Reluctant Quotes - Page 12

• I suspect that Jesus spoke many of his parables as a kind of sad and holy joke and that that may be part of why he seemed reluctant to explain them because if you have to explain a joke, you might as well save your breath.

  Frederick Buechner

  Jesus, May, Might

  FaceBook post by Frederick Buechner from Mar 29, 2017

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• The best criticism is the sort that tells you what you already know but had been reluctant to accuse yourself of.

  J. D. McClatchy

  Criticism, Knows

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• I'm almost reluctant to say it because it sounds superficial, but when you lose your hair, it just affects the way that you look at yourself in the mirror. You feel less feminine, pretty or desirable, and it's not an easy thing to go through.

  Joan Lunden

  Mirrors, Hair, Sound

  "Joan Lunden reveals battle with breast cancer". www.foxnews.com. September 24, 2014.

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• Germans grew reluctant to stay in communal ski lodges, fearing they might talk in their sleep. They postponed surgeries because of the lip-loosening effects of anesthetic. Dreams reflected the ambient anxiety. One German dreamed that an SA man came to his home and opened the door to his oven, which then repeated every negative remark the household had made against the government.

  Erik Larson

  Dream, Fear, Sleep

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• I think the experience forced me to consider how interested I was in political cartooning. After I was fired, I applied to other papers but political cartooning, like all cartooning, is a very tough field to break into. Newspapers are very reluctant to hire their own cartoonists when they can get Oliphant or MacNelly through syndication for a twentieth of the price.

  Bill Watterson

  Thinking, Political, Paper

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• God doesn't seem to talk to people like he used to. Who's he talking to now? I don't know. Then I'm walking down the street in Manhattan one day, and I realize maybe it's those guys you see walking down the street talking to themselves. You know, those guys that are like, 'I can't! No, I can't!' Maybe the other side of that conversation is God going, 'You're the new leader.' 'No I can't!' They're not crazy - they're reluctant prophets.

  Marc Maron

  Funny, Crazy, Humor

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• I don't think there is a thing like overconfidence in chess. It's always better to be too confident than too reluctant.

  Magnus Carlsen

  Thinking, Chess, Overconfidence

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• God is the original, master forgiver. Each time we grope our reluctant way through the minor miracle of forgiving, we are imitating his style. I am not at all sure that any of us would have had imagination enough to see the possibilities in this way to heal the wrongs of this life had he not done it first.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Imagination, Miracle

  Lewis B. Smedes, Jeff Crosby (2007). “Days of Grace Through the Year”, InterVarsity Press

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• I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.

  David Ogilvy

  Hours, Staff, Figures

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

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• Even the Westerns that I grew up with, the Sergio Leone's and all that, there was always a sort of anti-hero, a guy reluctant to shame even, to pick up the gun again because he wants to help other people, and he does, he uses his skills for that.

  Antoine Fuqua

  Hero, Gun, Helping Others

  "Antoine Fuqua Talks ‘Hardcore’ Action and Sequel Potential For ‘The Equalizer’". Interview with Rob Keyes, screenrant.com. June 20, 2014.

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• Don't be reluctant about putting on overalls!

  Charles M. Schwab

  Overalls

  Charles M. Schwab (2005). “Succeeding With What You Have”, p.14, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Many people are reluctant to show mercy because they don't understand the difference between trust and forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past. Trust has to do with future behavior.

  Rick Warren

  Letting Go, Past, Differences

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• I began to make inquiries of the hundreds of successful men who collaborated with me in the organization of the science of success, and discovered that each of them had received guidance from unknown sources, although many of them were reluctant to admit this discovery.

  Napoleon Hill

  Successful, Men, Discovery

  Napoleon Hill (2011). “You Can Work Your Own Miracles”, p.46, Ballantine Books

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• We are reluctant to let go of the belief that if I am to care for something I must control it.

  Peter Block

  Letting Go, Care, Belief

  Peter Block (1996). “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest”, p.19, Berrett-Koehler Publishers

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• There is not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near him [Jesus]. There were those who mocked him. There were those who were envious of him. There were those who misunderstood him. There were those who revered him. But there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.

  Max Lucado

  Jesus, Misunderstood, Hints

  Max Lucado (2006). “Everyday Blessings: 365 Days of Inspirational Thoughts”, Thomas Nelson

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• I think the public is very reluctant to get involved in more foreign wars, especially in the Middle East. And they understand, implicitly, that we go to war in the Middle East because of oil. And if we don't want to go to war in the Middle East, then we have to do something about the oil problem. And I think that view is gaining ground in the U.S.

  Michael Klare

  War, Thinking, Views

  "The Permanent Energy Crisis". Interview with Julian Brookes, www.motherjones.com. June 19, 2006.

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• I think there are white alumni out there who wouldn't mind having an African American president of their school, but would be reluctant to have an African American coach, because he represents the school so. I think it's just sheer backward racism.

  Frank Deford

  School, Thinking, White

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• When I was really young, I was reluctant to be perceived as bossy, and I thought that working with an ensemble was about generating a consensus all the time. Later on, I realized that it's actually generous to know what you want and to tell people what you want - actors, crew, everyone.

  Liza Johnson

  People, Ensemble, Actors

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• This president has been reluctant to hold anybody accountable. No one was held accountable after September the 11th. Nobody's been held accountable after the clear flaws in intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq.

  Bob Graham

  War, Iraq, President

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• The good he scorn'd Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost, Not to return; or if it did, its visits Like those of angels, short, and far between.

  Robert Blair

  Angel, Return, Ghost

  Robert Blair (1804). “The grave, a poem. To which are added An elegy in a country church-yard, by Gray. Death, a poem, by bishop Porteus [&c.].”

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• Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and therefore none may criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are therefore reluctant to declare the obvious superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture.

  Edwin A. Locke

  Islamic, Political, Western Culture

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• It's not fear of striking out that makes me reluctant to step up to the plate. It's the fear of getting hit in the head by a 90 mph fastball, the pitcher coming off of the mound to stomp me with her cleats while I am down, the rest of the opposing team rushing out of the dugout hurling insults as they kick me and spit on me, while all along the crowd in the stands is cheering them on and laughing at my failure. So, no, it's not the fear of striking out that keeps me from stepping up to the plate.

  Jim Copeland

  Cheer, Fear, Team

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• The reader reads aloud, with a sing-song up … then down … then down again cadence. My mood shifts from merely reluctant to derisive. It’s a tired reading style. I’m sick of it. It attaches more importance to the words than the words themselves—as they’ve been arranged—could possibly sustain, and it gives poets and poetry a bad name.

  Gabrielle Hamilton

  Song, Reading, Tired

  Gabrielle Hamilton (2011). “Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef”, p.104, Random House

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• Why is there such insistence that AGW has occurred and needs drastic solutions? This is a puzzle, but my short answer is that the IPCC has been built on the AGW proposition and of course keeps plugging it, whatever the data say. The IPCC has considerable clout. Most people shy off inspecting the evidence because it looks like science and must therefore be hard. The media have been captured by AGW (it makes for great stories), the environmental movement and the Greens love it, and business is reluctant to get involved.

  Don Aitkin

  Media, Data, People

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• The trouble is, once you say something about a source, then you've pegged it down, and so now I'm reluctant to say anything. If I say I developed 50 different shapes from Mississippian tumuli, that doesn't mean they're copies of tumuli - I'm not ripping off those shapes.

  Michael Heizer

  Mean, Say Anything, Copying

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