Literal Quotes

• OUR ORDINATION: Sir Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1747 About the times of the End, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.

  Isaac Newton

  Men, Attention, Body

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• There are bits of the literal future right here, right now, if you know how to look for them.

  William Gibson

  Looks, Right Now, Knows

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• The month of Ramadan is the world's most widespread fast and yet its teachings are minimised, neglected and even betrayed (through literal application of rules that overlooks their ultimate objective).

  Tariq Ramadan

  Teaching, World, Ramadan

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• I’ve lived the literal meaning of the ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave.’ It’s not corny for me. I feel it in my heart. I feel it in my chest. Even at a ball game, when someone talks during the anthem or doesn’t take off his hat, it pisses me off. I’m not one to be quiet about it, either.

  Chris Kyle

  Home, Heart, Land

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• When it comes to literal nourishment, the food we eat, life begets life.

  Victoria Moran

  Begets, Nourishment

  "Ageless Living in a Culture of Youth" by Victoria Moran, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 10, 2011.

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• In my understanding of God I start with certain firm beliefs. One is that the laws of nature are not broken. We do not, of course, know all these laws yet, but I believe that such laws exist. I do not, therefore, believe in the literal truth of some miracles which are featured in the Christian Scriptures, such as the Virgin Birth or water into wine. ... God works, I believe, within natural laws, and, according to natural laws, these things happen.

  Nevill Francis Mott

  Christian, Believe, Hard Work

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• The words 'California's Gold' will no longer mean anything about me or about a television series. They will mean what California's Gold has always truly meant: not the literal gold nuggets that they pulled out of the earth, not the riches people got when they came here, but the dreams that brought people here and are still bringing people here.

  Huell Howser

  Dream, Mean, California

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• I allude to Back to the Future in the 1985 story to let folks know it was an inspiration and because it literally was the most time-travelly bit of pop culture we had in the mid 80's. I can talk about their tools for considering change. First, the book is metafictive in a traditional sense where I'm showing and telling the reader that the act of writing and reading is a reflexive way to push boundaries of real and literal time travel. Writers and readers are time travellers. The question is what we do with that time we traveled when we leave a book, leave a page.

  Kiese Laymon

  Real, Book, Inspiration

  Source: therumpus.net

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• There have always been dreamers. Men and women who catch a glimpse of something beyond themselves who dare to reach for goals and visions. .. Yet no earthly dreamer can match the greatest of them all, the Dreamer who died on the cross to make His dream a reality. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word." The literal meaning of logos, the original Greek term translated as "Word," is idea, thought or blueprint. It is an ancient Greek theatrical term describing the work of a playwright as he conceives, or dreams up, the plot of a play. So we could say, "In the beginning was the dream".

  Tommy Tenney

  Dream, Reality, Men

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• I have yet to find a faithful tithe payer who cannot testify that in a very literal and wonderful way the windows of Heaven have been opened and blessings have been poured out upon him or her.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Blessing, Heaven, Faithful

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• If you ever make anything too literal you might as well forget it. It loses everything.

  Gillian Wearing

  Might, Forget, Wells

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• As a whole, I am interested in the symbolic, rather than the literal use of the camera.

  Clarence John Laughlin

  Use, Cameras, Symbolic

  Keith F. Davis, Nancy Barrett, John H. Lawrence, Clarence John Laughlin (1990). “Clarence John Laughlin: visionary photographer”, Hallmark Card Inc

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• My work never directly addresses the literal subject matter of the photograph, but attempts to ask questions about vision itself.

  Uta Barth

  Vision, Addresses, Matter

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• The freeze of a photographic gesture, the fix of an action, how an arm twists, how a smile gets momentarily stabilized or exaggerated - to try to get some of this is important... The photofix inflects the almost literal shaping of a figure, changes of movement or potential movement, and a sense of occurrence or event.

  Leon Golub

  Important, Trying, Twists

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• An aspect of the work has to do with altering the literal/cultural meaning of existing public images by making minimal changes and additions. Using superimposition, juxtaposition and other contextual changes, I am functioning as a visual guerrilla.

  Robert Heinecken

  Juxtaposition, Aspect, Visuals

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• My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.

  John Dominic Crossan

  Smart, People, Dumb

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• All translation is a compromise - the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic.

  Benjamin Jowett

  Effort, Language, Compromise

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• Fast food may appear to be cheap food and, in the literal sense it often is, but that is because huge social and environmental costs are being excluded from the calculations. Any analysis of the real cost would have to look at such things as the rise in food-borne illnesses, the advent of new pathogens, antibiotic resistance from the overuse of drugs in animal feed, extensive water pollution from intensive agricultural systems and many other factors. These costs are not reflected in the price of fast food.

  Prince Charles

  Real, Animal, Often Is

  "Organics Interview". Interview With Joanne Shoebridge, www.abc.net.au. September 25, 2005.

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• The sceptic ultimately undermines democracy (1) because he can see no significance in death and such things of a literal equality; (2) because he introduces different first principles, making debate impossible: and debate is the life of democracy; (3) because the fading of the images of sacred persons leaves a man too prone to be a respecter of earthly persons; (4) because there will be more, not less, respect for human rights if they can be treated as divine rights.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Rights, Divine Right

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• A verse from the Veda says, 'What you see, you become.' In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.

  Deepak Chopra

  Attitude, Perception, Experience

  Deepak Chopra (1990). “Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/body Medicine”, Bantam

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• It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.

  George Steiner

  Past, Mirrors, Other Cultures

  George Steiner (1974). “In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture”, p.3, Yale University Press

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• ...The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First Amendment doesn't say you have a right to speak out unless the government has a 'compelling interest' in censoring the Internet. The Second Amendment doesn't say you have the right to keep and bear arms until some madman plants a bomb. The Fourth Amendment doesn't say you have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.

  Harry Browne

  Thinking, Fbi Agents, Rights

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• In matters of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. (not literal translation) - Dan's les champs de observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.

  Louis Pasteur

  Life, Mind, Favors

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• Most of us would be upset if we were accused of being "silly." But the word "silly" comes from the old English word "selig," and its literal definition is "to be blessed, happy, healthy and prosperous."

  Zig Ziglar

  Happiness, Meaningful, Silly

  Zig Ziglar (1997). “Over the Top: Moving from Survival to Stability, from Stability to Success, from Success to Significance”, p.63, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words man, ("to think") and tra ("tool'). So the literal translation is "a tool of thought." And that's how mantras are used in Buddhist and Hindu practices, as tools that clear your mind of distractions. Because when you focus on repeating that mantra over and over again, soon the noise will die down and all you will hear is your inner voice.

  Russell Simmons

  Buddhist, Men, Thinking

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