Obvious Quotes - Page 12

• You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top.

  Blaise Pascal

  Believe, Air, Feet

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• A thing is obvious mathematically after you see it.

  Robert Daniel Carmichael

  Math, Statistics, Mathematics

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• It science involves an intelligent and persistent endeavor to revise current beliefs so as to weed out what is erroneous, to add to their accuracy, and, above all, to give them such shape that the dependencies of the various facts upon one another may be as obvious as possible.

  John Dewey

  Weed, Intelligent, Giving

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Sidney Hook (2008). “The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education”, p.227, SIU Press

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• The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers.

  Bill Gates

  Numbers, Would Be, Development

  Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Peter Rinearson (1996). “The Road Ahead”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

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• TV can play a role in delivering that emotion as well as the obvious ability to reach a lot of people quickly with that message.

  Jill McDonald

  Play, People, Roles

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• No man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.

  John Calvin

  Moving, Men, Surveys

  John Calvin (1845). “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, p.18, Lulu.com

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• The Official Bulletin declared that the Poles should be as proud of me as the Germans are of Mozart; obvious nonsense.

  Frederic Chopin

  People, Proud, Nonsense

  Frederic Chopin (2013). “Chopin's Letters”, p.80, Courier Corporation

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• When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious what they had in mind was not democratic. In Britain, you vote for a government so the government has to listen to you, and if you don't like it you can change it.

  Tony Benn

  Change, Government, Europe

  "Tony Benn: His views on socialism, Europe, war and writing", www.bbc.co.uk. March 14, 2014.

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• Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times.

  Jeff Bezos

  All Time, Firm

  "Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think". Interview with Steven Levy, www.wired.com. November 13, 2011.

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• But once you allow yourself to recognize necessity, you find two things: One you find your options so restricted that the only course of action is obvious, and, two, that a great sense of freedom comes with the decision.

  Steven Brust

  Two, Decision, Action

  Steven Brust (2002). “The Book of Taltos”, p.384, Penguin

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• Some of the greatest discoveries...consist mainly in the clearing away of psychological roadblocks which obstruct the approach to reality; which is why,post factum they appear so obvious.

  Arthur Koestler

  Reality, Discovery, Psychological

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• Take the classic experiment of using ordinary feedback: just take the output of something and feed it back into the input. Those of us who do that have had really rich experiences. And it is obvious that that line of experimentation can continue.

  David Tudor

  Ordinary, Lines, Input

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• The Dreyfus Affair is an exceptional case. It's true that here and there you can find some dregs of anti-Semitism, but the situation is the same in every country. After all, you're not exactly a nation like all the other nations. You are unique, if only because you are such an ancient people, and because of the way you are spread all over the world and your obvious success in many fields. But, in all honesty, anti-Semitism in France has always remained on a minimal level, at the verbal level only. It never went as far as pogroms.

  Jean-Marie Le Pen

  Country, Honesty, Unique

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• My parents often wondered why I would grow so indignant at the falsification and exploitation of the Nazi genocide. The most obvious answer is that it has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and US support for these policies.

  Norman Finkelstein

  Support, Parent, Criminals

  "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering". Book by Norman Finkelstein, 2000.

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• Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery, rather than obvious description.

  Robert Genn

  Suggestions, Mystery, Description

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• I will always admit immediately to what’s obvious, which is that homo sapiens is inherently erotic or sensual from birth.

  Jock Sturges

  Erotic, Sensual, Birth

  Interview with David Steinberg, www.nearbycafe.com. May 25, 1994.

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• A modern vegetarian is also a teetotaler, yet there is no obvious connection between consuming vegetables and not consuming fermented vegetables. A drunkard, when lifted laboriously out of the gutter, might well be heard huskily to plead that he had fallen there through excessive devotion to a vegetable diet.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Vegetables, Connections, Gutters

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• It has become more and more obvious that there is one political party in America, and that is The Business Party.

  Bill Hicks

  Party, America, Political

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• It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  World, Might, Chance

  "Play to Live: Lectures of Alan Watts". Book edited by Mark Watts, December 1, 1982.

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• Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

  Jack Vance

  Challenges, Deception, Fleeting

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• Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most colourless...antique shops, clothes, hi-fi, etc. Don't say, don't write 'etc'. Make an effort to exhaust the subject, even if that seems grotesque, or pointless, or stupid. You still haven't looked at anything, you've merely picked out what you've long ago picked out.

  Georges Perec

  Stupid, Writing, Long Ago

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• Once I found professional happiness, it gave me time to think about other areas in my life in which I wasn't happy. The next obvious candidate for introspection was my marriage.

  Megyn Kelly

  Thinking, Next, Found

  "Megyn Kelly: Fox's Lady". Article by Julia Reed, www.harpersbazaar.com. January 4, 2013.

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• And it is because a series of elements in Spanish life which operate today the same way as they did in the times of Blanco White made obvious my relationship with him, based on a similarity in Spain's condition.

  Juan Goytisolo

  White, Spain, Elements

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• If you are willing to take an instant to withdraw attention from whatever your internal dialogue is, to withdraw energy from whatever the latest point of view about your suffering is, it is immediately obvious what is here: the fullness, the richness and the love of oneself as conscious life.

  Gangaji

  Views, Suffering, Energy

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• Corn is the leading food and feed crop of the United States in geographic range of production, acreage, and quantity of product. The vital importance of a large acreage of this crop, properly cared for, therefore, is obvious.

  David F. Houston

  United States, Corn, Crops

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