Modern Quotes

• The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

  C. S. Lewis

  Education, Teacher, Teaching

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.240, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Thank goodness modern convenience is a thing of the remote future.

  Walt Kelly

  Goodness, Convenience, Modern Conveniences

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• What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air.... It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.... Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

  Salman Rushdie

  Sibling, Moving, Air

  "Everybody needs to get thicker skins" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. July 10, 2008.

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• When we look at a good deal of serious modern fiction, and particularly Southern fiction, we find this quality about it that is generally described, in a pejorative sense, as grotesque. Of course, I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.... Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Writing, Southern, Quality

  "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960)

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• Amongst the many definitions, there is one that may be generally agreed upon: modernity is the epoch in which simply being modern became a decisive value in itself.

  Gianni Vattimo

  May, Definitions, Epoch

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• Some ruins of ancient times are much more beautiful than the best buildings of modern eras!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Beautiful, Eras, Ruins

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• When I returned as CEO in 2008, Starbucks had forgotten that meaningful innovations balance an organization's heritage with modern-day relevance and market differentiation, so we had to reorient. In one brainstorming session, we visited and observed great retailers, then asked ourselves, 'If Starbucks did not exist, what type of coffee experience would we create?

  Howard Schultz

  Meaningful, Coffee, Organization

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• Modern government has become a universal transfer agency that utilizes the political process for distributing vast measures of income and wealth. It preys on millions of victims in order to allocate valuable goods and services to its beneficiaries.

  Hans F. Sennholz

  Agency, Government, Order

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• In this modern world of ours many people seem to think that science has somehow made such religious ideas as immortality untimely or old fashioned. I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation, the human soul?

  Wernher von Braun

  Religious, Real, Thinking

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• Modern humanity's sense of alienation lies in the fact that we have cut ourselves adrift from both the natural world and from the roots of our past.

  Philip Carr-Gomm

  Lying, Cutting, Past

  Philip Carr-Gomm (2011). “Druid Mysteries: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century”, p.61, Random House

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• Modern dancers should be doing things no one else is doing, and it should come from the gut.

  Twyla Tharp

  Dancer, Should, Guts

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• Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Hate, War

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

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• The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art.

  Jackson Pollock

  Art, Thinking, Painting

  "Jackson Pollock" by Francis V. O'Connor, (p. 79), 1967.

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• Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

  John Ciardi

  Girl, Art, Sex

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• I spend so much time on the Internet...I feel like I'm a million pages into the worst book ever, and I'm never going to stop reading.

  Aziz Ansari

  Time, Reading, Book

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• It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.

  Oscar Wilde

  Fashion, Clothes, Old Fashioned

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.816, GENERAL PRESS

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• People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

  Vince Lombardi

  Motivational, Teamwork, Football

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• Modern prophets say that our economics have failed us. No! It is not our economics which have failed; it is man who has failed-man who has forgotten God. Hence no manner of economic or political readjustment can possibly save our civilization; we can be saved only by a renovation of the inner man, only by a purging of our hearts and souls; for only by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Justice will all these other things be added unto us.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Heart, Men, Civilization

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• What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe,
  and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and
  balms and spices... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the
  science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It
  means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something
  nice to eat.

  John Ruskin

  Art, Nice, Food

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• Don't bother about being modern. Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid.

  Salvador Dali

  Bother, One Thing, Modernism

  "Diary of a Genius" by Salvador Dali, Creation Books, (p. 42), 1998.

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• The sickness of our times for me has been just this damn thing that everything has been getting smaller and smaller and less and less important, that the romantic spirit has dried up, that there is no shame today. We're all getting so mean and small and petty and ridiculous, and we all live under the threat of extermination.

  Norman Mailer

  Mean, Important, Today

  Norman Mailer, Michael Lennon (1988). “Conversations with Norman Mailer”, p.34, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The free lunch is the essence of modern liberalism.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Essence, Lunch, Liberalism

  "Obamacare Laid Bare". www.jewishworldreview.com. November 01, 2013.

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• Modern diplomats approach every problem with an open mouth.

  Arthur Goldberg

  Mouths, Diplomats, Problem

  "Affronts, Insults and Indignities". Book by Morris Mandel, 1975.

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• Modern music and artistry would look and sound completely different if not for the groundbreaking contributions Michael Jackson gifted to the world.

  L.A. Reid

  Looks, World, Sound

  "New Michael Jackson music coming in May" by James Montgomery, www.mtv.com. March 31, 2014.

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• Scores of Congolese die each day unnecessarily due to the lack of access to healthcare and modern medicine.

  Dikembe Mutombo

  Medicine, Each Day, Healthcare

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