Ordinary People Quotes

• It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.

  Ben Stein

  Inspirational, Success, Determination

  76 Copy quote

• There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

  C. S. Lewis

  Art, Taken, Mean

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “Christian Reflections”, p.11, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives.

  Tracy Chapman

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  109 Copy quote

• There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

  C. S. Lewis

  Gnats, People, Ordinary

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “Christian Reflections”, p.11, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  86 Copy quote

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• There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet.

  William Halsey

  Greatness, Men, Volunteer

  "Fictional character: Fleet Adm. William F. Halsey Jr". "The Gallant Hours", 1960.

  131 Copy quote

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• Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

  Aleister Crowley

  People, Ordinary, Morality

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

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• I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

  Socrates

  People, Wish, Might

  10 Copy quote

• Pay any price to stay in the presence of extraordinary people.

  Mike Murdock

  Inspirational, People, Pay

  Mike Murdock (2012). “The Making Of A Champion”, p.56, Wisdom International Inc

  218 Copy quote

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• I never promised you a rose garden.

  Traian Basescu

  Garden, Rose, Blood Promise

  11 Copy quote

• People that keep stiff upper lips find that it's hard to smile.

  Judith Guest

  Life, Depression, People

  21 Copy quote

• On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Heart, Land

  The Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.

  317 Copy quote

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• If you really kill, you don't want to talk about it.

  Emmanuel Jal

  Want, Ifs

  8 Copy quote

• There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The DEMOCRATIC idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them

  William Jennings Bryan

  Believe, Government, Class

  Speech at Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Ill., 8 July 1896

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• I don’t think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal. Everybody has his own possibility of rapture in the experience of life. All he has to do is recognize it and then cultivate it and get going with it. I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I’ve never met an ordinary man, woman, or child.

  Joseph Campbell

  Life, Children, Women

  Joseph Campbell, Bill D. Moyers (1988). “The Power of Myth”, Harmony

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• The Forgotten Man is delving away in patient industry, supporting his family, paying his taxes, casting his vote, supporting the church and the school, reading his newspaper, and cheering for the politician of his admiration, but he is the only one for whom there is no provision in the great scramble and the big divide. Such is the Forgotten Man. He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays — yes, above all, he pays.

  William Graham Sumner

  Life, Family, Prayer

  "The Forgotten Man and Other Essays".

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• Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They'll only be able to parrot the information they've been given on the previous night's news.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Night, Thinking, Media

  298 Copy quote

• There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

  C. S. Lewis

  Art, Gnats, Civilization

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “Christian Reflections”, p.11, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  23 Copy quote

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• Depending on the reality one must face, one may prefer to opt for illusion.

  Judith Guest

  Reality, People, May

  Judith Guest (1982). “Ordinary People”, p.93, Penguin

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• God designed it this way; He intended that His great power, wisdom, and love should become visible in very ordinary and otherwise inconsequential people.

  Ray Stedman

  Love, God, Christian

  Ray C. Stedman (2011). “Authentic Christianity: The Classic Bestseller on Living the Life of Faith with Integrity”, p.106, Discovery House

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• There are no ordinary people.. it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.

  C. S. Lewis

  Gnats, People, Religion

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Mere Christianity”, p.12, HarperCollins UK

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• I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

  Philip Zimbardo

  Smart, Hero, Unusual Things

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

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• Life is not a series of pathetic, meaningles actions. Some of them are so far from pathetic, so far from meaningless as to be beyond reason, maybe beyond forgiveness.

  Judith Guest

  Action, Life Is, Reason

  7 Copy quote

• One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.

  C. S. Lewis

  Eye, People, Ordinary

  C. S. Lewis (2010). “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, p.21, HarperCollins UK

  174 Copy quote

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• The great corporations of this country were not founded by ordinary people. They were founded by people with extraordinary intelligence, ambition, and aggressiveness.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Country, Business, Ambition

  23 Copy quote

• Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

  Socrates

  Death, Philosophy, People

  23 Copy quote