Might Quotes - Page 21

• I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Country, Father, Thinking

  "Rice speech sparks 2016 speculation" by Kevin Cirilli, Mackenzie Weinger, www.politico.com. August 29, 2012.

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• Certainly there’s a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would be talking to Al Qaeda, that there would be some Al Qaeda there or that Saddam Hussein might even be, you know, discussing gee, I wonder since I don’t have any scuds and since the Americans are coming at me, I wonder if I could take advantage of Al Qaeda? How would I do it? Is it worth the risk? What could they do for me?

  Wesley Clark

  Talking, Iraq, Risk

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• A writer of story books! What kind of business in life-what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation-may that be? Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Book, May, Glorifying God

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850). “The Scarlet Letter”, p.17

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• And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of ; if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone ; if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

  Herman Melville

  Real, College, Men

  Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.108

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• You still could go to some industry or some university or the government and if you could persuade them you had something on the ball—why, then, they might put up the cash after cutting themselves in on just about all of the profits. And, naturally, they'd run the show because it was their money and all you had done was the sweating and the bleeding.

  Clifford D. Simak

  Running, Cutting, Government

  Clifford D. Simak (2013). “Project Mastodon”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

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• So might we ourselves look down into some rock-pool where lowly creatures repeat with naive zest dramas learned by their ancestors æons ago.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Drama, Rocks, Zest

  Olaf Stapledon (1931). “Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels”, p.364, Courier Corporation

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• Anyone who clings to the historically untrue-and thoroughly immoral-doctrine that, 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Thinking, Issues, Never Settle

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Starship Troopers”, p.27, Penguin

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• Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow if tomorrow might improve the odds.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Odds, Understanding, Delay

  "Time Enough for Love" by Robert A. Heinlein, Ace, (p. 334), August 1988.

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• I don't like to show my emotions at the board, not because they might give something away to an opponent, but because that's my style: I like to keep it to myself.

  Vladimir Kramnik

  Giving, Style, Boards

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• A hard truth: that courage can be without meaning or impact, need not be rewarded, or even known. The world has not been made in that way. Perhaps, however, within the self there might come a resonance, the awareness of having done something difficult, of having done . . . something.

  Guy Gavriel Kay

  Impact, Self, Needs

  Guy Gavriel Kay (2005). “The Last Light of the Sun”, p.335, Penguin

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• The eunuch had looked death in the face, so near he might have kissed her on the lips.

  George R. R. Martin

  Faces, Lips, Eunuchs

  George R. R. Martin (2011). “A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five”, p.1046, Bantam

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• A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles.

  Stephen Crane

  Men, Thinking, Play

  Stephen Crane, Anthony Matthew Mellors, Fiona Robertson (1998). “The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories”, p.77, Oxford Paperbacks

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• The mystery of life--its inexplicability, beauty, cruelty, tenderness, folly . . . has occupied the greater part of my waking thoughts; and in reverence or rage or irony, as the moment or situation might dictate, I have pondered and even demanded of cosmic energy to know Why.

  Theodore Dreiser

  Energy, Waking, Irony

  Theodore Dreiser (1977). “Theodore Dreiser: a selection of uncollected prose”, Wayne State Univ Pr

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• Without discipline, no matter how good you are, you are nothing! One day, and I might not be around; you're going to meet a tough guy who takes your best shot. He'll keep coming because he's tough. Don't get discouraged. That's when the discipline comes in.

  Mike Tyson

  Discipline, Guy, One Day

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• If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood which I felt I had to control, otherwise I might end up in the loony bin. But when I made my way in the world I wanted to indulge myself in my fantasies to the extent that I could afford.

  George Soros

  Childhood, World, Way

  "Underwriting Democracy: Encouraging Free Enterpirse And Democratic Reform Among The Soviets In Eastern Europe". Book by George Soros, 1991.

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• I was smart enough to use pot without getting caught, and now I'm on the Supreme Court. If you were stupid enough to get caught, that's your problem. Your appeal is denied. This 40 year sentence just might teach you a lesson.

  Clarence Thomas

  Stupid, Smart, Years

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• If there is an ‘overabundance’ of an idea in the absence of direct governmental action - which there well might be when compared with some ideal state of public debate - then action disfavoring that idea might ‘un-skew,’ rather than skew, public discourse.

  Elena Kagan

  Ideas, Action, Debate

  "Kagan Argued for Government 'Redistribution of Speech'" by Matt Cover, www.cnsnews.com. May 11, 2010.

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• If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence.

  Luis Bunuel

  Destiny, Curiosity, Fundamentals

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story.

  Roddy Doyle

  Age, Way, Meat

  "Commitments" Author Pens Short Goodbyes To Youth". Interview with Scott Simon, www.npr.org. May 21, 2011.

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• I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Years, Desire, Single Word

  "Tell the story! Tell the story!" by Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com. January 4, 2008.

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• Films might get to you and your subconscious and make a little difference, but when the vigilante drum beats, the mob screams and the conformists go along with it. There have to be people who are non-conformists.

  Oliver Stone

  Differences, People, Littles

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• If the afternoon had been blue,
  there might have been less desire.

  Carlos Drummond de Andrade

  Blue, Desire, Afternoon

  Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Thomas Colchie, Mark Strand (1986). “Travelling in the Family: Selected Poems”, New York : Random House

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• Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one.

  Len Deighton

  Book, Interesting, Lenses

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• Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.

  Jonathan Lethem

  Self, Manhattan, Brooklyn

  Jonathan Lethem (2004). “The Fortress of Solitude”, p.50, Vintage

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• Seriously, I think it is a grave fault in life that so much time is wasted in social matters, because it not only takes up time when you might be doing individual private things, but it prevents you storing up the psychic energy that can then be released to create art or whatever it is. It's terrible the way we scotch silence & solitude at every turn, quite suicidal. I can't see how to avoid it, without being very rich or very unpopular, & it does worry me, for time is slipping by , and nothing is done. It isn't as if anything was gained by this social frivolity, It isn't: it's just a waste.

  Philip Larkin

  Art, Suicidal, Thinking

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica”, Faber & Faber

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