Second Best Quotes - Page 4

• Given a conjecture, the best thing is to prove it. The second best thing is to disprove it. The third best thing is to prove that it is not possible to disprove it, since it will tell you not to waste your time trying to disprove it. That's what Gödel did for the Continuum Hypothesis.

  Saharon Shelah

  Science, Trying, Waste

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• You think you know what is just and what is not. I understand. We all think we know." I had no doubt, myself, then, that at each moment each one of us, man, woman, child, perhaps even the poor old horse turning the mill-wheel, knew what was just: all creatures come into the world bringing with them the memory of justice. "But we live in a world of laws," I said to my poor prisoner, "a world of the second-best. There is nothing we can do about that. We are fallen creatures. All we can do is to uphold the laws, all of us, without allowing the memory of justice to fade.

  J. M. Coetzee

  Horse, Children, Memories

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• In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer. [dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three]

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Book, Dedication, Three

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• Women now were told not to settle for second best, told that they deserved better, but at a time, it seemed, when there was so much less to go around.

  Lorrie Moore

  Settling

  Lorrie Moore (2009). “A Gate at the Stairs”, p.81, Faber & Faber

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• Of course, music is an art form, and it's not all that competitive. But we don't ever intend to be the second-best band on a stage at any show.

  Tom Morello

  Art, Band, Form

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• The world's best swordsman doesn't fear the second best; he fears the worst swordsman, because he can't predict what the idiot will do.

  David Weber

  World, Idiot, Worst

  David Weber (2013). “The Honor of the Queen, Second Edition”, p.332, Baen Publishing Enterprises

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• The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom.

  Aristotle

  Philosophy, Men, Words Of Wisdom

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• But even if ego-death is regarded as the optimum model for human existence, one of liberation from ourselves, it still remains a compromise with being, a concession to the blunder of creation itself. We should be able to do better, and we can. To have our egos killed off is second-best to killing off death and all the squalid byplay that flitters around it. So let all lands be small, and grower smaller and smaller until no lands are left where any human footstep need press itself upon the earth.

  Thomas Ligotti

  Land, Ego, Needs

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• Nothing is like being out there and playing and performing and winning - nothing. But to have an interest in the player? The nerves and everything that goes with it? Seeing what he's learned and how he's done it? That's the second best thing to playing. I think.

  Jimmy Connors

  Winning, Player, Thinking

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• Generally speaking, the best people nowadays go into journalism, the second best into business, the rubbish into politics and the shits into law

  Auberon Waugh

  Law, People, Rubbish

  Auberon Waugh, Anna Galli-Pahlavi (1985). “The diaries of Auberon Waugh, 1976-1985: a turbulent decade”, Andre Deutsch Ltd

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• The best of all things is something entirely outside your grasp: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second-best thing for you - is to die soon.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Born, Best Things, All Things

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2003). “The Birth of Tragedy: Out of the Spirit of Music”, p.48, Penguin UK

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• If you want to continue to be the best in the world, then you have to train and compete like you are second best in the world.

  Steve Backley

  World, Want, Like You

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• My friend Heinrich Zimmer of years ago used to say, 'The best things can't be told,' because they transcend thought. 'The second best are misunderstood,' because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can't be thought about, and one gets stuck in the thoughts. 'The third best are what we talk about.'

  Heinrich Zimmer

  Years, Misunderstood, Used

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• Afterward I told his widow, "Your husband is dead, but at least he died laughing.' I think she took some comfort in that. It is the second-best way to die, Will Henry." He did not say what the best way was.

  Rick Yancey

  Husband, Thinking, Laughing

  Rick Yancey (2012). “The Isle of Blood”, p.108, Simon and Schuster

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• People don't pay much attention to you when you are second best. I wanted to see what it felt like to be number one.

  Florence Griffith Joyner

  Numbers, People, Attention

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• The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop.

  W. H. Auden

  Stars, Heart, Men

  Letter from Iceland (1937, by Auden and MacNeice) "Letter to William Coldstream, Esq."

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• The best things in life are free

  Luther Vandross

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  Song: The Best Things in Life Are Free

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• The best things in life are free - and $19.95.

  Billy Mays

  Sarcastic, Things In Life, Taxes Funny

  Interview with Lloyd Grove, www.entrepreneur.com. October 13, 2008.

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• Wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and tribulation, why do you force me to tell you the very thing which it would be most profitable for you not to hear? The very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. However, the second best thing for you is: to die soon.

  Aristotle

  Children, Race, Would Be

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• It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing them.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Song, Singing, Trade

  On Everything (1909) "On Song"

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• Celtic jerseys are not for second best, they don't shrink to fit inferior players

  Jock Stein

  Player, Jersey, Fit

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• Many of us are missing something in life because we are after the second best.

  Eric Liddell

  Missing, Missing Something

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• When it comes to renewable energy, there's no reason America should settle for second best.

  Martin Heinrich

  America, Energy, Reason

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• As centuries of dictators have known, an illiterate crowd is the easiest to rule; since the craft of reading cannot be untaught once it has been acquired, the second-best recourse is to limit its scope.

  Alberto Manguel

  Reading, Crafts, Crowds

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• Many of us are missing something in life because we are after the second best, I put before you what I have found to be the best - one who is worthy of all our devotion - Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour for the young and the old. Lord, here I am

  Eric Liddell

  Christian, Jesus, Here I Am

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