Staggering Quotes

• The degree of leverage now being reversed is on a staggering scale, and the underlying global imbalances – notably between the savers and the spenders – will require long and painful adjustment.

  Vince Cable

  Pain, Long, Degrees

  "The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What It Means".

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• People with fertility problems are not alone. It is a very very common problem for couples today. I've seen statistics that are just staggering.

  Michael Zaslow

  Couple, People, Statistics

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• There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

  Anais Nin

  Life, Time, Illumination

  Diary entries, 1943.

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• My decision on this matter is as certain and final as death and the staggering New Deal taxes.

  Thomas E. Dewey

  Government, Decision, Finals

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• In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering rewards.

  Carroll O'Connor

  Rewards, Given, Capitalist

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• I mean, there is amazing amount of oil and gas and other resources out beneath the sea. It's staggering.

  Robert Ballard

  Mean, Sea, Oil

  "In Digital Age, What's Left For Modern Explorers". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. January 6, 2011.

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• One in seven Americans lives without health insurance, and that's a truly staggering figure.

  John M. McHugh

  Seven, Figures

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• The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.

  Richard Dawkins

  Years, Justice, Mad

  Richard Dawkins, Yan Wong (2005). “The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution”, p.613, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Science, Thinking, Ideas

  "The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies - review" by Nicholas Lezard, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2011.

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• The first thing I did was give up sweet tea because I drank so much. I'd start drinking at lunchtime and wouldn't set it down until I went to bed. When you calculate how much empty calories and how much sugar I was consuming, it was staggering. So I haven't had a glass of sweet tea in three years.

  Paula Deen

  Sweet, Giving Up, Drinking

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• Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.

  J. I. Packer

  Fiction, Christian Christmas, Religious Christmas

  J. I. Packer, Carolyn Nystrom (2009). “Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide”, p.20, InterVarsity Press

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• Dignity is an affectation, cute but eccentric, like learning French or collecting scarves.

  Dave Eggers

  Cute, Scarves, Eccentric

  Dave Eggers (2000). “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”

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• There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.

  William McFee

  Men, Emotional, Hands

  William McFee (1921). “Harbours of Memory”

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• Success is not about who never fails. It is about who can spring - or even stagger - back up.

  Samantha Power

  Inspirational, Success, Wisdom

  "Message to Graduates: 'Be a Good Ancestor'" by Samantha Power, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2008.

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• The mad sometimes drilled holes in their own heads to let the demons out. To relieve the pressure of thoughts they could no longer bear. Jude understood the impulse. Each beat of his heart was a fresh and staggering blow felt in the nerves behind his eyes and in his temples. Punishing evidence of life.

  Joe Hill

  Eye, Heart, Blow

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• Sure, you can choose the safety and predictability of the cage, forfeiting the adventure God has destined for you. But you won't be the only one missing out or losing out. When you lack the courage to chase the Wild Goose, the opportunity costs are staggering. Who might not hear about the love of God if you don't seize the opportunity to tell them? Who might be stuck in poverty, stuck in ignorance, stuck in pain if you're not there to help free them? Where might the advance of God's kingdom in the world stall out because you weren't there on the front lines?

  Mark Batterson

  Pain, Adventure, Ignorance

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• Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Philosophy, Real, Ignorance

  "The Ethics of Ambiguity". Book by Simone de Beauvoir. Conclusion, 1947.

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• A drunk man, staggering and mindless, must be led home by his son, so wet is his psyche... Water brings death to the psyche, as earth brings death to water... The psyche lusts to be wet.

  Heraclitus

  Home, Son, Men

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• The staggering babies embody the deepest truth about deep practice: to get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill.

  Daniel Coyle

  Baby, Practice, Skills

  Daniel Coyle (2010). “The Talent Code: Greatness isn't born. It's grown”, p.94, Random House

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• It is staggering that in the 21st century, half of the world's population - that's three and a half billion people - own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus.

  Winnie Byanyima

  Numbers, People, Half

  "Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world" by Graeme Wearden, www.theguardian.com. January 20, 2014.

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• The odds against an adoptee ending up as the child of the President of the United States are staggering. But then, so are the odds against a movie star becoming president

  Michael Reagan

  Stars, Children, Odds

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• The simplicity of photography lies in the fact that it is very easy to make a picture. The staggering complexity of it lies in the fact that a thousand other pictures of the same subject would have been equally easy.

  John Szarkowski

  Photography, Lying, Simplicity

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• Sometimes a book isn't a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Sometimes it's the only story you know how to tell.

  Tahereh Mafi

  Book, Writing, Heartbreaking

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• A life best lived is a life by design. Not by accident, and not by just walking through the day careening from wall to wall and managing to survive. That's okay. But if you can start giving your life dimensions and design and color and objectives and purpose, the results can be staggering.

  Jim Rohn

  Wall, Color, Giving

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• Before Barack Obama took office, it looked like that pride could have vanished forever, but today, from the staggering depths of the Great Recession, the nation has had 29 straight months of job growth. Workers across my state and across the country are getting back the dignity of a good job and a good salary.

  Ted Strickland

  Country, Jobs, Pride

  "Ted Strickland Speech Text: Read The Former Governor’s DNC Remarks". www.huffingtonpost.com. September 04, 2012.

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