Ordinary Quotes - Page 25

• To read great books does not mean one becomes ‘bookish’; it means that something of the terrible insight of Dostoyevsky, of the richly-charged imagination of Shakespeare, of the luminous wisdom of Goethe, actually passes into the personality of the reader; so that in contact with the chaos of ordinary life certain free and flowing outlines emerge, like the forms of some classic picture, endowing both people and things with a grandeur beyond what is visible to the superficial glance.

  John Cowper Powys

  Book, Mean, People

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• The point is that no matter what you choose to do with your body when you die, it won't, ultimately, be very appealing. If you are inclined to donate yourself to science, you should not let images of dissection or dismemberment put you off. They are no more or less gruesome, in my opinion, than ordinary decay or the sewing shut of your jaws via your nostrils for a funeral viewing.

  Mary Roach

  Funeral, Cadavers, Decay

  Mary Roach (2004). “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers”, p.82, W. W. Norton & Company

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• When I asked Robert Spitzer about the possibility that he'd inadvertently created a world in which ordinary behaviours were being labelled mental disorders, he fell silent. I waited for him to answer. But the silence lasted three minutes. Finally he said, 'I don't know.

  Jon Ronson

  Silence, Three, Behaviour

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• Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges.

  Jon Ronson

  People, Mad, Personality

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• Good therapy, gently but firmly, moves people out of denial and compartmentalization. It helps clients to develop richer inner lives and greater self-knowledge. It teaches clients to live harmoniously with others and it enhances Existential consciousness, and allows people to take responsibility for their effects on the world at large. For me , happiness is about appreciating what one has. Practically speaking,this means lowering expectations about what is fair, possible and likely. It means,finding pleasure in the ordinary.

  Mary Pipher

  Moving, Mean, Responsibility

  Mary Pipher (2009). “Letters to a Young Therapist: Stories of Hope and Healing”, p.16, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Some people make you feel better about living. Some people you meet and you feel this little lift in your heart, this 'Ah', because there's something in them that's brighter or lighter, something beautiful or better than you, and here's the magic: instead of feeling worse, instead of feeling 'why am I so ordinary?', you feel just the opposite, you feel glad. In a weird way you feel better, because before this you hadn't realised or you'd forgotten human beings could shine so.

  Niall Williams

  Beautiful, Heart, Feel Better

  Niall Williams (2014). “History of the Rain: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014”, p.128, A&C Black

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• Art is thus materialized dream, separated from the ordinary consciousness of waking life

  Pavel Florensky

  Dream, Art, Waking Life

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• In creating a work of art, the psyche or soul of the artist ascends from the earthly realm into the heavenly. There, free of all images, the soul is fed in contemplation by the essences of the highest realm, knowing the permanent noumena of things. Then, satiated with this knowing, it descends again to the earthly realm. And precisely at the boundary between the two worlds, the soul’s spiritual knowledge assumes the shapes of symbolic imagery: and it is these images that make permanent the work of art. Art is thus materialized dream, separated from the ordinary consciousness of waking life.

  Pavel Florensky

  Dream, Spiritual, Art

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• Our life is frittered away by detail Simplify, simplify.”  Or, as Plato wrote, “In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.

  Duane Elgin

  Plato, Order, Everyday

  Duane Elgin (2010). “Voluntary Simplicity Second Revised Edition: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich”, p.12, Harper Collins

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• It is that the Mail constantly dares to stand up to the liberal-left consensus that dominates so many areas of British life and instead represents the views of the ordinary people who are our readers and who don't have a voice in today's political landscape and are too often ignored by today's ruling elite.

  Paul Dacre

  Voice, Views, People

  "Why is the left obsessed by the Daily Mail?". www.theguardian.com. October 12, 2013.

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• Relish the challenge of overcoming difficulties that would crush ordinary men...learn to suffer.

  Mark Twight

  Crush, Men, Challenges

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• The Bible is no ordinary book. The words are like medicine to your soul, and it has the power to change your life!

  Joyce Meyer

  Book, Medicine, Soul

  Twitter post from Sep 25, 2012

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• Writers, because they write, are condemned never to be readers of their own stories...The memory of first putting a story into words will always prevent writers from reading their work as an ordinary reader would.

  Elena Ferrante

  Memories, Reading, Writing

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• We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women.

  Carl Jung

  Drama, Moving, Heart

  Carl Gustav Jung, Richard Francis Carrington Hull (1992). “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology”, p.257, Psychology Press

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• Ordinary people can spread good and bad information about brands faster than marketers.

  Ray Johnson

  People, Information, Faster

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• All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them.

  Oswald Chambers

  People, Purpose, Made

  Oswald Chambers (2010). “My Utmost for His Highest”, p.616, Discovery House

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• What is amazing is how we treat a meeting with God as ordinary or burdensome.

  Francis Chan

  Leadership, Christian, Church

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• We have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that this moment is ordinary. This now moment, in which I'm talking and you're listening, is eternity.

  Alan Watts

  Talking, Listening, Moments

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• When you wake up everyday
  Please don't throw your dreams away
  Hold them close to your heart
  'Cause we are all a part of
  the ordinary miracle

  Sarah McLachlan

  Dream, Heart, Miracle

  Song: Ordinary Miracle

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• I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures.

  Rob Lowe

  Men, Way, Events

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• An ordinary mistake is one that leads to a dead end, while a profound mistake is one that leads to progress. Anyone can make an ordinary mistake, but it takes a genius to make a profound mistake.

  Frank Wilczek

  Mistake, Profound, Progress

  Frank Wilczek (2009). “The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces”, p.16, Hachette UK

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• The mantle of glamour has been taken from the women and given to the men. The women toil in their shadows, plain and ordinary-looking. So that transition has left a void. It is a void for drop-dead, impossible, over-the-top glamour. Supermodels fill that void. The only thing they have to do is work the runway, sweetie, and refuse to get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars.

  RuPaul

  Taken, Men, Shadow

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• I’m an ordinary girl who believed in her dream.

  Jessica Watson

  Girl, Dream, Adventure

  "Australian Teen Becomes Youngest Person to Sail Solo Around the World". www.foxnews.com. May 15, 2010.

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• We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.

  Karen Armstrong

  Creative, Possibility, Behinds

  Karen Armstrong (2010). “The Spiral Staircase”, p.313, Vintage Canada

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• Natalie Bakopoulos has that rare gift, the ability to imagine a traumatic historical event in the form of individual lives and ordinary details. The Green Shore is compelling, personal, and full of quietly real moments.

  Elizabeth Kostova

  Real, Historical, Events

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