Refusal Quotes - Page 3

• If you give way, you will instantly have to meet some greater demand, as having been frightened into obedience in the first instance; while a firm refusal will make them clearly understand that they must treat you more as equals.

  Thucydides

  Giving, Demand, Way

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

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• The work of art is born of the intelligence's refusal to reason the concrete. It marks the triumph of the carnal.

  Albert Camus

  Art, Design, Triumph

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.97, Vintage

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• I feel we are so blessed to live in a country where we enjoy so many rights that other countries cannot even begin to imagine. However, it terrifies me that we seem to have lost touch with our connection to the earth. I am concerned that we have risen to such heights of arrogance in our refusal to acknowledge that our earth is rapidly changing in ways that might affect us catastrophically but instead, we hold steadfast to our belief that nothing can happen to us as a people.

  Sheryl Crow

  Country, Blessed, Rights

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• It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

  Pope John Paul II

  Jesus, Catholic, Desire

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• A refusal of nature as a model is a tradition that goes right back to Oscar Wilde.

  Todd Haynes

  Oscars, Tradition, Wilde

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Scepticism and refusal of authority is at the heart of scientific endeavour. Scientific knowledge dictates economic possibilities

  David Landes

  Heart, Economics, Possibility

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• Your believing or not believing in karma has no effect on its existence, nor on its consequences to you. Just as a refusal to believe in the ocean would not prevent you from drowning.

  F. Paul Wilson

  Karma, Believe, Ocean

  "The Tomb (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack)". Book by F. Paul Wilson, November 1984.

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• At the start of the second decade of the 21st century, young people all over the world are demonstrating against a variety of issues ranging from economic injustice and massive inequality to drastic cuts in education and public services. These demonstrations have and currently are being met with state-sanctioned violence and an almost pathological refusal to hear their demands.

  Henry Giroux

  Cutting, Issues, People

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• There are absolute atheists ... Absolute atheism is in no way a mere absence of belief in God. It is rather a refusal of God, a fight against God, a challenge to God.

  Jacques Maritain

  Atheist, Fighting, Challenges

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• The policies that Hillary [Clinton] advocates are going to be more of the same, whether you're looking at her cozy relationships with the banks, her refusal to support Glass-Steagall, her vagueness about what actually she's going to do about the control of the big banks.

  Jill Stein

  Glasses, Support, Cozy

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Categorical condemnation is the hatred of the mob. It makes cowards brave. And there is nothing more fearful than a religious mob, a mob overflowing with righteousness – as at the crucifixion and before and since. This can happen only after we have made a categorical refusal to kindness: to heretics, foreigners, enemies or any other group different from ourselves.

  Wendell Berry

  Religious, Kindness, Hatred

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• Obviously, I don't want to minimize the patriarchal nature of our media, our government and our culture as a whole. But I think it's our refusal as women to own our power that is our biggest problem, both individually and collectively. The linchpin that holds the current system in place is the slumber of women.

  Marianne Williamson

  Thinking, Government, Media

  Source: scottlondon.com

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• This deep agnosticism is more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a finite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superficial consolations of certainty.

  Stephen Batchelor

  Mind, Fundamentals, Embrace

  Stephen Batchelor (2010). “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist”, p.74, Spiegel & Grau

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• It is an admirable skill to able to sweeten a refusal with civil words which atone for the favor which we are not able to grant.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Skills, Favors, Able

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• We gain power in our refusal to accept less than we deserve.

  Amber Hollibaugh

  Gains, Accepting, Deserve

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• I didn't go to drama school because, from the first refusal I then, as I said, a couple of weeks later, was offered a professional job, where I am immensely grateful to the journey.

  Ben Kingsley

  Jobs, Couple, Drama

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• What about our refusal to look squarely at the degradation of the planet we inhabit? In the last election cycle many candidates refused even to acknowledge the hard science, irrefutable science, of climate change. The president, while readily accepting the facts, has done far too little to alter them. How long are we, are you, prepared to wait?

  David Remnick

  Long, Waiting, President

  David Remnick's Commencement Address at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, news.syr.edu. May 11, 2014.

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• My art history papers were really politics. They were about the manifestation of culture through the eye of political events. So there was always that refusal to settle in one place, or one discipline or medium.

  Roselee Goldberg

  Art, Eye, Discipline

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Believe, Thinking, Doe

  P. J. O'Rourke (2011). “Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics”, p.159, Pan Macmillan

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• An important book for our times, in which one woman's determination and refusal to consent sets an example of courage and honesty.

  Giles Foden

  Determination, Honesty, Book

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• All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Lying, Men, People

  "The Treatises of M. T. Cicero" by C. D. Yonge, On Standing for the Consulship, section 12, p. 499, 500, 1872.

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• Sensitive husbands don't like second billing. I don't believe Franchot ever for a moment resented the fact that I was a star. Possibly he resented Hollywood's refusal to let him forget it. There was never a doubt in my mind that his talent was greater than mine.

  Joan Crawford

  Stars, Husband, Believe

  Joan Crawford (2017). “A Portrait of Joan: The Autobiography of Joan Crawford”, p.160, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful-the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can't be done if it needs to be into their philanthropy.

  Tony Blair

  Determination, Successful, Giving Money

  "Treasury reveals how little tax the super-rich pay" by Patrick Wintour, www.theguardian.com. April 15, 2012.

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• The will, the will not ever to die, the refusal to resign oneself to death, ceaselessly builds the house of life while the keen blasts and icy winds of reason unceasingly batter at the structure and beat it down.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Wind, House, Icy

  Miguel de Unamuno (1977). “The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations”, p.121, Princeton University Press

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• People cheat on each other in a hundred different ways: indifference, emotional neglect, contempt, lack of respect, years of refusal of intimacy. Cheating doesn't begin to describe the ways that people let each other down.

  Esther Perel

  Cheating, Emotional, Years

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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