Inverse Quotes - Page 3

• The necessity for external government to man is in an inverse ratio to the vigor of his self-government. Where the last is most complete, the first is least wanted. Hence, the more virtue the more liberty.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Men, Self, Liberty

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1854). “The complete works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an introductory essay upon his philosophical and theological opinions”, p.458

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In any given society the authority of man over man runs in inverse proportion to the intellectual development of that society.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Running, Men, Intellectual

  48 Copy quote

• The ability to rebound is in inverse proportion to the distance your house is from the nearest railroad tracks.

  Don Meyer

  Basketball, Distance, Track

  7 Copy quote

• People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored.

  Alain de Botton

  People, Important, Identity

  21 Copy quote

• We know, for instance, that there is a direct, inverse relationship between frequency of family meals and social problems. Bluntly stated, members of families who eat together regularly are statistically less likely to stick up liquor stores, blow up meth labs, give birth to crack babies, commit suicide, or make donkey porn. If Little Timmy had just had more meatloaf, he might not have grown up to fill chest freezers with Cub Scout parts.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Suicide, Baby, Blow

  Anthony Bourdain (2010). “Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook”, p.87, Bloomsbury Publishing

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is neither a proportional relationship, nor an inverse one, between a writer’s estimation of a work in progress & its actual quality. The feeling that the work is magnificent, & the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged.

  Annie Dillard

  Feelings, Quality, Progress

  10 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think that the amount of time you live on earth is just an inverse reflection of how good you were in a previous existence. For example, infants who die from SIDs were actually great people when they were alive for real, so they get to go to heaven after a mere five weeks in purgatory. Meanwhile anyone Willard Scott ever congratulated for turning one hundred two was obviously a terrible individual who had many many previous sins to pay for and had to spend a century in his or her own unknown purgatory even though the person seemed perfectly wholesome in this particular world.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Real, Reflection, Thinking

  Chuck Klosterman (2006). “Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's an inverse relationship between my temper and my ability to control my accent. If you hear me say 'Fiddledeedee', run for the hills, because I'm getting ready to take out bystanders.

  Molly Harper

  Running, Bystanders, Hills

  Molly Harper (2011). “How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The influence of the senses have in men overpowered the thought to the degree that the walls of time and space have come to look solid, real and insurmountable. .. Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the power of the mind. Man is capable of abolishing them both.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Real, Men

  4 Copy quote

• In no sense other than an utterly trivial one is reproduction the inverse of chemical disintegration. It is a misunderstanding of genetics to suppose that reproduction is only 'intended' to make facsimiles, for parasexual processes of genetical exchange are to be found in the simplest living things.

  Peter Medawar

  Chemicals, Genetics, Process

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.2, Oxford University Press, USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now of the difficulties bound up with the public in which we doctors work, I hesitate to speak in a mixed audience. Common sense in matters medical is rare, and is usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education.

  William Osler

  Education, Hard Work, Science

  William Osler (1927). “Aequanimitas”, p.73, Ravenio Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is really desired, under the name of riches, is essentially, power over men ... this power ... is in direct proportion to the poverty of the men over whom it is exercised, and in inverse proportion to the number of persons who are as rich as ourselves.

  John Ruskin

  Men, Names, Numbers

  John Ruskin (2015). “Unto This Last”, p.244, John Ruskin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A big silvery janitor. Penny, this can’t be how the universe works.” “In the Order we call it ‘inverse profundity.’ We’ve observed it in any number of cases. The deeper you go into the cosmic mysteries, the less interesting everything gets.

  Lev Grossman

  Order, Numbers, Interesting

  Lev Grossman (2015). “The Magicians Trilogy”, p.533, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Long, Noise, Bears

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.65, Publishdrive

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• One thing I will say - my job gets harder and harder. The more you understand about what you are capable of, the less the instrument can do it physically. It's an inverse equation, if that's the right phrase. I just slammed those two words together. It sounded right.

  Alan Rickman

  Jobs, Two, Together

  10 Copy quote

• The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.

  Eric Hoffer

  Creativity, Self, Creative

  "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'". The New York Times Magazine, p. 52, April 25, 1971.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Marriage is like a series of opposing reflections, inverse images getting ever smaller like nesting dolls, each one of your trying to squeeze yourself smaller to fit inside the hopes of the other, until one of you cracks or stops existing.

  Jacob M. Appel

  Reflection, Trying, Dolls

  4 Copy quote

• Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning assets. We can see that in the inverse relationship exhibited by price/earnings ratios and the rate of inflation in the past. But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?

  Alan Greenspan

  Past, Japan, Risk

  Alan Greenspan's speech at the Annual Dinner and Francis Boyer Lecture of The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., www.federalreserve.gov. December 5, 1996.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The value of an ad is in inverse ratio to the number of times it has been used.

  Raymond Rubicam

  Numbers, Ratios, Used

  15 Copy quote

• Four circles to the kissing come, The smaller are the benter. The bend is just the inverse of The distance from the centre. Though their intrigue left Euclid dumb There's now no need for rule of thumb. Since zero bend's a dead straight line And concave bends have minus sign, The sum of squares of all four bends Is half the square of their sum.

  Frederick Soddy

  Zero, Distance, Math

  4 Copy quote

• People's intelligence tends to be in inverse proportion to their number. People don't tend to get smarter as they get into bigger groups.

  Robyn Hitchcock

  Numbers, People, Groups

  4 Copy quote

• I think the contribution people make is not proportionate to their fame or success. In fact, I think the relation is often inverse.

  Allen W. Wood

  Thinking, People, Facts

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes they reasoned thus: "The Messiah ought to do such a thing, now Jesus is the Messiah, therefore Jesus has done such a thing." At other times, by an inverse process, it was said: "Such a thing has happened to Jesus; now Jesus is the Messiah; therefore such a thing was to happen to the Messiah."

  Ernest Renan

  Jesus, Atheism, Done

  Ernest Renan (1864). “The Life of Jesus”, p.27

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The usefulness of a meeting is in inverse proportion to the attendance.

  Lane Kirkland

  Attendance, Proportion, Meetings

  19 Copy quote

• Is it a stale remark to say that I have constantly found the interest excited at a playhouse to bear an exact inverse proportion to the price paid for admission?

  Charles Lamb

  Acting, Bears, Excited

  Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb (2017). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Illustrated)”, p.1278, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source