Mere Quotes - Page 37

• Mere enthusiasm is the all in all.

  William Blake

  Enthusiasm

  Thomas Wright, William Blake (1969). “The life of William Blake”

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• In this same tradition, beauty is inextricably bound up with the principles of order and harmony believed to underlie the cosmos. Artists in the Classical tradition, inspired by Platonic idealism, strove to create images that represented not the world of particulars-with all its defects-but an ideal image conceived in the mind, which was taken as representing some absolute, pure, ideal form of which all particular, material forms are but a mere shadow.

  John Walford

  Beauty, Taken, Artist

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• We have the possibility of being far removed from what we are, of beginning to taste it and feel it. That is direct knowledge. That is truth. Anything else is mere words.

  Frederick Lenz

  Inspirational, Buddhism, Taste

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• Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.

  Criss Jami

  Leadership, Liars, Lying

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.45, Criss Jami

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• A song has a life of its own. It's an autonomous thing, separate from your own experience, almost. And the mere repetition of it means it's subject to change; it means approaching it differently, expressing different emotional aspects of it. It doesn't feel like wallowing.

  St. Vincent

  Song, Mean, Emotional

  "St Vincent: 'I needed to know where the exits were'". Interview with Charlotte Richardson Andrews, www.theguardian.com. October 27, 2011.

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• Did the gods once mingle with humankind, or is Homer a visionary madman, or, what is worse, a mere poet, a maker-up of beautiful falsities, an elegant liar? I shall grapple with that perplexity, only to emerge as I went in, in a cloud of unknowing, if perhaps a little the wiser.

  Eva Brann

  Beautiful, Liars, Clouds

  Eva Brann “Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad”, Paul Dry Books

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• To jump and break the sound barrier will not be a mere record breaking experience or another extreme event that ends once the mission is accomplished.

  Felix Baumgartner

  Records Breaking, Sound, Events

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• Our advanced art approaches a fragile but marvelous life, one that maintains itself by a mere thread, melting into an elusive, changeable configuration, the surroundings, the artist, his work and everyone who comes to it.

  Allan Kaprow

  Art, Melting, Surroundings

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• You must all be aware that modern war is not a mere matter of military operations. It involves the whole strength and all the resources of the nation. Not only soldiers, but also all citizens without exception, take part.

  Chiang Kai-shek

  Military, War, Soldier

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• The metaphysical insanities of Athanasius, of Loyola, and of Calvin, are, to my understanding, mere lapses into polytheism, differing from paganism only by being more unintelligible.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Insanity, Understanding, Lapses

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• Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.

  Pope Francis

  Couple, Emotional, Feelings

  Pope Francis (2014). “The Joy of the Gospel”, p.24, BookBaby

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• The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation—until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Country, Men, Self

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• The world inside myself is vaster and richer than this paltry plane, peopled with mere galaxies and gods.

  Rachel Hartman

  World, Planes, Galaxy

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• We should not knowingly allow any species or race to go extinct. And let us go beyond mere salvage to begin the restoration of natural environments, in order to enlarge wild populations and stanch the hemorrhaging of biological wealth. There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.

  E. O. Wilson

  Race, Order, Diversity

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• The best current evidence is that media are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers groceries causes change in our nutrition.

  Richard A. Clarke

  Media, Achievement, Causes

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• The compelling thing about making art — or making anything, I suppose — is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances. Circe, Nimbue, Artemis, Athena, all the old sorceresses: they must have known the feeling as they transformed mere men into fabulous creatures, stole the secrets of the magicians, disposed armies: ah, look, there it is, the new thing. Call it a swine, a war, a laurel tree. Call it art.

  Audrey Niffenegger

  Art, War, Army

  "The Time Traveler's Wife". Book by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003.

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• The fact that all of us die anyway (the rumor turns out to be true) is a mere detail in the celestial glow of imagination. The artist's eyes destroy death.

  Herbert Gold

  Eye, Artist, Imagination

  Herbert Gold (1994). “Bohemia: Digging the Roots of Cool”, Touchstone Books

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• He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool; since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Suffering, Doctrine

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.199

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• The more I find life to be a great design, the more I suspect it to be singular in existence; the more I suspect it to be singular, the more I feel it to be specific and personal; the more I feel it to be personal, the more I think of it to be a mere question; And the more I think of it to be a question, the less I understand the questioner.

  Kedar Joshi

  Life, Science, Thinking

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• It is when Pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.

  William Bolitho

  Pirate, Thieves, Booty

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• If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love.

  Richard Rohr

  Love, Christian, Heart

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• We must be careful that the business we build does not become mere busyness.

  Alan Watts

  Accountability, Doe, Be Careful

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• Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired (by passionate devotion to them) produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can peradventure read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity ... we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access, reassurance.

  A. Edward Newton

  Book, Reading, Soul

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• The mere fact that so many who espouse such far-right views and beliefs still exist in this society is incarnate proof that Darwin's theories apply solely to biological processes and not to processes of the spirit.

  Derek R. Audette

  Views, Politics, Facts

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