Precision Quotes - Page 7

• I returned to poetry as a more precise way to describe the world, more precise than science.

  David Whyte

  World, Way, Precise

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• The outstanding feature of behavior is that it is often quite easy to recognize but extremely difficult or impossible to describe with precision.

  Anatol Rapoport

  Impossible, Easy, Behavior

  "Toward Definition of Mind" edited by Jordan Ma Scher, Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, (p. 92), 1962.

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• The land is numb. It stands beneath the feet, and one may come Walking securely, till the sea extends Its limber margin, and precision ends.

  Yvor Winters

  Sea, Land, Feet

  Yvor Winters (1978). “The collected poems of Yvor Winters”, Swallow Pr

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• To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. And this organization, this precision, will always escape you, if you do not appreciate what a picture is, if you do not understand that the composition, the logic, the equilibrium of the surfaces and values are the only ways of giving meaning to all that is continuously appearing and vanishing before our very eyes.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

  Photography, Eye, Expression

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• A fully developed bureaucratic mechanism stands in the same relationship to other forms as does the machine to the non-mechanical production of goods. Precision, speed, clarity, documentary ability, continuity, discretion, unity, rigid subordination, reduction of friction and material and personal expenses are unique to bureaucratic organization.

  Max Weber

  Unique, Organization, Unity

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• Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are essential for starting points. Let me warn you to beware of two opposite errors: of letting your imagination soar unballasted by facts, but on the other hand, of shackling it so solidly that it loses all incentive to rise.

  Percival Lowell

  Errors, Hands, Opposites

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• Poetry can communicate the actual quality of experience with a subtlety and precision unapproachable by any other means.

  F. R. Leavis

  Mean, Quality, Experience

  1932 New Bearings in English Poetry, ch.2.

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• A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.

  Paul Klee

  Expression, Quality, Fairy

  Paul Klee (1969). “Paul Klee: Watercolors, Drawings, Writings”

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• Many of the points made by the antiwar movement have been consciously assimilated by the Pentagon and its lawyers and advisers. Precision weaponry is good in itself, but its ability to discriminate is improving and will continue to improve. Cluster bombs are perhaps not good in themselves, but when they are dropped on identifiable concentrations of Taliban troops, they do have a heartening effect.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Troops, Bombs, Movement

  Simon Cottee, Thomas Cushman, Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left”, p.5066, NYU Press

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• The precision of their goals allows conceptual artists to be satisfied that they have produced one or more works that achieve a particular purpose... a problem solved can free him to pursue new goals.

  David Galenson

  Artist, Goal, Purpose

  David W. Galenson (2011). “Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity”, p.5, Princeton University Press

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• I know that much of the structure and plan of the universe is beyond my understanding and not at all similar to anything of our earthly world that I have experienced so far. I marvel at the intellect and attention to detail, the precision manifested by the workings of this great and often unseen force of which we are all a part.

  Rosemary Altea

  Understanding, Unseen, Details

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• With calm, knowledgeable precision, Daniel Ziblatt wades into the adjacent swamps of federalism and nineteenth-century European history, emerging with hands full of gems. Beneath the tangle of great statesmen and national culture he discovers conflicting regional political interests, sharp regional variations in political capacity, fearful defenses against excessive democracy, coercive conquest of weak states, and unintended consequences galore. Read, think, and learn.

  Charles Tilly

  Thinking, Hands, Political

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• Proverbs, words, and grammar inflections convey the public sense with more purity and precision, than the wisest individual.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Purity, Individual, Grammar

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.265, Harvard University Press

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• It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed theory of rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his social surroundings. To those who look at the rich material provided by history, and who are not intent on impoverishing it in order to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual security in the form of clarity, precision, "objectivity," "truth," it will become clear that there is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development. It is the principle: anything goes.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Truth, Science, Men

  "Against Method". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1975.

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• Few men have led a more active life - bodily or mentally - from a constitutional anxiety for regularity, precision, and order, during fifty years' business career, from which I had retired.

  William Banting

  Men, Order, Years

  William Banting (1864). “Letter on Corpulence: Addressed to the Public”, p.10

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• A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.

  R. S. Thomas

  Moving, Writing, Eye

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• The right tools for solving disputes within our community are precision instruments such as reason, communication, empathy, curiosity, and understanding. They are also the right tools for building a global civilization of peace and prosperity.

  Paul K. Chappell

  Communication, Civilization, Empathy

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• Quiet, moving, masterfully crafted. Such are the nine stories in Venus in the Afternoon. Tehila Lieberman writes with precision, restraint, with a compassionate heart. She inhabits her characters, young or old, men or women, honestly, but without judgment, until they rise off the page and stand before us breathing and alive. New York, the Atacama desert, Amsterdam or Cuzco in Peru, the settings in Venus in the Afternoon are just as varied as the lives which they contain. A wonderful collection, one that will stay in your mind long after you have bid it goodbye.

  Miroslav Penkov

  Goodbye, New York, Moving

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• A soul does not benefit from the sacrament of confession if it is not humble. Pride keeps it in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery.

  Mary Faustina Kowalska

  Humble, Recovery, Pride

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• The Entity who brought the universe into existence must be a Personal Being, for only a person can design with anywhere near this degree of precision.

  Hugh Ross

  Design, Scary, Degrees

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• Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control.

  David Attenborough

  Bird, World, Speed

  "The Life of Birds". Documentary, (1998 - ).

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• The habit of ubiquitous interventionism, combining pinprick strikes by precision weapons with pious invocations of high principle, would lead us into endless difficulties. Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Impact, Numbers, Principles

  Margaret Thatcher (2017). “Statecraft”, p.32, HarperCollins UK

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• So our task as stewards of the word begins and ends in love. Loving language means cherishing it for its beauty, precision, power to enhance understanding, power to name, power to heal. And it means using words as instruments of love.

  Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

  Mean, Names, Understanding

  Marilyn Chandler McEntyre (2009). “Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies”, p.23, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• Our troops are committed to bringing security to Iraq while its government matures. American forces will continue to accomplish their mission with caution, precision and honor with the thanks of a grateful nation.

  Mike Fitzpatrick

  Grateful, Government, Iraq

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• It's the quintessential Greek sport: harmonious, competitive, agonizing, nautical, and above all, intelligent. It combines Odysseus's brains and brawn and love of the sea with the tactical precision of the Spartan pikeman.

  Barry S. Strauss

  Sports, Intelligent, Sea

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