albums would have indicated he never had a soul in the first place.)

  Tad Williams

  Soul, Albums, Want

  Tad Williams (2012). “The Dirty Streets of Heaven: Bobby Dollar 1”, p.125, Hachette UK

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• Yes?’ he asked, looking at me over the sheet. ‘I’m a writer temporarily down on my inspirations.’ ‘Oh, a writer, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘What do you write?’ ‘Short stories mostly. And I’m halfway through a novel.’ ‘A novel, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What’s the name of it?’ ‘”The Leaky Faucet of My Doom.”‘ ‘Oh, I like that. What’s it about?’ ‘Everything.’ ‘Everything? You mean, for instance, it’s about cancer?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How about my wife?’ ‘She’s in there too.

  Charles Bukowski

  Cancer, Inspiration, Writing

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• It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and whats happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there - with your eyes open - and lived to see it.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Travel, Eye, Reality

  "The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones". Book by Anthony Bourdain, 2006.

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• The most dramatic instances of directed behavior change and "mind control" are not the consequence of exotic forms of influence, such as hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, or "brainwashing," but rather the systematic manipulation of the most mundane aspects of human nature over time in confining settings.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Hypnosis, Behavior Change, Drug

  Philip Zimbardo (2011). “The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil”, p.258, Random House

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• The theory of the free press is not that the truth will be presented completely or perfectly in any one instance, but that the truth will emerge from free discussion

  e. e. cummings

  Truth, Theory, Discussion

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• I am certain that over the course of your own life, you have noticed that people's rooms reflect their personalities. In my room, for instance, I have gathered a collection of objects that are important to me, including a dusty accordion on which I can play a few sad songs, a large bundle of notes on the activities of the Baudelaire orphans, and a blurry photograph, taken a very long time ago, of a woman whose name is Beatrice. These are items that are very precious and dear to me.

  Daniel Handler

  Song, Taken, Play

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• We’ve all got weaknesses. Me, for instance. I’m tragically funny and good-looking.

  Rick Riordan

  Weakness, Looking Good, Leo Valdez

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• To show a longing for anything that one cannot have, for instance, is not a clever position.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Clever, Longing, Shows

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2013). “The Signature of All Things”, p.63, A&C Black

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• When I looked at the painting I felt the same convergence on a single point: a flickering sun-struck instance that existed now and forever. Only occasionally did I notice the chain on the finch's ankle, or think what a cruel life for a little living creature - fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place.

  Donna Tartt

  Thinking, Land, Forever

  "The Goldfinch". Book by Donna Tartt, 2013.

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• Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often.

  Alice Hoffman

  Butterfly, Men, Way

  FaceBook post by Alice Hoffman from Apr 15, 2016

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• Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another atfifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and unalterable thing.

  H. G. Wells

  Time, Men, Eight

  H G Wells (2004). “The Time Machine (Sparklesoup Classics)”, p.6, Sparklesoup LLC

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• I prize the Depression, for instance, because I learned the value of things in the Depression that a way people who don't have to worry about such things never learned to prize it really, I believe.

  Shelby Foote

  Depression, Believe, People

  Interview for the Academy of Achievement, Washington, D. C., June 18, 1999.

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• America must always lead on the world stage. If we don't, no one else will. The military that you have joined is, and always will be, the backbone of that leadership. But U.S. military action cannot be the only - or even primary - component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.

  Barack Obama

  Graduation, Military, Mean

  Remarks by the President at the United States Military Academy Commencement Ceremony, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 28, 2014.

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• The greatest crimes have been found, in many instances, to be compatible with a superstitious piety and devotion; hence it is justly regarded as unsafe to draw any inference in favor of a man's morals, from the fervor or strictness of his religious exercises, even though he himself believe them sincere.

  David Hume

  Religious, Believe, Exercise

  David Hume (2016). “The Natural History of Religion: Revision of Great Book”, p.50, VM eBooks

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• It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind.

  Jane Austen

  Dance, Dancing, People

  Jane Austen (2009). “Emma”, p.151, Wild Jot Press

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• A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Adversity, Suffering, Principles

  Thomas Jefferson, Andrew M. Allison (1983). “The Real Thomas Jefferson”, Natl Center for Constitutional

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• You're 30: You know stuff now. Your 20s were for 'ducking up,' as my auto-correct would say, and learning from those mistakes. (For instance, never again will I convince myself that sleep is for sissies and go straight from a party to the airport. You will not 'sleep on the plane'; you'll vomit in the security line. Go to bed.)

  Olivia Wilde

  Mistake, Party, Sleep

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• As for the presence of large NGF [nerve growth factor] sources in snake venom and male genital organs, they may be conceived as instances of bizarre evolutionary gene expression.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Science, Expression, Snakes

  "The Saga of the Nerve Growth Factor: Preliminary Studies, Discovery, Further Development".

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