Occasions Quotes - Page 31

• The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess ... It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

  Adam Smith

  Vanity, Progressive Taxation, Luxury

  7 Copy quote

• Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from those rules, is consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it.

  Adam Smith

  Practice, Principles, Banking

  Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart (1843). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.104

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For reasons not always at the time explicable, there are specific occasions when events begin suddenly to take on a significance previously unsuspected, so that, before we really know where we are, life seems to have begun in earnest at last, and we ourselves, scarcely aware that any change has taken place, are careering uncontrollably down the slippery avenues of eternity.

  Anthony Powell

  Taken, Lasts, Events

  Anthony Powell (1995). “A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement”, p.274, University of Chicago Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Remembrance, like Rembrandt, is dark but festive. Remembered ones dress up for the occasion and sit still. Memory is a photo-studio de luxe on an infinite Fifth Power Avenue.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Memories, Dark, Remembrance

  "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle". Book by Vladimir Nabokov, 1969.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is my belief that exciting things happen when a variety of overlapping activities designed for all people-the old and the young, the blue and white collar, the local inhabitant and the visitor, different activities for different occasions-meet in a flexible environment, opening up the possibility of interaction outside the confines of institutional limits. When this takes place, deprived areas welcome dynamic places for those who live, work and visit; places where all can participate, rather than less or more beautiful ghettos.

  Richard Rogers

  Beautiful, Ghetto, Blue

  14 Copy quote

• Alcohol is like anything else. It's only as bad as the person it's being poured into. If it's used to heighten an occasion, or to take an edge off stress, I don't see a problem. Trouble starts when you either lose control and let the bottle run you, or when you believe its promises of immortality. You realize that no matter how much you punish yourself, you always seem to wake up the next day. Pretty soon you're convinced that you will never die. When that happens I guess it is time to look for help before your life becomes one long, lost weekend.

  Bill Lee

  Life, Running, Stress

  Bill Lee, Richard Lally (2007). “The Wrong Stuff”, p.69, Crown Archetype

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• ... on the right occasion a bold choice of opening can unnerve even the most steely opponent.

  Neil McDonald

  Choices, Psychology, Opponents

  4 Copy quote

• Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon.

  Bob Marley

  Love, Simple, Thinking

  39 Copy quote

• Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion.

  Francis Bacon

  Honor, Riches, Action

  Francis Bacon (2015). “Bacon's Essays: Top Essays”, p.51, 谷月社

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense.

  John Wesley

  People, Wish, Offense

  282 Copy quote

• One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbour; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.

  John Wesley

  Eye, Done, Invisible

  John Wesley (1872). “The Works of the Rev. John Wesley: With the Last Corrections of the Author”, p.440

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed with such caution as we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance.

  William Law

  Christian, Religious, Reading

  William Law (1802). “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life: Adapted to the State and Condition of All Orders of Christians, to which is Added Some Account of the Author and Three Letters to a Friend”, p.27

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Nobel award occasions a unique celebration of the vision of science by the public at large. The prestige the prize confers today is largely due to the extraordinary diligence of the Nobel committees.

  Kenneth G. Wilson

  Science, Unique, Awards

  4 Copy quote

• It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages of labour are highest. England is certainly, in the present times, a much richer country than any part of North America. The wages of labour, however, are much higher in North America than in any part of England.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Greatness, America

  Adam Smith, Laurence Dickey (1993). “Wealth of Nations (Abridged)”, p.35, Hackett Publishing

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Race, Would Be

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.28

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nor do apophthegms only serve for ornament and delight, but also for action and civil use, as being the edge-tools of speech which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs: for occasions have their revolutions, and what has once been advantageously used may be so again, either as an old thing or a new one.

  Francis Bacon

  Cutting, Old Things, Tools

  Francis Bacon (1900). “Advancement of Learning: And Novum Organum”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• O ye! who teach the ingenious youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions, It mends their morals, never mind the pain.

  Lord Byron

  Pain, Teaching, Mind

  4 Copy quote

• It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands

  Francis Bacon

  Opportunity, Men, Hands

  13 Copy quote

• In general, we do well to let an opponent's motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives on such occasions are often worse than those we assail.

  William Ellery Channing

  Motivation, Opponents, Motive

  William Ellery Channing (1839). “Remarks on the slavery question: in a letter to Jonathan Phillips, esq”, p.3

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws, if Machiavel is right, when he says, Men are never good but through necessity: on the contrary, when good and evil are left to their choice, they will not fail to throw every thing into disorder and confusion. Hunger and poverty may make men industrious, but laws only can make them good; for, if men were so of themselves, there would be no occasion for laws; but, as the case is far otherwise, they are absolutely necessary.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Hunger And Poverty

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I”, p.304, Jazzybee Verlag

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Four times, under our educational rules, the human pack is shuffled and cut - at eleven-plus, sixteen-plus, eighteen-plus and twenty-plus - and happy is he who comes top of the deck on each occasion, but especially the last. This is called Finals, the very name of which implies that nothing of importance can happen after it.

  David Lodge

  Educational, Cutting, Names

  'Changing Places' (1975) ch. 1

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we suffer persecution and affliction in a right manner, we attain a larger measure of conformity to Christ, by a due improvement of one of these occasions, than we could have done merely by imitating his mercy, in abundance of good works.

  John Wesley

  Christian, Suffering, Affliction

  John Wesley, Bp. John Emory, Thomas Jackson (1831). “The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.: Miscellaneous”, p.525

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do think trying to live each day as a bunch of moral occasions, did I live up to what I would hope, and, if I didn't, what can I do tomorrow to be a little better, I do think we can improve. We get better at life as we get older.

  David Brooks

  Thinking, Get Better, Trying

  "Why character, not career success, is key to a life of consequence". "PBS NewsHour" with Judy Woodruff, www.pbs.org. April 14, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Walt had a seat-of-the-pants approach on what he wanted musically. We kind of 'read' the boss and had a very high batting average, but there were occasions when he felt we had just written the wrong piece for the situation he wanted. We invariably listened to what he wanted - he was very descriptive in what he wanted and we could read him. We'd go back to the drawing board and work out what he wanted. He was a great inspiration, but a tough taskmaster.

  Richard Sherman

  Inspiration, Average, Drawing

  Source: www.movieweb.com

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• On social media there's this thing where on many occasions, there's a single proscribed way of acting. Like if somebody dies, everyone has to say "R.I.P.! R.I.P.!" Basically they're saying, "Don't hurt me, I'm a good person."

  Jon Ronson

  Hurt, Media, Acting

  "Jon Ronson gets serious about Ashley Madison and Twitter-shaming". Interview with Katie Rife, www.avclub.com. October 12, 2015.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source