Possibility Quotes - Page 11

• The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Weaving, Facts, Existence

  Jorge Luis Borges, Calin Andrei Mihailescu (2002). “This Craft of Verse”, p.100, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength.

  Rosa Luxemburg

  Self, Historical, Criticism

  "Quote Junkie : Political Edition". Book by Hagopian Institute, 2008.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why isn’t it fun to watch a videotape of last night’s football game even when we don’t know who won? Because the fact that the game has already been played precludes the possibility that our cheering will somehow penetrate the television, travel through the cable system, find its way to the stadium, and influence the trajectory of the ball as it hurtles toward the goalposts!

  Daniel Gilbert

  Football, Cheer, Fun

  Daniel Gilbert (2006). “Stumbling on Happiness”, p.22, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The elevation of parochial values to the realm of the sacred is a license to dismiss other people's interests, and an imperative to reject the possibility of compromise

  Steven Pinker

  People, Sacred, Compromise

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.717, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seems everything is so full of possibilities one can hardly take it all in.

  Kenneth Koch

  Seems

  5 Copy quote

• Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Choices, Novelty, Consumers

  Pope Benedict XVI (2014). “The Garden of God”, p.24, CUA Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We read to find life, in all its possibilities.

  Claire Messud

  6 Copy quote

• The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody.

  Saul Alinsky

  Real, Mean, Men

  8 Copy quote

• Trenches, hospitals, the common grave--there are no other possibilities.

  Erich Maria Remarque

  Common, Graves, Trenches

  Harold Bloom, Erich Maria Remarque (2008). “Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front”, p.49, Infobase Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate. The world doesn’t need any more gray. On the other hand, we can’t get enough color. Mediocrity is nobody’s goal and perfection shouldn’t be either. We’ll never be perfect. But remember these three P’s: Passion + Persistence = Possibility.

  Jon Bon Jovi

  Passion, Persistence, Hands

  96 Copy quote

• First and foremost arms are tools in the service of rival nations, pointing at the possibility of a future war.

  Alva Myrdal

  War, Tools, Rivals

  Alva Myrdal, Cecilia Åse, Yvonne Hirdman (2002). “"Något kan man väl göra: texter 1932-1982”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Technology determines the possibilities of society. It doesn't matter whether you start out from a fascist state or a communist state or a free-market state

  Iain Banks

  Technology, Matter, Communist

  8 Copy quote

• If we consider the superiority of the human species, the size of its brain, its powers of thinking, language and organization, we can say this: were there the slightest possibility that another rival or superior species might appear, on earth or elsewhere, man would use every means at his disposal to destroy it.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Mean, Men, Thinking

  Jean Baudrillard (2001). “Selected Writings”, p.223, Stanford University Press

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• But freedom is the possibility of a total and centered act of the personality, an act in which all the drives and influences which constitute the destiny of man are brought into the centered unity of a decision.

  Paul Tillich

  Destiny, Men, Personality

  "Systematic Theology".

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• As time goes on we become old, the future contracts, the past expands...But by future we don't just mean the years ahead; we always mean as well the plenitude of possibilities which challenge our creativity...In confrontation with the future we can become young if we accept the future's challenges.

  Jürgen Moltmann

  Creativity, Mean, Past

  28 Copy quote

• There are things that a woman sings, and only a woman knows the full meaning. You may sing for men as well as for women, but only a woman knows your full meaning. I am not a feminista. I only think a woman should be true to who she believes herself to be. Or who she wants herself to be. Or who she imagines herself to be. I don't know what I mean, or whether I'm true myself to any of that. I don't think there are many of us who are true to our possibilities.

  Gayl Jones

  Believe, Mean, Men

  8 Copy quote

• As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language.

  June Jordan

  Hate, Requirements, Language

  June Jordan (1981). “Civil Wars”, p.68, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Richard Nixon has never been one of my favorite people anyway. For years I've regarded his existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad. The Nixon I remembered was absolutely humorless; I couldn't imagine him laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn't quite reach the lever on the voting machine.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Dream, Integrity, Men

  "Pageant" Magazine, July 1968.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• We all have that possibility, that potential and that promise of seeing beyond the seeming.

  Maya Angelou

  Promise, Seeming, Seeing

  "The 3 Lessons Maya Angelou Taught Us About Coping" by Jan Bruce, www.mequilibrium.com. June 10, 2014.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our lives are merely trees of possibilities.

  Marc Bolan

  Tree, Our Lives

  Song: Dragon's Ear

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first possibility of rural cleanliness lies in water supply.

  Florence Nightingale

  Lying, Science, Hygiene

  Letter to Medical Officer of Health, November (1891)

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's a great excuse and luxury, having a job and blaming it for your inability to do your own art. When you don't have to work, you are left with the horror of facing your own lack of imagination and your own emptiness. A devastating possibility when finally time is your own.

  Julian Schnabel

  Art, Jobs, Luxury

  8 Copy quote

• The possibility that empathy resides in parts of the brain so ancient that we share them with rats should give pause to anyone comparing politicians with those poor, underestimated creatures.

  Frans de Waal

  Giving, Empathy, Brain

  "Do Humans Alone 'Feel Your Pain'?". The Chronicle, October 26, 2001.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Without television and mass communication, that knowledge wouldn't exist. So I think it actually has the possibility of turning people into more understanding and more empathetic people.

  John Warnock

  Communication, Thinking, People

  11 Copy quote

• But it will depend on young people like you being open to new ideas and new possibilities. And it will require young people like you never to stereotype or assume the worst about other people.

  Barack Obama

  Ideas, People, Empathy

  "Obama Holds a Town Hall in Istanbul". Speech in a Town Hall, Istanbul, Turkey, www.washingtonpost.com. April 7, 2009.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source