Justify Quotes - Page 26

• The decision to attack the entire nation [of Yugoslavia] has been counterproductive, and our destruction of civilian life has now become senseless and excessively brutal. ... The United States' insistence on the use of cluster bombs, designed to kill or maim humans, is condemned almost universally and brings discredit on our nation (as does our refusal to support a ban on land mines). Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means.

  Jimmy Carter

  Mean, Land, Yugoslavia

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• The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.

  William J. Brennan

  Military, Temptation, Healthy

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• The leader personifies the certitude of the creed and the defiance and grandeur of power. He articulates and justifies the resentment damned up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breath-taking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages a world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action.

  Eric Hoffer

  Leadership, Believe, Sacrifice

  "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements" by Eric Hoffer, (p. 111), 1951.

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• Most men are followers, and implicitly rely upon the judgment of others. They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and regard a grave countenance as the title page and Preface to a most learned volume. So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. And when the teaching of parents, the customs of neighbors, and the general tongue approve and justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, it is hard even for the strongest to hold the citadel of his soul. In each country, in defence of each religion, the same arguments would be urged.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Country, Wisdom, Mistake

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.773, Library of Alexandria

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• Assassination is the extreme form of censorship; and it seems hard to justify an incitement to it on anti-censorial principles.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Principles, Politics, Censorship

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more”, p.2743, e-artnow

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• ...for the contingent out there who sneer at heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman and Captain America, those icons who still, at their core, represent selfless sacrifice for the greater good, and who justify their contempt by saying, oh, it's so unrealistic, no one would ever be so noble... grow up. Seriously. Cynicism is not maturity, do not mistake the one for the other. If you truly cannot accept a story where someone does the right thing because it's the right thing to do, that says far more about who you are than these characters.

  Greg Rucka

  Growing Up, Mistake, Hero

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• Thought the mind can justify itself faster than the speed of light, it can be stopped through the act of writing.

  Byron Katie

  Writing, Light, Mind

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• When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights.

  Edward Snowden

  Rights, Government, Care

  "Edward Snowden’s Privacy Tips: “Get Rid Of Dropbox,” Avoid Facebook And Google" by Anthony Ha, techcrunch.com. October 11, 2014.

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• Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest-it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.

  Howard Gossage

  Powerful, Tools, Purpose

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• All the same, they [books] do serve some purpose. Culture doesn't save anything or anyone, it doesn't justify. But it's a product of man: he projects himself into it, he recognizes himself in it; that critical mirror alone offers him his image.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Book, Men, Mirrors

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• In America, you’re allowed to justify almost any kind of bigotry, sexism, or intolerance if you source it to God’s big book of bad ideas.

  Bill Maher

  Book, Ideas, America

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• To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.

  Gore Vidal

  Evil, Greed, Mind

  "Comment, July 1961" by Gore Vidal, www.esquire.com. May 19, 2008.

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• The truth is that, though we were justified by faith alone, the faith that justifies is never alone (it always produces fruit, 'good works,'...a transformed life).

  J. I. Packer

  Fruit, Justified, Truth Is

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• Don't expect your genius to be discovered; do what you must do because it gives you joy. Don't expect your love to be accepted. Love because it justifies your life.

  Paulo Coelho

  Love Is, Giving, Joy

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Dec 04, 2011

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• There is nothing more 'elitist' than thinking our palate
  pleasure can ever justify a second of suffering or
  a single death. Please go vegan.

  Gary L. Francione

  Thinking, Suffering, Vegan

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• The best comics editors have the smallest egos. The worst ones feel like they have to justify their salaries by making changes just so they can leave their fingerprints. Every creative medium has those guys, and they're all loathsome.

  Mark Waid

  Editors, Creative, Guy

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• The amount of knowledge which we can justify from evidence directly available to us can never be large. The overwhelming proportion of our factual beliefs continue therefore to be held at second hand through trusting others, and in the great majority of cases our trust is placed in the authority of comparatively few people of widely acknowledged standing.

  Michael Polanyi

  Trust, Knowledge, Science

  Michael Polanyi (2012). “Personal Knowledge”, p.221, Routledge

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• You can be a victim or you can be rich, but you can't be both. Listen up! Every time, and I mean every time, you blame, justify, or complain, you are slitting your financial throat.

  T. Harv Eker

  Mean, Secret, Complaining

  FaceBook post by T. Harv Eker from Mar 13, 2013

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• If a person weren't failing in some way, shape or form, would he or she need to blame, justify, or complain? The obvious answer is no.

  T. Harv Eker

  Secret, Complaining, Needs

  FaceBook post by T. Harv Eker from Nov 02, 2010

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• The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Liberty, Principles

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 10 : Why The Worst Get On Top, 1940 - 1943.

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• Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has ever lived with an animal-be it a dog, a bird, or even a mouse-knows that this theory is a brazen lie, invented to justify cruelty.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Religious, Dog, Lying

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• I feel like I'm always having to justify why I haven't kept in touch with anyone from the old days in Stoke-on-Trent, but I'm like that with anybody. I don't let anybody in. I just rely on myself.

  Robbie Williams

  Feels, Stoke, Rely

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• Anyway that's a large part of what economics is - people arbitrarily, or as a matter of taste, assigning numerical values to non-numerical things. And then pretending that they haven't just made the numbers up, which they have. Economics is like astrology in that sense, except that economics serves to justify the current power structure, and so it has a lot of fervent believers among the powerful

  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Powerful, Numbers, Astrology

  Kim Stanley Robinson (2003). “Red Mars”, p.314, Spectra

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• Here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it

  Winston Churchill

  Kings, Men, Expression

  Sir Winston Churchill, Timothy Baker (1968). “The island race”

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• The temptation to be popular may prioritize public opinion above the word of God. Political campaigns and marketing strategies widely employ public opinion polls to shape their plans. Results of those polls are informative. But they could hardly be used as grounds to justify disobedience to God’s commandments!

  Russell M. Nelson

  Political, Temptation, Marketing

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