Tendencies Quotes - Page 19

• The will to power can express itself only against resistances; it seeks that which resists it--this is the native tendency of theamoeba when it extends its pseudopodia and gropes around.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Power, Resistance, Native

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• Whether in conversation we generally agree or disagree with others is largely a matter of habit: the one tendency makes as much sense as the other.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Matter, Habit, Conversation

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• In mathematics ... we find two tendencies present. On the one hand, the tendency towards abstraction seeks to crystallise the logical relations inherent in the maze of materials ... being studied, and to correlate the material in a systematic and orderly manner. On the other hand, the tendency towards intuitive understanding fosters a more immediate grasp of the objects one studies, a live rapport with them, so to speak, which stresses the concrete meaning of their relations.

  David Hilbert

  Stress, Hands, Two

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• There is a tendency in things to right themselves, and the war or revolution or bankruptcy that shatters rotten system, allows things to take a new and natural order.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  War, Order, Rotten

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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• I like the Americans for a great many reasons. I like them because even the modern thing called industrialism has not entirely destroyed in them the very ancient thing called democracy. I like them because they have a respect for work which really curbs the human tendency to snobbishness.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  America, Democracy, Ancient

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• The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it a grand and somewhat gaudy sense of virtue. The essay is a weapon against the degenerate tendencies of the age. The novel, properly conceived, is a means of uplifting the spirit; its aim is to inspire, not merely to satisfy the low curiosity of man in man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Uplifting, Mean, Men

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• There are two things that seem to be at the bottom of our constitutions; one is a continual tendency towards politics; the other is family pride; and it is strange how these two feelings run through all of us.

  Henry Adams

  Running, Pride, Two

  Henry Adams, Ernest Samuels (1992). “Henry Adams, Selected Letters”, p.8, Harvard University Press

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• No religion ever appeared in the world whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes right reason a law in every possible definition of the word. And therefore, even supposing it to have been purely a human invention, it had been the most amiable and the most useful invention that was ever imposed on mankind for their good.

  Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

  Law, World, Definitions

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• In a healthy state of the organism all wounds have a tendency to heal.

  Sophie Swetchine

  Healthy, States, Consolation

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• There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Technology, Evil, Reasonable

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• Second, they [those who disagree with market efficiency] always claim they know a man, a bank, or a fund that does do better. Alas, anecdotes are not science. And once Wharton School dissertations seek to quantify the performers, these have a tendency to evaporate into the air - or, at least, into statistically insignificant t-statistics.

  Paul Samuelson

  School, Men, Air

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• In every mind where there is a strong tendency to fear there is a strong capacity to hate. Those who dwell in fear dwell nest door to hate; and I think it is the cowardice of women which makes them such intense haters.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Strong, Fear, Hate

  Anna Brownell Jameson (1877). “A commonplace book of thoughts, memories and fancies, original and selected”, p.98

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• An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads.

  Richard Whately

  Independent, Agents, Action

  Richard Whately (1861). “Miscellaneous Lectures and Reviews”, p.74

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• The French Revolution, Fichte's Theory of Knowledge, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age. Whoever takes offence at this combination, and whoever does not consider a revolution important unless it is blatant and palpable, has not yet risen to the lofty and broad vantage point of the history of mankind.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  History, Important, Age

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• As long as the artist invents and is inspired, he remains in a constrained state of mind, at least for the purpose of communication. He then wants to say everything, which is the wrong tendency of young geniuses or the right prejudice of old bunglers. Thus, he fails to recognize the value and dignity of self-restraint, which is indeed for both the artist and the man the first and the last, the most necessary and the highest goal.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Communication, Men, Artist

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• One of the two is almost always a prevailing tendency of every author: either not to say some things which certainly should be said, or to say many things which did not need to be said. The first is the original sin of synthetic natures, the latter of analytical natures.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Two, Needs, Firsts

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• Once you assume your right to interfere in other people's problems they become in some ways more of a worry than your own, for with your own you can at least do what you think best, but other people always show such a persistent tendency to do the wrong thing.

  Marion Milner

  Thinking, People, Worry

  Marion Milner (2011). “A Life of One's Own”, p.154, Taylor & Francis

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• The Negro cannot stand the present reactionary tendencies and unreasoning drawing of the color line indefinitely without discouragement and retrogression. And the condition of the Negro is ever the cause for further discrimination.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Color, Drawing, Lines

  Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass (2007). “Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, p.279, Courier Corporation

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• The Christian life is a long and continual tendency of our hearts toward that eternal goodness which we desire on earth. All our happiness consists in thirsting for it. Now this thirst is prayer. Ever desire to approach your Creator, and you will never cease to pray. Do not think it necessary to pronounce many words.

  Francois Fenelon

  Christian, Prayer, Heart

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• There is a tendency among men as well as women ... so soon as they have acquired a little knowledge of some kind, to want to display it to the best advantage.

  Murasaki Shikibu

  Men, Want, Littles

  Lady Murasaki, Murasaki Shikibu, Arthur Waley (2000). “The Tale of Genji”, p.32, Courier Corporation

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• The world-spirit is a good swimmer, and storms and waves can not drown him. He snaps his fingers at laws; and so, throughout history, heaven seems to affect low and poor means. Through the years and the centuries, through evil agents, through toys and atoms, a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Mean, Years

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.307, Bantam Classics

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• Life has no memory. That which proceeds in succession might be remembered, but that which is coexistent, or ejaculated from a deeper cause, as yet far from being conscious, knows not its own tendency.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Memories, Might, Causes

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.211, Penguin

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• There are two tendencies in all our war talk.... The first is to boast, if not of ourselves and our deeds, at least of our army, our corps, our regiments. The other is to find fault with, to criticize, to censure, to condemn others. If there is a victory, we gained it and must have the credit of it. If there is a failure, it was the fault of the other fellow,--he must be blamed for it.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  War, Army, Two

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• Depression is useful. It signals that you need to make changes in your life, it challenges your tendency to withdraw, it reminds you to take action.

  Gloria E. Anzaldúa

  Life, Depression, Challenges

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• Our normal tendency is to feel dissatisfied and to criticize our body, speech, and mind - My body is out of shape; my voice is unpleasant; my mind is confused. - We are so caught up in this pointless, neurotic habit of criticism that we disparage others as well as ourselves. This is extremely damaging.

  Thubten Yeshe

  Confused, Voice, Mind

  Thubten Yeshe (2005). “Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire”, p.116, Simon and Schuster

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