Refusal Quotes - Page 9

• The strike and its outcome had an enormous impact on the system of education and on our lives as well. The strike began as a response to the college's refusal to hire Professor Nathan Hare [the so-called father of black studies], and certainly unified the college around issues of justice. These issues were reflected in many communities: the Asian American community, Hispanic community, Native American community.

  Danny Glover

  Father, Native American, College

  Source: progressive.org

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• "There is no analysis here," the most brutal of them wrote. Now I wonder if my papers lacked critical thought, or if it was really more about my inability/refusal to write in the convoluted style that they wanted me to. I remember the initial shock upon reading my peers' papers. I seriously could not understand them, and I couldn't understand why the writing had to be so unclear in order to be considered smart.

  Mary J. Miller

  Smart, Reading, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Capitalism is in crisis both morally, due to widening disparities of income and wealth and disclosures of abusive practices, and ecologically, due to its refusal to make business adjustments in accounting procedures that pass the consequences of emissions to the public and the future.

  Richard A. Falk

  Practice, Income, Wealth

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• There's more roles now to fill since Trump's in. There's this refusal of power. I think progressives are actually literally uncomfortable with the exercise of power, because of what you learn. When you're too educated you understand the total disconnect of the exercise of power.

  Cody Wilson

  Exercise, Thinking, Roles

  Source: motherboard.vice.com

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• That is my job as an intellectual, as an extension of my vocation: to engage in a serious reckoning with the present manifestation of both white supremacy, white refusal to acknowledge culpability, and the attempts of black people to re-describe the harm and trauma we've endured, as well as to say afresh what it is that must be done if we are to be conscientious.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Jobs, White, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• At the moment we have a critical situation in Greece. Even as we speak, where there is an open attempt by the EU to destroy Syriza by splitting it. There is a German obstinacy and utter refusal to seriously consider an alternative. The reason isn't even a lack of money, because money swims around the EU coffers endlessly, and they could write off the debt tomorrow if they wanted. But they don't want to do so, because of the election of a left-wing government. They want to punish Syriza in public, to humiliate it so that this model doesn't go any further than Greece.

  Tariq Ali

  Writing, Wings, Government

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• I understand why so many Americans are fed up with government. The 112th Congress was almost universally derided as the worst ever. It was the most polarized body since the end of Reconstruction, according to one study, and I grew embarrassed by its partisan bickering, inactivity, and refusal to address the vital challenges facing America.

  Olympia Snowe

  Government, America, Challenges

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• Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because a refusal often offends, I read somewhere.

  Terry Pratchett

  Wizards, Affair

  Terry Pratchett (2009). “Mort: (Discworld Novel 4)”, p.214, Random House

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• It is not for man to seek, or even to believe in, God.
  He only has to refuse his ultimate love to everything that is not God.
  This refusal does not presuppose any belief.
  It is enough to recognize what is obvious to any mind:
  that all the goods of this world, past, present, and future, real or imaginary,
  are finite and limited and radically incapable of satisfying
  the desire that perpetually burns within us
  for an infinite and perfect good.

  Simone Weil

  Real, Believe, Past

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• Show enough regret, and your refusal will inspire gratitude.

  Mason Cooley

  Gratitude, Regret, Inspire

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• Any refusal to recognize reality, for any reason whatever, has disastrous consequences. There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think. Don't ignore your own desires.... Don't sacrifice them. Examine their cause. There is a limit to how much you should have to bear.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Thinking, Reality

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.1454, Penguin

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• The very notion of tabu is one of the rightest notions in the world. Better any old tabu than none, for a man cannot be said to be"on the side of the stars" at all, unless he makes refusals.

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould

  Stars, Men, World

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1920). “Modes and Morals”

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• In any conflict area, it is always the women who are the first point of attack. But I think the more they have seen of oppression and violence, they have gotten more brave, more strong, more fearless than they were. You see this refusal to just keep quiet and do as you are told.

  Fatima Bhutto

  Leadership, Wisdom, Strong

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• Non-co-operation means refusal both to help the sinner in his sin and not to accept any help or gift from him till he has repented.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Mean, Helping, Sin

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• Even if only 2 percent of those assigned to perform military service should announce their refusal to fight, governments would be powerless, they would not dare send such a large number of people to jail.

  Albert Einstein

  Military, Fighting, Government

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.57, St. Martin's Press

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• I think it is less the limited amount of information than the filters that information about the Middle East must pass through before being fairly addressed in the mainstream media. In more intellectual and geopolitical terms, the perceptions of the region are distorted by a combination of Orientalism and the priorities of the state of Israel, including the refusal to discuss the relevance of Israel's nuclear weapons arsenal in the context of addressing Iran on its nuclear program.

  Richard A. Falk

  Thinking, Israel, Media

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• The nobility of our calling will always be rooted in two commitments difficult to observe: refusal to lie about what we know, and resistance to oppression.

  Albert Camus

  Lying, Commitment, Writing

  Albert Camus (1960). “Speech of Acceptance Upon the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature: Delivered in Stockholm on the Tenth of December, Nineteen Hundred and Fifty-seven. [Translated by Justin O'Brien”

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• The engineer's power was usually limited to a refusal to endorse a given plan, or to the tender of his resignation.

  Samuel Florman

  Engineering, Given, Resignation

  Samuel Florman (2013). “The Existential Pleasures of Engineering”, p.31, Souvenir Press

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• The greatness and efficacy of a magician is measured by his refusal to use magic. The true magician, the greatest, is the poorest and most unfortunate of all mortals. Because between his magic and his person forgetfulness takes shape, in the form of the world.

  Cesar Aira

  Greatness, Magic, Use

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• The biggest obstacle to making Christ magnificent is the refusal to make yourself small.

  James MacDonald

  Obstacles, Christ, Magnificent

  Twitter post from Aug 04, 2016

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• As a writer I have always fought for the right to write. For writing is a time-honored means of communication. Lack of communication, the refusal of some to understand, or outright refusal to learn about other human beings is based on fear. Fear is what keeps people apart.

  Piri Thomas

  Fear, Struggle, Communication

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• Refusal to accept the flow of the world is the root of all misery.

  Devdutt Pattanaik

  Holy Prophet, Roots, World

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• The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.

  Bob Woodward

  Truth, Lying, Finals

  "Watergate: 25 Years Later". The Washington Post Live Online discussion, www.washingtonpost.com. June 17, 1997.

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• The refusal to choose is a form of choice; disbelief is a form of belief.

  Frank Barron

  Choices, Belief, Form

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• What distinguishes [Afropolitans] is a willingness to complicate Africa – namely, to engage with, critique, and celebrate the parts of Africa that mean most to them. Perhaps what most typifies the Afropolitan consciousness is the refusal to oversimplify; the effort to understand what is ailing in Africa alongside the desire to honour what is wonderful, unique. Rather than essentialising the geographical entity, we seek to comprehend the cultural complexity; to honour the intellectual and spiritual legacy; and to sustain our parents’ cultures.

  Taiye Selasi

  Spiritual, Mean, Unique

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