Preventing Quotes

• He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician.

  Thomas Fuller

  Fitness, Health, Medicine

  72 Copy quote

• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Life, 4th Of July, Safety

  sir John Barnard, Benjamin Franklin (1848). “A present for an apprentice [by sir J. Barnard]. To which is added, Franklin's Way to wealth. [Ed.] by a citizen of London [T. Tegg].”, p.288

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• Only the power of unbounded love practiced in regard to all human beings can defeat the forces of interhuman strife, and can prevent the pending extermination of man by man on this planet. Without love, no armament, no war, no diplomatic machinations, no coercive police force, no school education, no economic or political measures, not even hydrogen bombs can prevent the pending catastrophe.

  Pitirim Sorokin

  Love, Education, War

  Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin (2002). “The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation”, p.12, Templeton Foundation Press

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, People, Political

  "Friedman & Szasz On Liberty and Drugs". Interview with Randy Paige on "America's Drug Forum", www.druglibrary.org. 1991.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• A moment of patience in a moment of anger prevents a thousand moments of regret.

  Ali ibn Abi Talib

  Patience, Regret, Anger

  340 Copy quote

• If we were to remove the Bible from public schools we would be wasting so much time punishing crimes and taking so little pains to prevent them.

  Benjamin Rush

  Bible, Christian, Education

  140 Copy quote

• The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.

  Gene Roddenberry

  Strength, War, Fighting

  "Earth: Final Conflict". Tv series. Season 3, Episode 14: "Scorched Earth", February 07, 2000.

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.

  Joseph Story

  Real, Government, Giving

  48 Copy quote

• Women need to become literary "criminals," break the literary laws and reinvent their own, because the established laws prevent women from presenting the reality of their lives.

  Kathy Acker

  Women, Writing, Reality

  "Bodies of Work". Book by Kathy Acker, 1996.

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• Are psychiatric crises so overwhelming to the mind that they inhibit the presence of ethics? Is depression at root an amoral phenomenon, its focus on the self preventing any other from really counting? Perhaps. Sometimes. Sometimes, even when we are two we are really only one; we can feel nothing but our own bones, our own difficult breaths.

  Lauren Slater

  Depression, Self, Two

  10 Copy quote

• Far more has been accomplished for the welfare and progress of mankind by preventing bad actions than by doing good ones.

  William Lyon Mackenzie King

  Progress, Action, Welfare

  20 Copy quote

• Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite.

  Primo Levi

  Later In Life, Perfect, Joy

  Primo Levi (1996). “Survival In Auschwitz”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need new medical approaches to preventing and/or curing disease. We need new scientific approaches to generating, storing, and being more efficient with energy. Maybe we need more space exploration. Maybe we need more undersea exploration.

  Fred Wilson

  Space, Disease, Energy

  "Can the Crowd Be More Patient" by Fred Wilson, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 26, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Extreme violence has a way of preventing us from seeing the interests it serves.

  Naomi Klein

  Way, Violence, Interest

  "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism". Book by Naomi Klein, 2007.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...There's a lot of money in the Western diet. The more you process any food, the more profitable it becomes. The healthcare industry makes more money treating chronic diseases (which account for three quarters of the $2 trillion plus we spend each year on health care in this country) than preventing them.

  Michael Pollan

  Country, Years, Three

  Michael Pollan (2009). “Food Rules: An Eater's Manual”, p.11, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.

  George W. Bush

  War, Israel, Iran

  "Sen. Lieberman Backs U.S. Action Against Iran". Interview with Robert Siegel, www.npr.org. November 2, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Peace is the wish of the French of Italy Spain Germany and all the world, and Great Britain alone the cause of preventing its accomplishment, and this not for any point of honour or even interest, but merely lest there should be an example in the modern world of a great powerful Republic.

  Charles James Fox

  Powerful, Accomplishment, Wish

  Charles James Fox (1970). “Memorials and correspondence”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The cardinal maxim is, that any aid to a present bad Bank is the surest mode of preventing the establishment of a future good Bank.

  Walter Bagehot

  Investing, Aids, Cardinals

  Walter Bagehot (2007). “Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market”, p.106, Cosimo, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is, moreover, very little sense in preventing young people from giving expression to their ideas on the pretext that they have less experience than have older persons. There are many who may live a thousand years without encountering experience of any value. It could only be in a society of persons equally gifted that such an idea could have any meaning.

  Otto Weininger

  Expression, Years, Ideas

  Otto Weininger (1906). “Sex & Character”, p.121, Рипол Классик

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man is extraordinarily clever in preventing himself from being happy; it would seem that the less able he is to endure misfortune the more apt he is to attach himself to it.

  Andre Gide

  Clever, Men, Able

  4 Copy quote

• We need a new kind of politics. Not the politics of governance, but the politics of resistance. The politics of opposition. The politics of joining hands across the world and preventing certain destruction.

  Arundhati Roy

  Joining Hands, Needs, World

  Arundhati Roy (2002). “The Algebra of Infinite Justice”, p.215, Penguin Books India

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• I work closely with a number of charities from food pantries to drug rehabilitation to natural disaster relief to preventing sexual exploitation of young girls. It is one of the most rewarding things I do.

  Beyonce Knowles

  Girl, Numbers, Drug

  "Exclusive: Beyoncé Discusses New H&M Campaign". Interview with Lisa Dougan, www.elle.com. April 15, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Framers of the First Amendment were not concerned with preventing government from abridging their freedom to speak about crops and cockfighting, or with protecting the expressive activity of topless dancers, which of late has found some shelter under the First Amendment. Rather, the Framers cherished unabridged freedom of political communication.

  George Will

  Communication, Government, Dancer

  George F. Will (2003). “With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002”, p.278, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Preventing global warming from becoming a planetary catastrophe may take something even more drastic than renewable energy, superefficient urban design, and global carbon taxes.

  Jamais Cascio

  Design, Energy, May

  Jamais Cascio “Hacking the Earth”, Lulu.com

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table. ... That includes all elements of American power: a political effort aimed at isolating Iran, a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored, an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency.

  Barack Obama

  Military, Iran, Political

  "Debate: Attacking Iran, AIPAC, Israel-Palestine and Obama with Rashid Khalidi and Jonathan Tobin", www.democracynow.org. March 5, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source