Stakes Quotes

Great is the issue at stake, greater than appears, whether a man is to be good or bad. And what will any one be profited if, under the influence of money or power, he neglect justice and virtue?

Plato

Men, Issues, Justice

Plato, Benjamin Jowett (2007). “Six Great Dialogues: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, The Republic”, p.448, Courier Corporation

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Of cases where a man is truthful both in speech and conduct when no considerations of honesty come in, from an habitual sincerity of disposition. Such sincerity may be esteemed a moral excellence; for the lover of truth, who is truthful even when nothing depends on it, will a fortiori be truthful when some interest is at stake, since having all along avoided falsehood for its own sake, he will assuredly avoid it when it is morally base; and this is a disposition that we praise.

Aristotle

Honesty, Men, Excellence

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At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowe-four thousand gulden-and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fate, Gone Away, Numbers

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He who rejoices even at the stake triumphs not over pain but over the absence of pain where he had anticipated feeling it. A parable.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Pain, Feelings, Triumph

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University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

Henry A. Kissinger

Education, Witty, Powerful

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As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake.

Hannah Arendt

Diversity, Culture, Citizens

Hannah Arendt (1981). “The Life of the Mind”, p.198, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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The attainment of wholeness requires one to stake one's whole being. Nothing less will do; there can be no easier conditions, no substitutes, no compromises.

Carl Jung

Inspirational, Compromise, Easier

Carl Gustav Jung (1989). “The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Psychology and religion”

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When the stakes are high, bow down low.

Beth Moore

Bows, Lows

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To preserve one's mind intact through a modern college education is a test of courage and endurance, but the battle is worth it and the stakes are the highest possible to man: the survival of reason.

Ayn Rand

Teaching, College, Men

Ayn Rand (1999). “The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”, p.83, Penguin

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Happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things, more precious than getting your own way, more precious than being in situations where true principles are not at stake.

Goswami Kriyananda

Happiness, Understanding, Inner Peace

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For myself, if I am to stake all I have and hope to be upon anything, I will venture it upon the abounding fullness of God - upon the assurance that, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts.

Henry Norris Russell

Heaven, Earth, Venture

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Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.

William Empson

Men, Law, Long

"Legal Fiction" l. 1 (1935)

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Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.

Barack Obama

War, Police, Succeed

Speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, July 12, 2004.

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Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times.

Martin Luther

God, Faith, Men

"Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings".

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Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.

Gary Blair

Opportunity, Risk, Caution

"Finding Your J Spot: Joy in Midlife and Beyond". Book by Peter Brill and David Debin, 2006.

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How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.

Virginia Woolf

Coffee, Sea, Knives

Virginia Woolf (2005). “The Waves”, p.253, Collector's Library

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I would tell players to relax and never think about what's at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you've lost your focus.

Michael Jordan

Inspirational, Basketball, Winning

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Courage is indispensible because in politics not life but the world is at stake.

Hannah Arendt

World

Hannah Arendt (2000). “The Portable Hannah Arendt”, Penguin Group USA

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That's the thing: We didn't really care. A world without love is also a world without stakes.

Lauren Oliver

Love Is, World, Care

Lauren Oliver (2011). “Hana: A Delirium Short Story”, p.22, Hachette UK

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When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.

Barack Obama

Powerful, Responsibility, Interest

"Obama's Speech On Libya: 'A Responsibility To Act'". Barack Obama's speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., www.npr.org. March 28, 2011.

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...We are intensely proud of their noble record and are glad to have had the whole world see how irresistible they are in their might when a cause which America holds dear is at stake. The whole nation has reason to be proud of them.

Woodrow Wilson

Marine, America, World

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Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

William Landay

Stories, Conflict, Driven

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Work with your competitors when the interest of the community and planet are at stake.

Simon Mainwaring

Community, Planets, Interest

Twitter post from Dec 24, 2015

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When a tree has been transplanted, though fierce winds may blow, it will not topple if it has a firm stake to hold it up. But even a tree that has grown up in place may fall over if its roots are weak.

Nichiren

Strength, Fall, Blow

Nichiren (2003). “The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin”

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The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be, and the better off its cities and towns; for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens.

John Hancock

Country, Business, Cities

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