Shunning Quotes

• There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum. When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything.

  Richard von Weizsaecker

  War, Responsibility, Holocaust

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• Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there and will reappear.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Stars, Sleep, Light

  Thomas Carlyle (1876). “The Carlyle Anthology”, p.253

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• But we all recognise the primary foible of frail humanity - our propensity for embracing hope and shunning logic, our tendency to believe what we desire rather than what we observe.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Believe, Humanity, Religion

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• He who knows not and knows not he knows not:  he is a fool -- shun him.
  He who knows not and knows he knows not:  he is simple -- teach him.

  Isabel Burton

  Knowledge, Simple, Fool

  Lady Isabel Burton (1893). “The Life of Captain Sir Richd. F. Burton”

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• On the face of it, it must be a bad cause which will not bear discussion. Truth seeks light instead of shunning it.

  Horace Mann

  Light, Faces, Causes

  Horace Mann (1867). “Thoughts”, p.123

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• ..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.

  George Washington

  War, Government Debt, Owing A Debt

  George Washington, William Jackson (1838). “Monuments of Washington's Patriotism: Containing a Fac Simile of His Publick Accounts Kept During the Revolutionary War; and Some of the Most Interesting Documents Connected with His Military Command and Civil Administration; Embracing, Among Others, the Farewell Address to the People of the United States”, p.16

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• Often have I sighed to measure By myself a lonely pleasure,- Sighed to think I read a book, Only read, perhaps, by me.

  William Wordsworth

  Lonely, Loneliness, Book

  William Wordsworth (1859). “The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Etc”, p.338

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• The perfect mystic is not an ecstatic devotee lost in contemplation of Oneness, nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind, but "the true saint" goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.

  Abu-Sa'id Abul-Khayr

  God, Spiritual, Single Mom

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• The virtuous woman flees from danger; she trusts more to her prudence in shunning it than in her strength to overcome it.

  Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

  Overcoming, Virtuous Woman, Danger

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• Every living thing was shunning him. Poor little Peter Pan, he sat down and cried, and even then he did not know that, for a bird, he was sitting on his wrong part. It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly, and the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.

  James M. Barrie

  Blessing, Wings, Perfect

  James M. Barrie (2013). “The Little White Bird (Annotated Edition)”, p.85, Jazzybee Verlag

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• The flatterer's object is to please in everything he does; whereas the true friend always does what is right, and so often gives pleasure, often pain, not wishing the latter, but not shunning it either, if he deems it best.

  Plutarch

  Friends, Pain, True Friend

  Plutarch (1898). “Plutarch's Morals: Ethical Essays”

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• Not by blaming the world, not by shunning the world, but only be loving the world can I have peace of mind

  Sri Chinmoy

  Mind, World, Blame

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• Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Pain, Writing, Epic

  Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Baker (2003). “Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961”, p.352, Simon and Schuster

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• This is the worst problem with living history museums. They always leave the best parts out. Like typhus. And opium. And scarlet letters. Shunning. Witch-burning.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Museums, Burning, Letters

  Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Choke”, p.29, Random House

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• In a few days I'll have lived one score and three days in this vale of tears. On I plod-always bored, often drunk, doing no penance for my faults-rather do I become more tolerant of myself from day to day, hardening my crystal heart with blasphemous humor and shunning only toothpicks, pathos, and poverty as being the three unforgivable things in life.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Heart, Things In Life, Drunk

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “Collected Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.475, e-artnow

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• Shunning the upstart shower, / The cold and cursory scrub, / I celebrate the power / That lies within the Tub.

  Phyllis McGinley

  Lying, Baths, Tubs

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• In no passage of the holy canonical books there can be found either divine precept or permission to take away our own life, whether for the sake of entering on the enjoyment of immortality, or of shunning, or ridding ourselves of anything whatever. Nay, the law, rightly interpreted, even prohibits suicide, where it says, 'Thou shalt not kill.' This is proved especially by the omission of the words "thy neighbor," which are inserted when false witness is forbidden.

  Saint Augustine

  Suicide, Book, Suicidal

  Saint Augustine of Hippo (2016). “Saint Augustine of Hippo Collection [50 Books]”, p.9337, Aeterna Press

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• Perhaps the author cited is one of those, who, shunning the practice of the world, have taught the world to shun return! whose poetry is too finely spun, whose philosophy is too and mystified for popular demand: perhaps we have experienced feeling which Mr. Wordsworth alludes to, in a poem worthy of simplicity and loneliness of the sentiment "Often have I sighed to measure By myself a lonely pleasure; Sighed to think I read a book Only read perhaps by me!

  Samuel Laman Blanchard

  Lonely, Philosophy, Loneliness

  "Sketches from Life" by Laman Blanchard. "Quotations", 1846.

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• And I wonder: Have I squandered my dogness? Have I forsaken my nature for my desires? Have I made a mistake by anticipating my future and shunning my present?

  Garth Stein

  Mistake, Desire, Wonder

  Garth Stein (2008). “The Art of Racing in the Rain”, Harper

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• So much of the literature we had to read for high school English class was filled with victimized, tragic, symbolic women who spurred the plot forward with their inevitable shunning/death/shunning-followed-by-pregnancy-followed-by-death timelines.

  Libba Bray

  Pregnancy, School, Class

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• Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink-or never arise at all-and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Views, Differences, Perspective

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2017). “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”, p.77, W. W. Norton & Company

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• How blessed is he, who leads a country life, Unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of strife! Who studying peace, and shunning civil rage, Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age: All who deserve his love, he makes his own; And, to be lov'd himself, needs only to be known.

  John Dryden

  Life, Country, Peace

  John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.312, Delphi Classics

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• Ultimately the case for shunning animal flesh does not rest on what the Buddha allegedly said or didn't say. What is does rest on is our innate moral goodness, compassion, and pity which, when liberated, lead us to value all forms of life. It is obvious, then, that willfully to take life, or through the eating of meat indirectly to cause others to kill, runs counter to the deepest instincts of human beings.

  Philip Kapleau

  Running, Buddhist, Animal

  Philip Kapleau (1982). “To Cherish All Life: A Buddhist Case for Becoming Vegetarian”, Harper San Francisco

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• You can't prove Rembrandt is better than Norman Rockwell - although if you actually do prefer Rockwell, I'd say you were shunning complexity, were secretly conservative, and hadn't really looked at either painter's work. Taste is a blood sport.

  Jerry Saltz

  Sports, Blood, Taste

  "Has Money Ruined Art?". nymag.com. October 7, 2007.

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