Pernicious Quotes - Page 5

• In Germany democracy died by the headman's axe. In Britain it can be by pernicious anaemia.

  Aneurin Bevan

  Insulting, Democracy, Germany

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• Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Believe, Fall, Men

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “The World as Will and Representation”, p.584, Courier Corporation

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• The machine has had a pernicious effect upon virtue, pity, and love, and young men used to machines which induce inertia, and fear, are near impotent.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Love, Men, Machines

  Edward Dahlberg (1967). “Alms for Oblivion”, p.44, U of Minnesota Press

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• There is at this present juncture, a certain fermentation of mind, a certain activity of speculation and enterprise which if properly directed may be made subservient to useful purposes; but which if left entirely to itself, may be attended with pernicious effects.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Mind, Purpose, May

  United States. Department of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (1828). “Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Prepared in Obedience to the Act of the 10th May, 1800: ... to which are Prefixed, the Reports of Alexander Hamilton, on Public Credit, on a National Bank, on Manufactures, and on the Establishment of a Mint ... Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States”, p.109

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• To answer the purpose of the adversaries of the Constitution, they ought to prove, not merely that particular provisions in it are not the best, which might have been imagined; but that the plan upon the whole is bad and pernicious.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Answers, Might, Purpose

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.322, Coventry House Publishing

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• Strikes deeper, grows with more pernicious root.

  William Shakespeare

  Roots, Greed, Strikes

  William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope (1747). “The Works of Shakespear: In Eight Volumes”, p.405

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• The truth is that most people lack the intellectual ability and courage to resist a popular movement, however pernicious and ill-considered.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Life, People, Intellectual

  Ludwig Von Mises (1947). “Planned Chaos”, p.81, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• To say that everything in the bible is to be believed , simply because it is found in that volume, is equally absurd and pernicious... To discard a portion of scripture is not necessarily to reject the truth, but may be the highest evidence that one can give of his love of truth.

  William Lloyd Garrison

  Giving, May, His Love

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• Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

  William Cowper

  Weed, Sex, Joy

  William Cowper, Robert Southey, William Harvey (1835). “The Works of William Cowper, Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations”, p.163

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• In raising the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates in the same manner as simple interest does in the accumulation of debt. Our merchants and master manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods, both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits; they are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.

  Adam Smith

  Philosophy, Simple, People

  "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations".

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• We think we know that chimpanzees are higher animals and earthworms are lower, we think we've always known what that means, and we think evolution makes it even clearer. But it doesn't. It is by no means clear that it means anything at all. Or if it means anything, it means so many different things to be misleading, even pernicious.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mean, Animal, Thinking

  Richard Dawkins (2009). “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution”, p.156, Simon and Schuster

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• "There's little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious thing, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself." "With words."

  Steven Erikson

  Roots, People, Hatred

  Steven Erikson (2009). “House Of Chains: Malazan Book Of The Fallen 4”, p.236, Random House

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• History did not demand Yossarian's premature demise, justice could be satisfied without it, progress did not hinge upon it, victory did not depend on it. That men would die was a matter of necessity; WHICH men would die, though, was a matter of circumstance, and Yossarian was willing to be the victim of anything but circumstance. But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.

  Joseph Heller

  Children, War, Men

  Joseph Heller (1999). “Catch-22: A Novel”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• The men who were well enough to stand had moved across the carriage to cheer the Italians as they went past. A crutch waved out of the window; bandaged forearms made the Red Salute. It was like an allegorical picture of war; the trainload of fresh men gliding proudly up the line, the maimed men sliding slowly down, and all the while the guns on the open trucks making one's heart leap as guns always do, and reviving that pernicious feeling, so difficult to get rid of, that war *is* glorious after all.

  George Orwell

  Cheer, War, Heart

  George Orwell (2016). “Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.203, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Burns from dropped matches, Ms. Lane? Matches one might have dropped while flirting with a pernicious Fae, Ms. Lane? Have you any idea the value of this rug?” I didn’t think his nostrils could flare any wider. His eyes were black flame. “Pernicious? Good grief, is English your second language? Third?” Only someone who’d learned English from a dictionary would use such a word. “Fifth,” he snarled. “Answer me.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Grief, Eye, Flirting

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• What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Believe, Gains, Action

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• Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. Beatrice: A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. -Much Ado About Nothing

  William Shakespeare

  Dog, Heart, Men

  William Shakespeare (2005). “William Shakespeare: The Complete Works”, p.2906, OUP Oxford

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• But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.

  Joseph Heller

  Children, War, Parent

  Joseph Heller (1999). “Catch-22: A Novel”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• I look upon those who would deny others the right to urge and argue their position, however irksome and pernicious they may seem, as intellectual and moral cowards.

  William Borah

  Intellectual, Coward, Looks

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• The feeling of righteousness is the core mood alteration among religious addicts. Religious addiction is a massive problem in our society. It may be the most pernicious of all addictions because it’s so hard for a person to break his delusion and denial. How can anything be wrong with loving God and giving your life for good works and service to mankind?

  John Bradshaw

  Religious, Loving Life, Giving

  John Bradshaw (2010). “Healing the Shame that Binds You”, p.138, Health Communications, Inc.

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• I am persuaded that the world has been tricked into adopting some false and most pernicious notions about consistency - and to such a degree that the average man has turned the rights and wrongs of things entirely around and is proud to be "consistent," unchanging, immovable, fossilized, where it should be his humiliation.

  Mark Twain

  Men, Rights, Average

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.407, Courier Corporation

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• The vast majority of psychopaths, like an iceberg, are underwater, and like an iceberg, they are inert. They do nothing. They're just there. They torment their spouse by being unempathic, but they don't beat her or kill her. They bully coworkers, but they don't burn the office. They are not dramatic. They are pernicious. Most psychopaths are subtle. They are more like poison than a knife, and they are more like slow-working poison than cyanide.

  Sam Vaknin

  Knives, Office, Bully

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• The worship of words is more pernicious than the worship of images. Grammatolatry is the worst species of idolatry.

  Robert Dale Owen

  Worship, Worst, Idolatry

  Robert Dale Owen (1871). “The Debatable Land Between this World and the Next: With Illustrative Narrations”, p.102

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• Scientists can routinely predict a solar eclipse, to the minute, a millennium in advance. You can go to the witch doctor to lift the spell that causes your pernicious anaemia, or you can take Vitamin B12. If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate. If you're interested in the sex of your unborn child, you can consult plumb-bob danglers all you want . . . but they'll be right, on average, only one time in two. If you want real accuracy . . . try amniocentesis and sonograms. Try science.

  Carl Sagan

  Sex, Children, Real

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• It is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.

  Anita Sarkeesian

  Inspirational, Media, Criticism

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