Petty Quotes - Page 19

• Every small wrong, every minor act of cruelty, every act of petty bullying was symbolic of a greater wrong. And if we ignored these small things, then did it not blunt our outrage over the larger wrongs?

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Bullying, Ignored, Blunt

  Alexander McCall Smith (2010). “The Unbearable Lightness of Scones”, p.202, Anchor

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• The singular man is singular in comparison to other men, but a companion of Heaven. So it is said, the petty man of Heaven is a gentleman among men; the gentleman among men is the petty man of Heaven.

  Burton Watson

  Men, Heaven, Gentleman

  Zhuangzi, Burton Watson, Columbia College (Columbia University) (1968). “The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu”, p.87, Columbia University Press

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• Barbara Parkins was so rude and petty all of the time. I just found her behavior to be so silly.

  Lana Wood

  Silly, Rude, Behavior

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• Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it be after his heart. But the intelligent man is he who can convert every work into one that suits his taste. No work is petty. Everything in this world is like a banyan seed, which, though appearing tiny as a mustard seed, has yet the gigantic banyan tree latent with it. He indeed is intelligent who notices this and succeeds in making all work truly great.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Heart, Intelligent, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Personality Development”, p.34, Advaita Ashrama

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• Girls, to me, growing up were very, very petty and didn't want me to succeed and didn't want the best for me.

  Rachel Zoe

  Girl, Growing Up, Want

  "The Rachel Zoe Report". Interview with Evelyn Crowley, la-confidential-magazine.com. April 2, 2012.

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• The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.

  David Foster Wallace

  Inspirational, Graduation, Freedom

  "David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech" by Carolyn Kellogg, latimesblogs.latimes.com. September 19, 2008.

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• What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.

  Tahar Ben Jelloun

  War, Average, World

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• We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.

  Katherine Harris

  Effectiveness, Effort, Attention

  "Katherine Harris Discusses Her Senate Run". "Hannity & Colmes", www.foxnews.com. August 9, 2005.

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• Hard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesn’t return it you get mad at him. It makes you mean and petty. But twenty-five cent books are different.

  John Steinbeck

  Book, Mean, Mad

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• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh - I really think that requires spirit. It's the kind of character that I am going to develop. I am going to pretend that all life is just a game which I must play as skillfully and fairly as I can. If I lose, I am going to shrug my shoulders and laugh - also if I win.

  Jean Webster

  Crush, Character, Winning

  Jean Webster (2012). “Daddy-Long-Legs”, p.38, Courier Corporation

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• I know that life is a doorway to eternity, and yet my heart so often gets lost in petty anxieties. It forgets the great way home that lies before it.

  Sophie Scholl

  Lying, Home, Heart

  "Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman who Defied Hitler". Book by Frank McDonough, 2009.

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• If I would go up on a high note, Eddie would want a low one. That's how petty the situation had become.

  Sammy Hagar

  Want, Notes, Lows

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• The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

  Anton Chekhov

  Fire, Hatred, Literature

  "Uncle Vanya". Play by Anton Chekhov, 1897.

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• I cannot watch the city of Chicago be destroyed by petty politics and bad government.

  Harold Washington

  Government, Cities, Chicago

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• Should there be cameras everywhere in outdoor streets? My personal view is having cameras in inner cities is a very good thing. In the case of London, petty crime has gone down. They catch terrorists because of it. And if something really bad happens, most of the time you can figure out who did it.

  Bill Gates

  Views, Cities, Gone

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• Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.

  Pierre Corneille

  Lying, Games, Hype

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• In a crisis, my family puts aside all its petty differences and hatreds... Because a crisis, is a perfect opportunity to create *new* petty differences and hatreds! My dad's from that era when you lived to 50, your heart exploded and that was that. You know when you cook bacon and you pour the grease into the can? My dad's the can!

  Christopher Titus

  Dad, Heart, Opportunity

  "Titus", www.imdb.com. 2000-2002.

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• A lot of people think my sarcasm comes from insecurity and defensiveness, but I assure you I'm just being petty and cruel.

  Dana Gould

  Sarcasm, Thinking, People

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• My father was raised with brothers, he was a football player and a boxer, he was a chief petty officer in the Navy, he was a man of his times.

  Hillary Clinton

  Football, Brother, Father

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• Hell, I'd even failed with women. Three wives. Nothing really wrong each time. It all got destroyed by petty bickering. Railing about nothing. Getting pissed-off over anything and everything. Day by day, year by year, grinding. Instead of helping each other you just sliced away, picked at this or that. Goading. Endless goading. It became a cheap contest. And once you got into it, it became habitual. You couldn't seem to get out. You almost didn't want to get out. And then you did get out. All the way.

  Charles Bukowski

  Years, Wife, Pissed Off

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• Phillip Roth uses his Black women characters to make anti intellectual remarks about Black history month, begun by a man who reached intellectual heights that Roth will never attain. Roth is a petty bigot and his ignorant remarks about black culture expose him as a buffoon to scholars the world over.

  Ishmael Reed

  Character, Men, Black History

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• ...maybe a damned good night's sleep will bring me back to a gentle sanity. But at the moment, I look about this room and, like myself, it's all in disarray: things fallen out of place, cluttered, jumbled, lost, knocked over and I can't put it straight, don't want to. Perhaps living through these petty days will get us ready for the dangerous ones.

  Charles Bukowski

  Good Night, Sleep, Looks

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• I've found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Inspiring, Men, Annoying

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• Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Fear, Hate, Winning

  Address to members of administration on leaving office as president, 9 Aug. 1974

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