Prove Quotes - Page 33

• The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

  Julian Baggini

  Doubt, Firsts, Questioning

  "Ideas for modern living: you" by Julian Baggini, www.theguardian.com. March 12, 2011.

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• I try to keep in my mind the simple question: Am I trying to do good or make myself look good? Too many of our responsibilities get added to our plate when we are trying to please people, impress people, prove ourselves, acquire power, increase our prestige. All those motivations are about looking good more than doing good.

  Kevin DeYoung

  Motivation, Responsibility, Simple

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• I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.

  Felix Dennis

  Writing, People, Care

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• God's purpose in creation was to let us prove ourselves. The plan was explained to us in the spirit world before we were born. We were valiant enough there to qualify for the opportunity to choose against temptation here to prepare for eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.

  Henry B. Eyring

  Opportunity, Temptation, Purpose

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• Men have a psychological need to show off their courage and strength. When he sees you talking to another guy, that instinct kicks in and he jumps to protect you and prove he's worthy of your love.

  Helen Fisher

  Love, Men, Talking

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• Natural beauty really entices men. They will tell you this time and time again, and studies consistently prove it.

  Helen Fisher

  Men, Study, Natural

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• After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do.

  John Steinbeck

  Dirty, Writing, Boys

  John Steinbeck (1995). “The Pastures of Heaven”, p.59, Penguin

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• But time in only another liar, so go along the wall a little further: if blackberries prove bitter there'll be mushrooms, fairy-ring mushrooms in the grass, sweetest of all fungi.

  William Carlos Williams

  Wall, Liars, Mushrooms

  William Carlos Williams (1971). “Imaginations”, p.31, New Directions Publishing

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• Because nothing should be wasted In a world where sparrows work hard To prove there is enough.

  Gary Soto

  Hard Work, World, Sparrows

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• I am no king, and I am no lord, And I am no soldier at-arms," said he. "I'm none but a harper, and a very poor harper, That am come hither to wed with ye." "If you were a lord, you should be my lord, And the same if you were a thief," said she. "And if you are a harper, you shall be my harper, For it makes no matter to me, to me, For it makes no matter to me." "But what if it prove that I am no harper? That I lied for your love most monstrously?" "Why, then I'll teach you to play and sing, For I dearly love a good harp," said she.

  Peter S. Beagle

  Kings, Play, Soldier

  Peter S. Beagle (1968). “The last unicorn”

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• But, indeed, words are very rascals, since bonds [vows] disgraced them." Viola: "Thy reason, man?" Feste: "Troth [Truthfully], sir, I can yield you none without words, and words are grown so false, I am loathe to prove reason with them.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Yield, Reason

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• The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition.

  Carl Schmitt

  Real, Break Through, Interesting

  Carl Schmitt (2010). “Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty”, p.15, University of Chicago Press

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• If he failed the first time he took his driver's licence test, it was mainly because he started an argument with the examiner in an ill-timed effort to prove that nothing could be more humiliating to a rational creature than being required to encourage the development of a base conditional reflex by stopping at a red light when there was not an earthly soul around, heeled or wheeled. He was more circumspect the next time, and passed.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Light, Effort, Soul

  Vladimir Nabokov (2012). “Pnin”, p.85, Penguin UK

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• It smells terrible in here.' Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Meaningful, Lying, Writing

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.70, LSU Press

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• CALVIN: This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If the guy exists why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it? And if he doesn't exist what's the meaning of all this? HOBBES: I dunno. Isn't this a religious holiday? CALVIN: Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.

  Bill Watterson

  Religious, Holiday, Guy

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• Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

  William Hazlitt

  Dark, Water, Trying

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1100, Delphi Classics

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• And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, — I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Hate, Determined

  'Richard III' (1591) act 1, sc. 1, l. 28

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• The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dream, Men, Insanity

  "Twelve Types". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1903.

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• It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas and feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health.

  Erich Fromm

  Validation, Ideas, People

  Erich Fromm (2014). “The Erich Fromm Reader: Readings Selected and Edited by Rainer Funk”, p.74, Open Road Media

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• And behind it lies not blind chance but a principle that works to help us understand, a thousand "coincidences" and friends come to show us the way when the problem seems too hard to solve alone. Problems for overcoming. Freedom for proving. And, as long as we believe in our dream, nothing by chance.

  Richard Bach

  Dream, Lying, Believe

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• I knew my mother was right, but that didn't change the way I felt about things. People always think that if they can prove they're right, you'll change your mind.

  Peter Cameron

  Mother, Thinking, People

  Peter Cameron (2009). “Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You: A Novel”, p.40, Macmillan

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• Psychoanalysis is a science conducted by lunatics for lunatics. They are generally concerned with proving that people are irresponsible; and they certainly succeed in proving that some people are

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  People, Succeed, Concerned

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• You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you. . . some blessings will be delivered in this life; others will come beyond the veil. The Lord is intent on your personal growth and development. That progress is accelerated when you willingly allow Him to lead you through every growth experience you encounter, whether initially it be to your individual liking or not.

  Richard G. Scott

  Blessing, Growth, Progress

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• Mom said that people are interested in birds only in as much as they exhibit human behavior - greed and stupidity and anger - and by doing so they free us from the unique sorrow of being human...I told Mom my own theory of why we like birds - of how birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.

  Douglas Coupland

  Mom, Unique, People

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• We must prove to the world that we are all nincompoops

  Baroness Orczy

  World

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