Notion Quotes - Page 38

• This perhaps was what lay at the root of the hysteria surrounding what came to be known as the Gold Rush: Men desiring a feeling of fortune; the unlucky masses hoping to skin or borrow the luck of others, or the luck of a destination. A seductive notion, and one I thought to be wary of. To me, luck was something you either earned or invented through strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it.

  Patrick deWitt

  Character, Men, Roots

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• But what of faith? What of fidelity and loyalty? Complete trust? Faith is not granted by tangible proof. It comes from the heart and the soul. If a person needs proof of god's existence, then the very notion of spirituality is diminished into sensuality and we have reduced what is holy into what is logical.-Drizzt Do'urden

  R. A. Salvatore

  Loyalty, Heart, Soul

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• One of the nastier trends in library management in recent years is the notion that libraries should be 'responsive to their patrons'.

  Connie Willis

  Years, Library, Trends

  Connie Willis (2010). “Bellwether”, p.21, Spectra

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• So many misconceptions surround the notion of heroism. Far too many categorize a hero as a champion on the battlefield, a commander of legions, a master of rare talent or ability. Granted, there have been heroes who fit those descriptions. But many men of great evil as well. Heed me. A hero sacrifices for the greater good. A hero is true to his or her conscience. In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. Although any person could fit that description, very few do. Choose this day to be one of them." (Beyonders - A World Without Heroes)

  Brandon Mull

  Hero, Mean, Sacrifice

  Brandon Mull (2013). “Brandon Mull's Beyonders Trilogy: A World Without Heroes; Seeds of Rebellion; Chasing the Prophecy”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

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• Certitude leads to violence. This is a proposition that has an easy application and a difficult one. The easy application is to ideoologues, dogmatists, and bullies--people who think that their rigtness justifies them in imposing on anyone who does not happen to suscribe to their particular ideology, dogma or notion of turf. If the conviction of rightness is powerful enough, resistance to it will be met, sooner or later by force. There are people like this in every sphere of life, and it is natural to feel that the world would be a better place without them!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Powerful, Thinking, People

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• I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoilt things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it's not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself?

  Malorie Blackman

  Comfort, Doe, Noughts And Crosses

  Malorie Blackman (2007). “Black & White”, p.367, Simon and Schuster

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• I had hated these ponies for the part they played in my father's death but now I realized the notion was fanciful, that it was wrong to charge blame to these pretty beasts who knew neither good nor evil but only innocence. I say that of these ponies. I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? Some preachers will say, well, that is superstitious "claptrap." My answer is this: Preacher, go to your Bible and read Luke 8: 26-33

  Charles Portis

  Horse, Father, Believe

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.40, A&C Black

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• The way Mom saw it, women should let menfolk do the work because it made them feel more manly. That notion only made sense if you had a strong man willing to step up and get things done, and between Dad's gimp, Buster's elaborate excuses, and Apache's tendency to disappear, it was often up to me to keep the place from falling apart. But even when everyone was pitching in, we never got out from under all the work. I loved that ranch, though sometimes it did seem that instead of us owning the place, the place owned us.

  Jeannette Walls

  Mom, Strong, Sex

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• What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Dream, Depressing, People

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.31, Publishdrive

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• For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened," He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love.

  Brennan Manning

  Love, Jesus, Disappointment

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• I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to explain to Zoe one of the very saddest notions in love and life: sometimes the timing is wrong--and sometimes you realize the heart of the matter way to late in the game.

  Emily Giffin

  Life And Love, Heart, Games

  Emily Giffin (2006). “Baby Proof”

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• Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Fun, War, Fighting

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• Reality the iconoclast once more. Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.

  C. S. Lewis

  Reality, Thinking, Feet

  C.S. Lewis (2012). “A Grief Observed”, p.34, Faber & Faber

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• When you steal from the library, you are preventing anyone else from reading that book, and the very notion makes me want to drop you in the Void.

  Piers Anthony

  Book, Reading, Library

  Piers Anthony (1986). “Golem in the Gears”, Random House LLC

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• The notion of sitting down and conjuring up, not only words in which to clothe thoughts but thoughts worthy of being clothed--the whole thing was absurdly beyond his desires.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Desire, Sitting Down, Down And

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “The Beautiful and Damned”, p.8, Pelekanos Books

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• To live (as I understand it) is to exist within a conception of time. But to remember is to vacate the very notion of time. Every memory, no matter how remote its subject, takes place 'Now,' at the moment it's called to the mind. The more something is recalled, the more the brain has a chance to refine the original experience. Because every memory is a re-creation, not a playback.

  David Mazzucchelli

  Memories, Brain, Mind

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• Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?

  Virginia Woolf

  Book, Animal, Men

  Virginia Woolf (2015). “A Room of One's Own: And Three Guineas”, p.21, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The Metropolitan Police Service is still, despite what people think, a working-class organisation and as such rejects totally the notion of an officer class. That is why every newly minted constable, regardless of their educational background, has to spend a two-year probationary period as an ordinary plod on the streets. This is because nothing builds character like being abused, spat at and vomited by members of the public.

  Ben Aaronovitch

  Educational, Character, Thinking

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• For them, it was nothing but an ordinary day on an ordinary day on an ordinary weekend, but for her, there was something revelatory about the notion that wonderful moments like these existed.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Weekend, Ordinary Days, Ordinary Moments

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• In fact, Lig never formally resigned his editorship—he merely left his office late one morning, and has never returned since. Though well over a century has now passed, many members of the Guide staff still retain the romantic notion that he has simply popped out for a sandwich and will yet return to put in a solid afternoon's work. Strictly speaking, all editors since Lig Lury Jr., have therefore been designated acting editors, and Lig's desk is still preserved the way he left it, with the addition of a small sign that says LIG LURY, JR., EDITOR, MISSING, PRESUMED FED.

  Douglas Adams

  Morning, Editors, Office

  Douglas Adams (2002). “The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, Ballantine Books

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• She's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.

  Kate Chopin

  Rights, Eternal

  Kate Chopin (1899). “The Awakening”, p.170

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• There's a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great & powerful one

  A. J. Jacobs

  Powerful, Unconditional Love, Love Is

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

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• Indeed, what is startling about the notion of a victimless crime is that even when the behavior in question is genuinely victimless, its criminality is still affirmed by those who are eager to punish it. It is in such cases that the true genius lurking behind many of our laws stands revealed. The idea of a victimless crime is nothing more than a judicial reprise of the Christian notion of sin.

  Sam Harris

  Christian, Law, Ideas

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.159, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Now do you see why war irritates me? It's always the same. A lot of people get killed, but in the end, the whole thing is settled at the conference table. The notion of having the conference first doesn't seem to occur to people.

  David Eddings

  War, People, Tables

  David Eddings, Leigh Eddings (2015). “Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress: 2-Book Collection”, p.90, HarperCollins UK

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• Anyway, as the old barrelhouse song says, My God, how the money rolled in. Norton must have subscribed to the old Puritan notion that the best way to figure out which folks God favours is by checking their bank acounts.

  Stephen King

  Song, Way, Favour

  Stephen King (1994). “Different Seasons”, Signet Book

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