Refuse Quotes - Page 8

• I've still got a brilliant head of hair, which refuses to lay down.

  Rod Stewart

  Hair, Brilliant, Stills

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• We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not criminals, but Irishmen! This is the crime of which we stand accused.

  Bobby Sands

  Lying, Criminals, Crime

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• I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades.

  Eugene V. Debs

  War, Heart, Fighting

  "In What War Shall I Take Up Arms and Fight?" by Eugene V. Debs, www.marxists.org. September 1915.

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• When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all.

  Mark Van Doren

  World, Reason Why, Failing

  Mark Van Doren (1968). “Autobiography”

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• One can delineate the domain of philosophy however one likes, but in its search for truth, philosophy is always concerned with human existence.  Authentic philosophizing refuses to remain at the stage of knowledge […].  Care for human existence and its truth makes philosophy a 'practical science' in the deepest sense, and it also leads philosophy—and this is the crucial point—into the concrete distress of human existence.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Philosophy, Care, Likes

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• The history of humanity is not a hotel where someone can rent a room whenever it suits him; nor is it a vehicle which we board or get out of at random. Our past will be for us a burden beneath which we can only collapse for as long as we refuse to understand the present and fight for a better future. Only then — but from that moment on — will the burden become a blessing, that is, a weapon in the battle for freedom.

  Hannah Arendt

  Fighting, Blessing, Past

  "The Jewish Writings".

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• I refuse to live my life in fear.

  Fela Kuti

  Living My Life

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• I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?

  Ralph Ellison

  Denial, Invisibility, Way

  Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.39, Vintage

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• It is often to be observed, that as in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthly rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out ; so, in digging in one s soul for the fine gold of genius, much dulness and common-place is first brought to light. Happy would it be, if the man possessed in himself some receptacle for his own rubbish of this sort: but he is like the occupant of a dwelling, whose refuse cannot be clapped into his own cellar, but must be deposited in the street before his own door, for the public functionaries to take care of.

  Herman Melville

  Men, Light, Doors

  Herman Melville (1852). “Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities”, p.351

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• The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive. The more prolonged the halt in some unrelieved system of order, the greater the crash of the dead society.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Change, Art, Order

  Alfred North Whitehead, David Ray Griffin (1978). “Process and reality: an essay in cosmology”, Free Pr

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• To emancipate woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man, not to deny them to her; let her have her independent existence and she will continue nonetheless to exist for him also: mutually recognising each other as subject, each will yet remain for the other an other...when we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the 'division' of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Couple, Independent, Men

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• I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and - famously - I enjoy making enemies.

  Andrew Breitbart

  Jobs, Fun, Believe

  "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World". Book by Andrew Breitbart, 2011.

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• People refuse to take chances in business, because they fear the criticism which may follow if they fail. The fear of criticism, in such cases is stronger than the DESIRE for success.

  Napoleon Hill

  People, Criticism, Desire

  Napoleon Hill (2007). “Think And Grow Rich”, p.103, Lulu.com

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• I am a woman with a foot in both worlds; and I refuse the split. I feel the necessity for dialogue. Sometimes I feel it urgently.

  Cherrie Moraga

  Feet, Splits, World

  Cherríe Moraga (1983). “Loving in the war years: lo que nunca pasó por sus labios”, South End Pr

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• I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.

  Maurice Sendak

  Bullshit, Innocence

  The Believer interview, www.believermag.com. November/December 2012.

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• We must be ever courteous and patient with those who do not see eye to eye with us. We must resolutely refuse to consider our opponents as enemies.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Eye, Enemy, Opponents

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.94, Courier Corporation

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• It is my ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history, leaving it markless, no refuse save the printed books. [] It is my aim, and every effort bent, that the sum and history of my life, which in the same sentence is my obit and epitaph too, shall be them both: he made the books and he died.

  William Faulkner

  Book, Ambition, Effort

  William Faulkner, Joseph Leo Blotner (1978). “Selected letters of William Faulkner”, Vintage

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• I will continue to fight for legislation that forces Congress to read the bills! I will fight for a vote on my bill that calls for a waiting period for each page of legislation. I will continue to object when Congress sticks special interest riders on bills in the dead of night! And if Congress refuses to obey its own rules, if Congress refuses to pass a budget, if Congress refuses to read the bills, then I say: Sweep the place clean. Limit their terms and send them home!

  Rand Paul

  Home, Fighting, Night

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• I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place.

  Desmond Tutu

  Sorry, Mean, Heaven

  "Desmond Tutu Would Prefer Hell Over A Homophobic Heaven". Desmond Tutu's statements during the United Nations’ launch of its gay-rights program in Cape Town, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 26, 2013.

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• Paintings may not have nearly the power to convert people that the printed or spoken word has, but each man has his part to play in the human and divine drama - some persons just a few lines, others whole pages. To refuse to play one's role at all is not the answer. It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

  William Kurelek

  Drama, Men, Light

  William Kurelek, Joan Murray (1983). “Kurelek's vision of Canada”, McClelland & Stewart

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• People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, they visualize in their minds that they are not quitters; they will not allow life's circumstances to push them down and hold them under.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Change, Dream, People

  Charles R. Swindoll (1995). “Collected Works of Charles R. Swindoll: A Collection Consisting of Living on the Ragged Edge”, Arrowood Press

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• Humanity looks upon Jesus the Nazarene as a poor-born Who suffered misery and humiliation with all of the weak. And He is pitied, for Humanity believes He was crucified painfully. . . . And all that Humanity offers to Him is crying and wailing and lamentation. For centuries Humanity has been worshiping weakness in the person of the Savior. The Nazarene was not weak! He was strong and is strong! But the people refuse to heed the true meaning of strength.

  Khalil Gibran

  Jesus, Strong, Believe

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• The human heart refuses To believe in a universe Without a purpose.

  Immanuel Kant

  Believe, Heart, Optimism

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• There are two kinds of friendship: one is genuine affection, the other is inability to refuse.

  Umberto Eco

  Two, Stupidity, Inability

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• You know, I don't talk about the characters that I play. Years ago, I was a little timid about it and I kind of squirmed when I was asked, 'Could you tell us something about your character.' Now with a little self-confidence that comes with the grey beard, I just flatly refuse.

  Christoph Waltz

  Character, Self Confidence, Years

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