Soundness Quotes - Page 2

• The child taught to believe any occurrence a good or evil omen, or any day of the week lucky, hath a wide inroad made upon the soundness of his understanding.

  Isaac Watts

  Children, Believe, Evil

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• Sanity, soundness, and sincerity, of which gleams and strains can still be found in the human brain under powerful microscopes, flourish only in a culture of clarification, which is now becoming harder and harder to detect with the naked eye.

  James Thurber

  Powerful, Eye, Brain

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• The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness. Where we find a heroic life appearing as the uniform fruit of a particular mode of opinion, it is childish to argue in the face of fact that the result ought to have been different.

  James Anthony Froude

  Real, Different, Tests

  James Anthony Froude (1875). “Short Studies on Great Subjects: Second series”, p.14

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• Notice that all the traditional things philosophers do, looking for validity and soundness, promote civic friendship. That sounds pretty pie in the sky, yes, but I actually believe it.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Believe, Sky, Pie

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• Economic stimulation that works through the increased outlays to the affluent has, inevitably, an aspect of soundness and sanity that is lacking in expenditure on behalf of the undeserving poor.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Sanity, Economic, Poor

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2017). “Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went”, p.270, Princeton University Press

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• It is sound statesmanship to add two battleships every time our neighbour adds one and two stories to our skyscrapers every time he piles a new one on top of his to threaten our light. There is no limit to this soundness but the sky.

  Mark Twain

  Light, Sky, Two

  Mark Twain (1992). “Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1891-1910”

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• One doesn't diminish a philosopher's achievement, and doesn't undermine its soundness, by showing how the particular set of questions on which he focused, the orientation he brought to bear on his focus, has some causal connection to the circumstances of his life.

  Rebecca Goldstein

  Focus, Achievement, Bears

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• As men and women of character and of faith in the soundness of democratic methods, we must work like dogs to justify that faith.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Dog, Character, Men

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• The thinking of the one, therefore, will be determined by eternal truth, the actions of the other more by the practical reality of the moment. The greatness of the one lies in the absolute abstract soundness of his idea.

  Adolf Hitler

  Lying, Reality, Greatness

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is indeed a striking proof of the essential soundness of the tradition that with which all these thousands of copies, tracing their ancestry back to so many different parts of the earth and to conditions of such diverse kinds, the variations of text are so entirely questions of detail, not of essential substance.

  Frederic G. Kenyon

  Earth, Ancestry, Essentials

  "The Story Of The Bible" by Frederic G. Kenyon. Ch. X, The Position Today, p. 136, 1949.

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• According to our social science, we can be or become wise in all matters of secondary importance, but we have to be resigned to utter ignorance in the most important respect: we cannot have any knowledge regarding the ultimate principles of our choices, i.e. regarding their soundness or unsoundness... We are then in the position of beings who are sane and sober when engaged in trivial business and who gamble like madmen when confronted with serious issues.

  Leo Strauss

  Wise, Ignorance, Issues

  "Natural Right and History". Book by Leo Strauss, 1953.

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• When it comes to consideration of how to do well in running the city, which must proceed entirely through justice and soundness of mind.

  Protagoras

  Running, Cities, Justice

  "Protagoras". Book by Plato,

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• It is a wonderful advantage to a man, in every pursuite or avocation, to secure an adviser in a sensible woman. In woman there is at once a subtle delicacy of tact, and a plain soundness of judgement, which are rarely combined to an equal degree in man. A woman, if she be really your friend, will have a sensitive regard for your character, honor, repute. She will seldom counsel you to do a shabby thing: for a woman friend always desires to be proud of you.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Friendship, Character, Men

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• From the preponderance of talent, we may always infer the soundness and vigour of the commonwealth; but from the preponderance of riches, its dotage and degeneration.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  May, Riches, Talent

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.18

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• No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward a time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient than those of our Revolutionary ancestors.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Equality, Rights, Ideas

  "Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses". Book by Calvin Coolidge, 1926.

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• Having wallowed in a delightful orgy of anti-French sentiment, having deplored and applauded the villains themselves, having relished the foibles of bankers, railwaymen, diplomats, and police, the public was now ready to see its faith restored in the basic soundness of banks, railroads, government, and police.

  Michael Crichton

  Government, Police, Bankers

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• Well, as you know, we're working through a difficult period in our financial markets right now, as we work off some of the past excesses. But the American people can remain confident in the soundness and the resilience of our financial system.

  Henry Paulson

  Past, People, Resilience

  "Five Years Later, Lehman Brothers Fall Still Stings". "All Things Considered" with John Ydstie, www.npr.org. September 11, 2013.

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• Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods.

  John F. Kennedy

  Sports, Strong, Hockey

  "Sport at the New Frontier: The Soft American". Sports Illustrated, Volume 13, Issue 26, pp. 14-17, December 26, 1960.

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• Crossing at a ford occurs often in a man's lifetime. It means setting sail even though your friends stay in harbour, knowing the route, knowing the soundness of your ship and the favour of the day.

  Miyamoto Musashi

  War, Mean, Men

  Miyamoto Musashi (2013). “The Book of Five Rings: A Text on Kenjutsu and the Martial Arts in General, Written by the Swordsman Miyamoto Musashi”, p.51, Lulu Press, Inc

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• You will be favourable to Burr, and so must fail because the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this is the greatest country on earth, Washington the greatest man that ever lived, Burr the wickedest, and evidence to the contrary is not admissible. That means no inconvenient facts, no new information. If you really want the reader's attention, you must flatter him. Make his prejudices your own. Tell him things he already knows. He will love your soundness.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Love You, Mean

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• Whether or not you have good consumer protection has a big effect on safety and soundness of the banking community, especially smaller banks.

  Judd Gregg

  Safety, Community, Banking

  "Financial Regulatory Reform: Washington 'Going Stupid' Again?". "On the Record", www.foxnews.com. April 20, 2010.

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• We must not forget that the wheel is reinvented so often because it is a very good idea; I've learned to worry more about the soundness of ideas that were invented only once.

  David Parnas

  Ideas, Worry, Wheels

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• As an innovation... the establishment of Free Schools was the boldest ever promulgated, since the commencement of the Christian era... Time has ratified its soundness. Two centuries proclaim it to be as wise as it was courageous, as beneficient as it was disinterested. It was one of those grand mental and moral experiments... The sincerity of our gratitude must be tested by our efforts to perpetuate and improve what they established. The gratitude of the lips only is an unholy offering.

  Horace Mann

  Christian, Wise, Gratitude

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• The obsession with gold, actually and politically, occurs among those who regard economics as a branch of morality. Gold is solid, gold is durable, gold is rare, gold is even (in certain very peculiar circumstances) convertible. To believe in thrift, solidity and soundness is to believe in some way in the properties of gold.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Money, Believe, Gold

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• You have safety and soundness as primary purpose of the Federal Reserve, the OCC, and the other agencies which control banking regulation.

  Judd Gregg

  Agency, Safety, Purpose

  "Financial Regulatory Reform: Washington 'Going Stupid' Again?". "On the Record", www.foxnews.com. April 19, 2010.

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