Refusal Quotes - Page 8

• We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Inspirational, Learning, Growth

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• Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm.

  Leo Strauss

  Philosophy, Humble, Men

  Leo Strauss, Hilail Gildin (1989). “An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays”, p.39, Wayne State University Press

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• A refusal to believe that God loves us is the unbelief which destroys the soul.

  Edward Norris Kirk

  Believe, Soul, God Love

  Edward Norris Kirk (1857). “Discourses: Doctrinal and Practical”, p.21

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• Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Effort, Resistance

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.204, Knopf

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• Also, perhaps children are sterner than grown-up people in their refusal to suffer, in their refusal, even, to feel at all.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Children, People, Suffering

  Elizabeth Bowen (2015). “Bowen's Court & Seven Winters”, p.205, Random House

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• Just as the creative artist is not allowed to choose, neither is he permitted to turn his back on anything: a single refusal, and he is cast out of the state of grace and becomes sinful all the way through.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Artist, Creative, Grace

  Rainer Maria Rilke (2002). “Letters on Cézanne”, p.60, Macmillan

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• The leading characteristic of the savage state is its refusal or avoidance of industry.

  Arthur Brisbane

  Savages, Characteristics, States

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• Of course, I'm aware of the animosities destroying brain cells on both sides, and I know all about the obstinacy of the warring parties, their refusal to reach an agreement, their devotion to their own murderous hatred.

  Yasmina Khadra

  Party, Agreement, Cells

  Yasmina Khadra (2005). “The Attack”, Nan A. Talese

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• Nationalism is fraught with dangers, of course, but so is the blind refusal to recognize that attachment to one's own culture, traditions, and history is a creative, normal, and healthy part of human experience.

  Anthony Daniels

  Attachment, Creative, Healthy

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• The name of God should no longer come from the mouth of man. This word that has so long been degraded by usage no longer means anything.... To use the word God is more than sloth, it is a refusal to think, a king of short cut, a hideous shorthand.

  Arthur Adamov

  God, Kings, Mean

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• While the Jeffersonian did not flatly deny the Creator's power to perform miracles, he admired His refusal to do so.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Miracle, Deny, Creator

  Daniel J. Boorstin (1993). “The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson”, p.41, University of Chicago Press

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• I'm English enough to feel something of a gut-reaction to modernism, to continental philosophising and anything that smacks of a refusal to pay attention to the forensics: the empirical facts on the ground.

  Will Self

  Attention, Pay, Facts

  "Will Self: modernism and me" by Will Self, www.theguardian.com. August 3, 2012.

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• Surely Scripture is right when it makes the sin of sins that unbelief, which is at bottom nothing else than a refusal to take the cup of salvation. Surely no sharper grief can be inflicted upon the Spirit of God than when we leave His gifts neglected and unappropriated.

  Alexander MacLaren

  Grief, Scripture, Cups

  Alexander MacLaren “MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture”, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; Refusals are graded in a descending scale of finality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, the refusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called by some casuists the refusal assentive.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Desire, Denial, Lasts

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2495, Delphi Classics

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• Tout refus du langage est une mort. Any refusal of language is a death.

  Roland Barthes

  Language

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• For me, one of the most disturbing elements of the right wing's political agenda is that it believes that there is one correct spiritual and moral path for all people to follow. The danger inherent in this is its explicit refusal to accept anyone who happens to lead a different lifestyle, and the condemnation of those who differ.

  Barbra Streisand

  Spiritual, Believe, Wings

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• Frivolity is the species' refusal to suffer.

  John Lahr

  Suffering, Species, Frivolity

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• In its relation to the reality of daily life, the high culture of the past was many things opposition and adornment, outcry and resignation. But it was also the appearance of the realm of freedom: the refusal to behave.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Past, Reality, Culture

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.75, Routledge

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• Suffering is basically the mind's refusal to accept reality as it is.

  Marcus Thomas

  Reality, Mind, Suffering

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• Perhaps that is what love is -- the momentary or prolonged refusal to think of another person in terms of power.

  Phyllis Rose

  Love Is, Thinking, Term

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• Sin is a refusal to grow, a refusal to love, a refusal to get committed, to be concerned, and to take risks.

  Anthony de Mello

  Risk, Sin, Committed

  Anthony De Mello (2010). “Seek God Everywhere: Reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius”, p.21, Image

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• Faith is a refusal to panic, come what may.

  Martyn Lloyd-Jones

  May, Panic

  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (2016). “Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures”, p.91, Zondervan

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• When all hope is lost, pig-headed refusal to acknowledge reality will always save the day.

  Andy Ihnatko

  Reality, Pigs, Lost

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• To be boosted by an illusion is not to live better than to live in harmony with the truth ... these refusals to part with a decayed illusion are really an infection to the mind.

  George Santayana

  Mind, Illusion, Harmony

  George Santayana (2015). “Character and Opinion in the United States”, p.42, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• There is something underwhelming about scholarly hate mail - the sad literary allusions, the refusal to use contractions.

  Brock Clarke

  Hate, Use, Mail

  Brock Clarke (2007). “An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England: A Novel”, Algonquin Books

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