Premises Quotes - Page 12

• The Humbling is not vintage Roth, despite its compelling premise. The bizarre series of episodes -- mostly sexual encounters with women -- which make up this short novel don't play to Roth's strengths. (...) The Humbling disappoints because it avoids these universal implications, and veers off into a baroque world of the unique and fantastic, never quite deigning to make its world concrete or to give its characters the honour of an independent will.

  Philip Hensher

  Character, Independent, Unique

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• Democracy? I want nothing to do with a system which operates on the premise that my rights don’t exist simply because I am outnumbered.

  R. Lee Wrights

  Rights, Democracy, Want

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• There are philosophical issues involved in that about choosing the right discount rate, the value, the future, and things like that which drive it. But its start with the premise that global warming is real and if you're a denier of that fact, then you're not going to find climate change mitigation policies to have particular appeal.

  Brad Carson

  Real, Philosophical, Issues

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• Economic history is a never-ending series of episodes based on falsehoods and lies, not truths. It represents the path to big money. The object is to recognize the trend whose premise is false, ride that trend and step off before it is discredited.

  George Soros

  Lying, Economic History, Trends

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• I have always loved science fiction. One of my favorite shows is 'Star Trek.' I like the trips, where it drops my mind off, because they give you a premise and all of a sudden, you say, 'Oh!' and I'm fascinated by it.

  Leslie Nielsen

  Stars, Giving, Mind

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• The whole world is tense. Everybody gets the international news. Theres been no American comedy at all that even remotely addresses the subject in any way. My goal isnt to solve the worlds problems. My character wasnt even able to do his assignment. But the premise of wanting to find out about somebody -- other than the stuff that the CIA will tell you -- theres no hope unless we do that.

  Albert Brooks

  Character, Goal, News

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• It is the haunted premises of longing that the true love song inhabits. It is a howl in the void, for love and for comfort and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother. It is the song of the lover in need of her loved one, the raving of the lunatic supplicant petitioning his God...The love song is the sound of our endeavors to become God-like, to rise up and above the earthbound and the mediocre.

  Nick Cave

  Mother, Song, Children

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• Even in dialogue, your own style rules your selection. Do not give yourself a blank check of this kind: 'I'll merely reproduce what I think a character like so-and-so would say.' You have to reproduce it in the way your literary premises dictate.

  Ayn Rand

  Writing, Character, Thinking

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• Both law and comedy are heavily focused on thought and viewing all angles. To write a good joke, you have to look at a premise every way possible. And with a good legal argument, you have to see all sides to get the best line of argument for your client. Law school made me a better comic, and comedy has made me a better public speaker.

  Troy Walker

  Writing, School, Law

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• To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction one or more universal laws, together with certain singular statements, the initial conditions ... We have thus two different kinds of statement, both of which are necessary ingredients of a complete causal explanation.

  Karl Popper

  Mean, Science, Law

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• Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

  William Zinsser

  Inspirational, Writing, Simplicity

  "Writing to Clients and Referring Professionals about Psychological Assessment". Book by J. B. Allyn (p. 164), 2012.

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• A complex decision is like a great river, drawing from its many tributaries the innumerable premises of which it is constituted.

  Herbert Simon

  Rivers, Drawing, Decision

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• A purpose derived from a false premise - that a deity has ordained submission to his will - cannot merit respect. The pursuit of Enlightenment-era goals - solving our world's problems through rational discourse, rather than through religion and tradition - provides ample grounds for a purposive existence. It is not for nothing that the Enlightenment, when atheism truly began to take hold, was also known as the Age of Reason.

  Jeffrey Tayler

  Our World, Goal, Atheism

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• A fundamental premise of American democratic theory is that government exists to serve the people. ... Public records are one portal through which the people observe their government, ensuring its accountability, integrity, and equity while minimizing sovereign mischief and malfeasance

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Integrity, Government, People

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• After all, the American society has been also based on the premise of expanding education very early. That's been [one] of the main sources of success of the Americans. And there is something that the world can learn from it and also be assisted by the United States along with Europe and the rest of the world. I really hope that this is an issue that engages the American public.

  Amartya Sen

  Europe, Issues, United States

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Politicians argue for abortion largely because they do not want to spend the necessary money to feed, clothe and educate more people... There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of higher order than the right to life. I do not share that view... That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside of your right to concerned.

  Jesse Jackson

  Views, Order, People

  "How we respect life is the over-riding moral issue" by Jesse Jackson in "Right to Life News", groups.csail.mit.edu. January 1977.

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• The people who review my books, generally, are kind of youngish culture writers who aspire to write books, or write opinion pieces about what they think of Neil Young, or why they quit watching ER or whatever. And because of that, I think there's a lot of people who write about my books with the premise of, "Why this guy? Why not me?"

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

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• I enjoyed living in New York City, I liked the premise of the show [Saturday Night Live], I liked working with a different host every week and different musicians. I always thought, "This is great. I never expected to get this in the first place, so I'm just happy being here."

  Kevin Nealon

  New York, Night, Cities

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• An argument can be logically valid, but unsound in that it contains a false premise and, therefore, leads to a false conclusion (e.g., Scientists are smart; smart people do not make mistakes; therefore, scientists do not make mistakes).

  Sam Harris

  Mistake, Smart, People

  Sam Harris (2011). “The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values”, p.132, Simon and Schuster

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• The right to freedom of expression is justified first of all as the right of an individual purely in his capacity as an individual. It derives from the widely accepted premise of Western thought that the proper end of man is the realization of his character and potentialities as a human being.

  Thomas I. Emerson

  Character, Acceptance, Men

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• Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life.

  Rian Johnson

  School, Adults, World

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I offer something very different from the lifelong career politicians who have worked their way up to run for higher office or those who can parachute in with checks for $5 million or $10 million, and that seems to be the definition of credible or legitimate. I'm rejecting that premise.

  Elizabeth Emken

  Running, Careers, Office

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• So the premise of 'The Submission' is that there's an anonymous competition to design a 9/11 memorial and it's won by an American Muslim, an architect born and raised in Virginia, and his name is Mohammad Khan.

  Amy Waldman

  Virginia, Names, Design

  "Journalist Amy Waldman". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. November 15, 2011.

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• A fundamental premise of politics is we can make this work if people just never figure it out.

  John F. Kerry

  People, Fundamentals, Figures

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• One of the most serious problems that our country has inherited an unwillingness to talk to anyone who disagrees with us or who won't accept, before a discussion, all the premises that we demand.

  Jimmy Carter

  Country, Demand, Serious

  "Hardball with Chris Matthews", www.nbcnews.com. November 29, 2006.

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