Passages Quotes - Page 12

• I thought that, given the system of rewards central to our economic system, in which profit maximization is valued above all else and specifically above life, it is probably just as irresistible to the owners of capital (human or otherwise) to exploit workers (and the land): "Nothing personal," they say as they load their property onto the ship bound for the Middle Passage, "but a man's gotta turn a dime."

  Derrick Jensen

  Men, Land, Dimes

  Derrick Jensen (2002). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.102, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• A civilization is complicated, in the first place, because it is dynamic; that is, it is constantly changing in the passage of time, until it has perished.

  Carroll Quigley

  Civilization, Firsts, Complicated

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• Very few people are aware that in each of our fingers, located somewhere between the firs phalange, the mesophalange and the metaphalange, there is a tiny brain... It should be noted that fingers are without brains, these develop gradually with the passage of time and with the help of what the eyes see... That is why the fingers have always excelled at uncovering what is concealed.

  Jose Saramago

  Eye, People, Brain

  "The Cave". Book by Jose Saramago, 2002.

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• Rejections are painful, but inevitable. They're every writer's rite of passage.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Rejection, Painful

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Bloodchild: And Other Stories”, p.128, Open Road Media

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• No longer a mark of distinction or proof of achievement, a college education is these days a mere rite of passage, a capstone to adolescent party time.

  William A. Henry III

  Party, College, Achievement

  William A. Henry, III (2015). “In Defense of Elitism”, p.169, Anchor

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• At first the relevance of chattel slavery to libertarian ideals was noted only in individual passages of isolated pamphlets.

  Bernard Bailyn

  Slavery, Libertarian, Firsts

  "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution". Book by Bernard Bailyn, 1967.

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• The developed world should neither shelter nor militarily destabilize authoritarian regimes unless those regimes represent an imminent threat to the national security of other states. Developed states should instead work to create the conditions most favorable for a closed regime's safe passage through the least stable segment of the J curve however and whenever the slide toward instability comes. And developed states should minimize the risk these states pose the rest of the world as their transition toward modernity begins.

  Ian Bremmer

  Curves, Risk, Transition

  "The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall". Book by Ian Bremmer, 2006.

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• All the tragedies which we can imagine return in the end to the one and only tragedy: the passage of time.

  Simone Weil

  Tragedy, Return, Imagine

  Simone Weil (1978). “Lectures on Philosophy”, p.197, Cambridge University Press

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• When I heard the book (Thomas Friedman's latest) was actually coming out, I started to worry. Among other things, I knew I would be asked to write the review. The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays.

  Matt Taibbi

  Book, Writing, Two

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• Only now are increasing numbers of political and social scientists beginning to realize that Kelso's theories provide a private-property-based alternative to the imminent passage of a government-distributed "guaranteed income" or "negative income tax."

  Hazel Henderson

  Wisdom, Government, Numbers

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• That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some of the most beautiful passages in the apostolic writings are quotations from Pagan authors, is well known to every scholar... To assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths previously unknown, argues on the part of the asserted either gross ignorance or wilful fraud.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Beautiful, Ignorance, Writing

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1865). “History of Civilization in England: In Five Volumes”, p.166

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• There is one passage in the Scriptures to which all the potentates of Europe seem to have given their unanimous assent and approbation...."There went out a decree in the days of Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Europe, Atheism, World

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• A Quest of any kind is a heroic journey. It is a rite of passage that carries you to an inner place of silence and majesty and encourages you to live life more courageously and genuinely.

  Denise Linn

  Live Life, Journey, Silence

  Denise Linn, Meadow Linn (2012). “Quest: A Guide for Creating Your Own Vision Quest”, p.4, Hay House, Inc

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• The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy led directly to the passage of a historic law, the Gun Control Act of 1968.

  Jeffrey Toobin

  Kings, Gun, Law

  "Edward Snowden’s Real Impact" by Jeffrey Toobin, www.newyorker.com. August 19, 2013.

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• If you really look at hip-hop dance, it's really a rites-of-passage thing. You never see the arms release down. They're always up in fighting position. It's going to war. What do we say? We say your're going to battle. You go out there and fight.

  Rennie Harris

  War, Fighting, Hip Hop

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• Nothing knits man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of cash.

  Walter Sickert

  Men, Hands, Cash

  New Age 28 July 1910 "The Language of Art"

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• Were I asked to define it, I should reply that archeology is that science which enables us to register and classify our knowledge of the sum of man's achievement in those arts and handicrafts whereby he has, in time past, signalized his passage from barbarism to civilization.

  Amelia B. Edwards

  Art, Knowledge, Science

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• Getting a tattoo should hurt. It's a rite of passage.

  Jenna Jameson

  Tattoo, Hurt, Should

  "Jenna Jameson: What I've Learned" by Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. August 7, 2008.

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• Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages - the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity - are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.

  Barack Obama

  Christian, Muslim Faith, Mind Blowing

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

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• Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?

  Barack Obama

  Children, Muslim Faith, Mind Blowing

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

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• You own a dog with the knowledge that it will move through the stages of existence in fast forward, providing you with a lesson about your own life passages if you let it.

  Antonya Nelson

  Life, Dog, Moving

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• My plea to educators and parents is that they should give some thought to the nature of the brain of a child, for the brain is a living mechanism, not a machine. In case of breakdown, it can substitute one of its parts for the function of another. But it has its limitations. It is subject to inexorable change with the passage of time.

  Wilder Penfield

  Children, Giving, Parent

  Wilder Penfield, Lamar Roberts (2014). “Speech and Brain Mechanisms”, p.257, Princeton University Press

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• Mr. President, passage of this bill will visit the heel of oppression on all the people, vitiate their constitutional shield against tyranny, and materially hasten the destruction of the best design for self-government yet devised by the minds of men. Its passage will mark one of the darkest days in history

  Strom Thurmond

  Men, Self, People

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• We have got to dispel this myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage.

  Barack Obama

  Bullying, Normal, Myth

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• A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fear, Book, Writing

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.13

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