Tempting Quotes - Page 8

• As you grow older, it becomes harder to feel 100 percent happy; you learn all the things that can go wrong, you become superstitious about tempting fate, about bringing disaster upon your life by accidentally feeling too good one day.

  Douglas Coupland

  Fate, Feelings, One Day

  Douglas Coupland (1993). “Shampoo Planet”, p.131, Simon and Schuster

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• It is tempting to call for better leadership, but we probably expect too much from the leaders of the nations. Those nations are too big, the connections not strong enough, the commitment to the future not long enough. It is better to look smaller, to our now-smaller organisations, to local communities and cities, to families and clusters of friends, to small networks of portfolio people with time to give to something bigger than themselves. We have to fashion our own directions in our own places.

  Charles Handy

  Inspirational, Fashion, Strong

  Charles Handy (1995). “The Age of Paradox”, Harvard Business Press

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• I cannot admit this out loud. In the first place, we are expected to be supermoms these days, instead of admitting that we have flaws. It is tempting to believe that all mothers wake up feeling fresh every morning, never raise their voices, only cook with organic food, and are equally at ease with the CEO and the PTA.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Morning, Believe

  Jodi Picoult (2010). “House Rules: A Novel”, p.178, Simon and Schuster

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• A first kiss is hard to fake on screen. It's tempting to practice before you shoot, but why blow that natural awkwardness on a rehearsal? There's something so beautiful about it that can't be faked.

  Maggie Grace

  Beautiful, Kissing, Blow

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• Passivity is corrosive to the soul; it feeds on feelings of integrity and pride, and it can be as tempting as a drug.

  Caroline Knapp

  Integrity, Pride, Passivity Is

  Caroline Knapp (1999). “Drinking: A Love Story”, p.261, Dial Press

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• It’s tempting to wish for the perfect boss, the perfect parent, or the perfect outfit. But maybe the best any of us can do is not to quit, play the hand we’ve been dealt, and accessorize what we’ve got.

  Candace Bushnell

  Perfect Parents, Hands, Play

  "Young Anacostia Teacher Built a Family of Admirers" by Joe Holley, www.washingtonpost.com. April 24, 2005.

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• Life is always sad. That's what makes suicide so tempting because life is all that we really have and haven't. Death makes us equals, too, because the foul and the good all die. The past, the present, and the future-what escape is there from these? None-and yet sometimes we are life's happy victims.

  F. Sionil José

  Suicide, Past, Life Is

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• It is tempting when looking at the life of anyone who has committed suicide to read into the decision to die a vastly complex web of reasons; and, of course, such complexity is warranted. No one illness or event causes suicide; and certainly no one knows all, or perhaps even most, of the motivations behind the killing of the self. But psychopathology is almost always there, and its deadliness is fierce. Love, success, and friendship are not always enough to counter the pain and destructiveness of severe mental illness

  Kay Redfield Jamison

  Suicide, Pain, Motivation

  FaceBook post by Kay Redfield Jamison from Feb 18, 2013

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• It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelty. On the other, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument - their intellect - which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously.

  Galen Strawson

  Atheist, Believe, Taken

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• It is tempting at one level to believe that bad things happen to people (especially other people) because God is a righteous judge who gives them exactly what they deserve. By believing that we keep the world orderly and understandable.... But [this belief] has a number of serious limitations.... It teaches people to blame themselves. It creates guilt when there is no basis for guilt. And most disturbing of all, it does not even fit the facts.

  Harold S. Kushner

  Believe, Responsibility, Numbers

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• The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful.

  Ken Kesey

  Jobs, Powerful, Kissing

  Ken Kesey (2006). “Sometimes a Great Notion”, p.11, Penguin

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• When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it.

  Tony Rothman

  Science, Order, Design

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• The world needs you. It doesn't need you at a party having read a book about how to appear smart at parties - these books exist, and they're tempting - but resist falling into that trap. The world needs you at the party starting real conversations, saying, 'I don't know,' and being kind.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Real, Smart, Party

  "Screenwriters' Lecture: Charlie Kaufman". BAFTA Lecture, www.bafta.org. September 30, 2011.

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• I don't think jogging is healthy, especially morning jogging. If morning joggers knew how tempting they looked to morning motorists, they would stay home and do sit-ups.

  Rita Rudner

  Running, Morning, Home

  Rita Rudner (1993). “Naked Beneath My Clothes: Tales of a Revealing Nature”, Penguin Group USA

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