Literal Quotes - Page 10

• "I do not believe that Jesus, at the end of his earthly sojourn, returned to God by ascending in any literal sense into a heaven located somewhere in the sky. My knowledge of the size of this universe reduces that concept to nonsense."

  John Shelby Spong

  Jesus, Believe, Sky

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• Concerning the prayer that mountains fall to crush and hide, Farrar , says: "These words of Christ met with a painfully literal illustration when hundreds of the unhappy Jews at the siege of Jerusalem hid themselves in the darkest and vilest subterranean recesses, and when, besides those who were hunted out, no less than two thousand were killed by being buried under the ruins of their hiding places."

  Frederic Farrar

  Crush, Prayer, Fall

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• There is some confusion as to what magic actually is. I think this can be cleared up if you just look at the very earliest descriptions of magic. Magic in its earliest form is often referred to as “the art”. I believe this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art and that art, whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form is literally magic.

  Alan Moore

  Art, Believe, Writing

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• There is a twofold meaning in every creature, a literal and a mystical, and the one is but the ground of the other.

  John Smith

  Religion, Spirit, Mystical

  John Smith, Simon Patrick, John Worthington (1821). “Select discourses”, p.467

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• The resources of nature, like those of spirit, are running out, and all that a conscientious man can aspire to be is a literal conservative, hoarding what remains of culture and of natural wealth against the fierce appetites of modern life.

  Russell Kirk

  Running, Men, Hoarding

  Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.362, Regnery Publishing

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• Every part of the photographic image carries some information that contributes to its total statement; the viewer's responsibility is to see, in the most literal way, everything that is there and respond to it.

  Howard S. Becker

  Reading, Responsibility, Connections

  "Do Photographs Tell the Truth?". 1986.

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• I try not to be overly literal. When I'm writing songs, I write down a lot of words, and then I try to simplify it. I like to give people hints or words that make visual pictures for them.

  Neko Case

  Song, Writing, People

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• Part of the advantage, and part of the result of trying to be a producer and director, are the practical things, you find. It's so advantageous to go to a place that you already have a feel for, a literal and spiritual familiarity.

  Campbell Scott

  Spiritual, Trying, Directors

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• When you surrender and stop resisting and stop trying to change that which you can't change, but be in the moment, be fully open to the blessings you've already received and those that are yet to come and stand in that space of gratitude ... and look at where you are and how far you've come and what you've accomplished - when you can claim THAT and SEE that, the literal vibration of your life will change.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Gratitude, Blessing, Space

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• It's impossible to make a movie out of 'Naked Lunch.' A literal translation just wouldn't work. It would cost $400 million to make and would be banned in every country of the world.

  David Cronenberg

  Country, Countries Of The World, Lunch

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• The truth is that even in the information age, information is not enough. if all we needed were ideas and positive thinking, then we all would have had ponies when we were kids and we would all be living our "dream life" now. Action is what unites every great success. Action is what produces results. Knowledge is only potential power until it comes into the hands of someone who knows how to get himself to take effective action. In fact, the literal definition of the word "power" is "the ability to act."

  Tony Robbins

  Dream, Knowledge, Positive Thinking

  Tony Robbins (2012). “Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

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• Liberals and conservatives are opponents in the most literal sense, each using the myth of pure evil to demonize the other side and unite there own.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Evil, Politics, Opponents

  Jonathan Haidt (2006). “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom”, p.242, Basic Books

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• Movies are too literal.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Movie

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• I don't try to call myself a poet. But I know that my stuff is pretty literal, in that the themes are pretty simple and on the surface.

  Bo Burnham

  Simple, Trying, Stuff

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• Any hope that America would finally grow up vanished with the rise of fundamentalist Christianity. Fundamentalism, with its born-again regression, its pink-and-gold concept of heaven, its literal-mindedness, its rambunctious good cheer... its anti-intellectualism... its puerile hymns... and its faith-healing... are made to order for King Kid America.

  Florence King

  Christian, Kings, Cheer

  Florence King (1990). “Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye”, p.33, Macmillan

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• The individual in the ordinary circumstances of living may feel more unreal than real; in a literal sense, more dead than alive; precariously differentiated from the rest of the world, so that his identity and autonomy are always in question.... He may not possess an over-riding sense of personal consistency or cohesiveness. He may feel more insubstantial than substantial, and unable to assume that the stuff he is made of is genuine, good, valuable. And he may feel his self as partially divorced from his body.

  R. D. Laing

  Real, Self, Consistency

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• Poets... are literal-minded men who will squeeze a word till it hurts.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Hurt, Men, Poet

  Archibald MacLeish (1978). “Riders on the Earth: essays and recollections”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

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• My great longing is to make those very incorrectnesses, those deviations, remodellings, changes in reality, so that they may become, yes, lies if you like - but truer than the literal truth.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Truth, Lying, Reality

  Rosemary Treble, Vincent van Gogh (1975). “Van Gogh and his art”

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• It would be catastrophic if one day these fundamentalists Christians gain enough political power to enforce their literal understanding of Mosaic Law.

  Mel White

  Christian, Law, Political

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• Most times when people pitch you as being perfect for a part... they don't look at you as an actor who can transform. A lot of people are so literal.

  Catherine Keener

  People, Perfect, Looks

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• I was struggling to find a way to make evening clothes more deconstructed. I like to think that I translated the Latin concept in a more modern way. I don't think that I was that literal.

  Vera Wang

  Latin, Struggle, Thinking

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• Praise is literal food for feminine qualities. If you want your woman to grow in her radiance health, happiness, love, beauty, power and depth, praise these qualities. Praise them daily. A number of times.

  David Deida

  Love Is, Numbers, Quality

  David Deida (2008). “The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.90, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In the modern corporation the decisive power, that of the managers , is derived from no one but the managers themselves controlled by nobody and nothing and responsible to no one. It is in the most literal sense unfounded, unjustified, uncontrolled and irresponsible power.

  Peter Drucker

  Corporations, Modern, Responsible

  Peter F. Drucker (2017). “The Future of Industrial Man”, p.74, Routledge

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• I don't have a philosophy. If I had a philosophy, it's that I'm kind of literal minded. For example, I would never translate poetry - it's too hard, there are too many levels. Not that prose doesn't have many levels, but it's more grounded.

  Ann Goldstein

  Philosophy, Example, Levels

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• When dams were erected on the Columbia, salmon battered themselves against the concrete, trying to return home. I expect no less from us. We too must hurl ourselves against and through the literal and metaphorical concrete that contains and constrains us, that keeps us from talking about what is most important to us, that keeps us from living the way our bones know we can, that bars us from our home. It only takes one person to bring down a dam.

  Derrick Jensen

  Home, Talking, Important

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “A Language Older Than Words”, p.75, Chelsea Green Publishing

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