Nonsense Quotes - Page 23

• It's this no-nonsense side of women that is pleasant to deal with. They are the real sportsmen.

  Phyllis McGinley

  Real, Sides, Deals

  Phyllis McGinley (1962). “The province of the heart”

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• The chief difficulty of modern theoretical physics resides not in the fact that it expresses itself almost exclusively in mathematical symbols, but in the psychological difficulty of supposing that complete nonsense can be seriously promulgated and transmitted by persons who have sufficient intelligence of some kind to perform operations in differential and integral calculus.

  Celia Green

  Science, Supposing That, Theoretical Physics

  Celia Elizabeth Green (1976). “The decline and fall of science”, Hamish Hamilton

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• It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with a conceit of our own importance, which would render us insupportable through life. Happy the boy whose mother is tired of talking nonsense to him before he is old enough to know the sense of it.

  Augustus William Hare

  Mother, Baby, Tired

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• It's just as hard for man to break the habit of thinking of himself as central to the species as it was to break the habit of thinking of himself as central to the universe. He sees himself quite unconsciously as the main line of evolution, with a female satellite revolving around him as the moon revolves around the earth. This not only causes him to overlook valuable clues to our ancestry, but sometimes leads him into making statements that are arrant and demonstrable nonsense.

  Elaine Morgan

  Moon, Men, Thinking

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• They will do more whether we do what we're doing or whether we don't do what we're doing. And the idea that you could appease them [terrorists] by stopping doing what we're doing or some implication that by doing what we're doing we're inciting them to attack us is just utter nonsense. It's just - it's kind of like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you last.

  Donald Rumsfeld

  Ideas, Stopping, Lasts

  "September 11, 2001: Attack on America". Donald Rumsfeld's remarks during the the U.S. Department of Defense News Briefing, avalon.law.yale.edu. November 13, 2001.

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• Why take chances? It may be nonsense, but does anybody really know? And people have certainly been fascinated by astrology for thousands of years.

  Nancy Reagan

  Years, Astrology, People

  Nancy Reagan (2011). “My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan”, p.61, Random House

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• The idea is that inside every human being, however unprepossessing, there is a glorious, talented, and overwhelmingly attractive personality. Nonsense. Inside each of us is a mess of unruly, primitive impulses, and these can sometimes, under the strenuous self-discipline and dedication of art, result in notable creativity.

  Margaret Halsey

  Art, Creativity, Dedication

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• Well, India is a country of nonsense

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Country, India, Wells

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Ronald Duncan (2005). “Gandhi: Selected Writings”, p.131, Courier Corporation

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• When you're in the desert you witness acts of power. When you're in the world of the tonal, drop all that nonsense, become logical and orderly and have fun with that.

  Frederick Lenz

  Fun, Buddhism, Desert

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• For me, religion is serious business - a farrago of authoritarian nonsense, misogyny and humble pie, the eternal enemy of human happiness and freedom.

  Katha Pollitt

  Humble, Pie, Enemy

  Katha Pollitt (2007). “Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture”, p.29, Modern Library

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• I think our culture is sick and tired of fluffy nonsense and people want something more sincere and heartfelt.

  Joseph Gordon-Levitt

  Tired, Thinking, Want Something

  Source: www.thewrap.com

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• There's a story behind every old ballad or work song or nonsense song that I ever knew. Sometimes it's a fascinating story. A story of people struggling for freedom, struggling to get along in this old world.

  Pete Seeger

  Song, Struggle, People

  Source: www.folkmusicworldwide.com

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• What nonsense it is, this desire to be without limitations, this wish always to be seen in the most flattering light. We are anxious, not because we think so little of ourselves, but because we think so much of ourselves. We are anxious, not that we may appear in the worst light, but that we may not appear in the best light. Anxiety is born of self-consciousness, and it is alleviated to the exact extent that we can drop consciousness of the self.

  Jo Coudert

  Thinking, Light, Self

  Jo Coudert (2003). “Advice from a Failure”, p.144, iUniverse

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• I was told that my going to college wouldn't be good for my career. I think that's nonsense. It's good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while.

  Claire Danes

  Cutting, Thinking, College

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

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• At 50 you're more confident, more comfortable in your skin and you don't put up with nonsense, especially from men.

  Amanda Donohoe

  Men, Skins, Comfortable

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• My grandfather was a really, really tough no-nonsense factory worker who emigrated from Ireland in about 1900 to Bridgeport, Conn. He had a big effect on me. Those guys who took a great leap out into what they knew not were the ones who were the real stars, the real heroes.

  Brian Dennehy

  Stars, Real, Hero

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• Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Cutting, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.307

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• I've almost come to feel that it doesn't make much difference what you believe in - the thing that's important is a state of belief. It's much better to believe in nonsense than in nothing.

  Margaret Ayer Barnes

  Believe, Differences, Important

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• I am amused when goody-goodies proclaim, from the safety of their armchairs, that children are naturally prejudice-free, that they only learn to "hate" from listening to bigoted adults. Nonsense. Tolerance is a learned trait, like riding a bike or playing the piano. Those of us who actually live among children, who see them in their natural environment, know the truth: Left to their own devices, children will gang up on and abuse anyone who is even slightly different from the norm.

  Josh Lieb

  Children, Hate, Piano

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• I hope the day will come when a wasp-waist and a pair of thin shoulders will not be esteemed beauty: we have had our ideas ruined by trash novels, praising 'fragile forms' and 'delicate beauty,' 'dainty waists,' 'snow-drop faces,' and a lot of other nonsense.

  Julia McNair Wright

  Beauty, Ideas, Snow

  Julia McNair Wright (1879). “The Complete Home: an Encyclopædia of Domestic Life and Affairs: The Household in Its Foundation, Order, Economy ... A Volume of Practical Experiences Popularly Illustrated”

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• What is glory? It is to have a lot of nonsense talked about you.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Glory, Fame

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• It's nonsense to say money doesn't buy happiness, but people exaggerate the extent to which more money can buy more happiness.

  Daniel Kahneman

  People, More Money, Money Doesn't Buy Happiness

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• If I owned any of these Hot New Issues that have doubled, tripled, quintupled or umptupled within days and in some cases hours after they were issued, I most certainly would grab my fabulous windfall, thank my lucky stars and invest the money. It's utter nonsense to think any newly issued stock is really worth two, ten or 20 times the [offering] price.... A management so stupid as to sell shares [cheap], and an underwriter so obtuse as not to discern the real value, together would provide reason enough for a sensible man to get rid of his shares.

  Malcolm Forbes

  Stars, Real, Stupid

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• Dogmatic toleration is nonsense: I would no more tolerate the teaching of Calvinism to children if I had power to persecute it than the British Raj tolerated suttee in India. Every civilized authority must draw a line between the tolerable and the intolerable.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Children, Teaching, Tolerance

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• Knighterrantry is a most chuckleheaded trade, and it is tedious hard work, too, but I begin to see that there is money in it, after all, if you have luck. Not that I would ever engage in it, as a business, for I wouldn't. No sound and legitimate business can be established on a basis of speculation. A successful whirl in the knighterrantry line--now what is it when you blow away the nonsense and come down to the cold facts? It's just a corner in pork, that's all.

  Mark Twain

  Hard Work, Successful, Blow

  Mark Twain (2015). “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”, p.105, Xist Publishing

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