Practicals Quotes - Page 39

• Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in bathing suits fling themselves into the water, it is joy itself that shows in the gesture, notwithstanding any sadness the divers may actually feel. When someone jumps into the water fully clothed, it is another thing entirely: the only person who jumps into the water fully clothed is a person trying to drown; and a person trying to drown does not dive headfirst; he lets himself fall: thus speaks the immemorial language of gestures.

  Milan Kundera

  Fall, Sadness, Water

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• Unseen University was much bigger on the inside. Thousands of years as the leading establishment of practical magic in a world where dimensions were largely a matter of chance in any case had left it bulging in places where it shouldn't have places. There were rooms containing rooms which, if you entered them, turned out to contain the room you'd started with, which can be a problem if you are in a conga line.

  Terry Pratchett

  Years, Magic, Unseen

  "The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel".

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• What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.' So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.

  Oscar Wilde

  Philosophy, Believe, Silly

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Best of Oscar Wilde”, p.164, Jaico Publishing House

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• I say, I don’t think the human frame is very thoughtfully constructed for this sleuthhound business. If one could go on all fours, or had eyes in ones knees, it would be a lot more practical’… ‘What luck! Here’s a deep, damp ditch on the other side, which I shall now proceed to fall into.’ A slithering crash proclaimed that he had carried out his intention.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Fall, Eye, Thinking

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Clouds of Witness”, p.60, Open Road Media

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• But what was possible or practical had been replaced by a far baser impulse. Hope.

  Ted Dekker

  Impulse, Replaced

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• When you're young - when I was young - you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in books. You want them to overturn your life, create and define a new reality. Later, I think, you want them to do something milder, something more practical: you want them to support your life as it is and has become. You want them to tell you that things are OK. And is there anything wrong with that?

  Julian Barnes

  Book, Reality, Thinking

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• I am interested only in "nonsense"; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestations.

  Daniil Kharms

  Nonsense, Absurd, Manifestation

  Daniil Kharms, Neil Cornwell (1993). “Incidences”, Serpents Tail

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• I’d been raised to be practical and keep my emotions in check, but I loved cars. That was one of the few legacies I’d picked up from my mom. She was a mechanic, and some of my best childhood memories were of working in the garage with her.

  Richelle Mead

  Mom, Memories, Car

  Richelle Mead (2011). “Bloodlines”, p.30, Penguin

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• Do I really smother my own joy because I believe that anger achieves more than love? That Satan's way is more powerful, more practical, more fulfilling in my daily life than Jesus' way? WHy else get angry? Isn't it because I think complaining, exasperation, resentment will pound me up into the full life I really want? When I choose-and it is a choice-to crush joy with bitterness, am I not purposefully choosing to take the way of the Prince of Darkness? Choosing the angry way of Lucifer because I think it is more effective-more expedient-than giving thanks?

  Ann Voskamp

  Crush, Jesus, Powerful

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• She has form," he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove - "that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Art, Selfish

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Happy Prince and Other Stories (Illustrated Edition)”, p.17, GENERAL PRESS

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• The Librarian was not familiar with love, which had always struck him as a bit ethereal and soppy, but kindness, on the other hand, was practical. You knew where you were with kindness, especially if you were holding a pie it had just given you.

  Terry Pratchett

  Kindness, Hands, Pie

  Terry Pratchett (2009). “Unseen Academicals: (Discworld Novel 37)”, p.106, Random House

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• Mom is a planner, an organizer. She's very strong and practical. She's the person that'll tell me if I ever start to change my personality. The balance of the two of them created my personality.

  Taylor Swift

  Mom, Strong, Two

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• Sometimes I feel that I am destined always to be offstage whenever the main action occurs. That God has made me the victim of some cosmic practical joke, by assigning me little more than a walk-on part in my own life. Or sometimes I feel that my role is simply to be a spectator to other people's stories, and always to wander away at the most important moment, drifiting into the kitchen to make a cup of tea just as the denouement unfolds.

  Jonathan Coe

  People, Kitchen, Tea

  Jonathan Coe (2001). “The rotters' club”

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• The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

  Julian Barnes

  Understanding, Study, Academic

  Julian Barnes (2011). “The Sense of an Ending”, p.82, Random House

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• I believe that the combination of pencil and memory creates a kind of practical magic, and magic is dangerous.

  Stephen King

  Memories, Believe, Magic

  Stephen King (2016). “Night Journey”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

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• When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness ...Maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Dream, Lying, May

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• Money is to Everything as an Aeroplane is to Australia. The aeroplane isn't Australia, but it remains the only practical way we know of reaching it. So perhaps, metonymically, the aeroplane is Australia after all.

  Stephen Fry

  Australia, Way, Reaching

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• Any faith that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief; it is a pseudo belief only. And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Real, Fire, Doe

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• In Ephesians 5, Paul shows us that even on earth Jesus did not use his power to oppress us but sacrificed everything to bring us into union with him. And this takes us beyond the philosophical to the personal and the practical. If God had the gospel of Jesus's salvation in mind when he established marriage, then marriage only 'works' to the degree that approximates the pattern of God's self-giving love in Christ.

  Timothy Keller

  Jesus, Philosophical, Giving Love

  Timothy Keller (2011). “The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God”, p.30, Penguin

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• An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut. He can say nothing to the purpose. Outside the Tao there is no ground for criticizing either the Tao or anything else.

  C. S. Lewis

  Men, Mind, Foundation

  C. S. LEWIS (1947). “THE ABOLITION OF MAN”

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• Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

  Jeannette Walls

  Running, People, Watches

  Jeannette Walls (2009). “The Glass Castle: A Memoir”, p.216, Simon and Schuster

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• What is the next step, the practical application? —I will answer that the absolutely vital thing is to consolidate your understanding, to become capable of enjoyment, of living in the present, and of the discipline which this involves. Without this you have nothing to give.

  Alan Watts

  Discipline, Giving, Understanding

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• Sometimes we get caught up in trying to glorify God by praising what He can do and we lose sight of the practical point of what He actually does do.

  Dallas Willard

  Sight, Trying, Doe

  Dallas Willard, Jan Johnson (2015). “Hearing God Through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional”, p.72, InterVarsity Press

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• Let me ask you, how many atheists are now in this house? Perhaps not a single one of you would accept the title, and yet, if you live from Monday morning to Saturday night in the same way as you would live if there were no God, you are practical atheists.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Monday, Morning, Atheist

  Spurgeon, Charles (2015). “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 35: Sermons 2062-2120”, p.569, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• I was so tired of being told reasonable, practical things whenever something went wrong with my life.

  Richelle Mead

  Tired, Reasonable, Practical Things

  Richelle Mead (2013). “Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection”, p.240, Penguin

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