Superiority Quotes

• The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.

  Leonard Cohen

  Sleep, Insomnia, World

  Leonard Cohen (2003). “The Favorite Game: A Novel”, Vintage Books

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• The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.

  Mark Twain

  Recovery, Animal, Intelligent

  Mark Twain (2009). “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals”, p.264, Univ of California Press

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• All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals.

  Peter Singer

  Encouragement, Nature, Animal

  "Peter Singer" by Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. February 14, 2009.

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• There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

  Charles Kuralt

  People, Greed, Literature

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• A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his superiority; and you must deal with him from that point of view.

  Alfred Adler

  Simple, Views, People

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• Be kind; you're only here for a while. No sense of superiority, just do things for others. It's really fun.

  Frederick Lenz

  Karma, Fun, Yoga

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• And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the 'mob' - a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.

  Camille Paglia

  Party, Wish, Ordinary

  "Obama’s Healthcare Horror". Salon Column, www.salon.com. August 12, 2009.

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• Love and respect woman. Look to her not only for comfort, but for strength and inspiration and the doubling of your intellectual and moral powers. Blot out from your mind any idea of superiority; you have none.

  Giuseppe Mazzini

  Respect, Inspiration, Ideas

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• It is not in giving life but in risking life that man is raised above the animal; that is why superiority has been accorded in humanity not to the sex that brings forth but to that which kills.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Life, Death, Sex

  'Le deuxiéme sexe' (1949) pt. 2, ch. 4

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• Confidence and superiority: It's the usual fundamentalist stuff: I've got the truth, and you haven't.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Confidence, Reality, Usual

  "Redemption songs" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 28, 2004.

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• A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.

  Moliere

  Wise, Patience, Wisdom

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• Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

  Socrates

  Philosophical, Equality, Sisterhood

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• The suggestion that Jews were selected from among all nations of the earth to be God's chosen people suggested a kind of group arrogance, especially when the good news was first reported by Jews. However, the choice was interpreted not as tribute to superior virtue but as divine challenge.

  Israel Shenker

  People, Choices, Challenges

  Israel Shenker (1985). “Coat of Many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life”, Doubleday Books

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• My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  "The Private Albert Einstein". Book by Peter A. Bucky, 1992.

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• Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Men, Inferiority, Males

  Simone de Beauvoir (1953). “The second sex”, Vintage

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• One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Change, Years, Wish

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• Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.

  Romain Gary

  Positive, Laughter, Work

  Romain Gary (1987). “Promise at Dawn”, p.130, New Directions Publishing

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• The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Perfect, Apes

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook J 115, 1799.

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• Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves.

  William Ellery Channing

  Spiritual, Judging, Mind

  William Ellery Channing (1840). “Lectures on the elevation of the labouring portion of the community”, p.35

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• It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

  Samuel Johnson

  Equality, Two, People

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• My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people.

  John Philip Sousa

  Success, Congratulations, People

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• We can all perceive the difference between ourselves and our inferiors, but when it comes to a question of the difference between us and our superiors we fail to appreciate merits of which we have no proper conceptions.

  James F. Cooper

  Differences, Appreciate, Merit

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• If a person tells me he has been to the worst places I have no reason to judge him; but if he tells me it was his superior wisdom that enabled him to go there, then I know he is a fraud.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Judging, Reason, Fraud

  "Personal Recollections" by Rush Rhees, Ch. 6, 1981.

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• The superiority of one man's opinion over another's is never so great as when the opinion is about a woman.

  Henry James

  Men, Judging, Literature

  1890 The Tragic Muse, ch.9.

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• Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

  Samuel Butler

  Lying, Pay, Kind

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.197, ReadHowYouWant.com

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