Underestimate Quotes - Page 18

• People underestimate the importance of dilligence as a virtue. No doubt it has something to do with how supremely mundane it seems. It is defined as "the constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken."... Understood, however, as the prerequisite of great accomplishment, diligence stands as one of the most difficult challenges facing any group of people who take on tasks of risk and consequence. It sets a high, seemingly impossible, expectation for performance and human behavior.

  Atul Gawande

  People, Accomplishment, Expectations

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• Don’t underestimate the value of irony—it is extremely valuable.

  Henry James

  Ironic, Irony, Valuable

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• "God does not give us more than we can handle," I am told but I wonder if God doesn't overestimate me just a little. Or perhaps, and this is likely, I underestimate God.

  Julia Cameron

  God, Jesus, Giving

  "Finding Water". Book by Julia Cameron, 2006.

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• Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Especially if the target is unprepared.

  Suzanne Collins

  Humorous, Catching Fire, Target

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)”, p.387, Scholastic Inc.

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• Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.

  Tom Robbins

  Drinking, Beer, Soul

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Jitterbug Perfume”, p.411, Bantam

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• I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

  Billy Corgan

  Ideas, Musical, Alive

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• Never underestimate the power of the State to act out its own massive fantasies.

  Don DeLillo

  Literature, Fantasy, States

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• Nearly everyone underestimates how powerful the touch of another person's hand can be. The need to be touched is something so primal, so fundamentally a part of our existence as human beings that its true impact upon us can be difficult to put into words. That power doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sex, either. From the time we are infants, we learn to associate the touch of a human hand with safety, with comfort, with love.

  Jim Butcher

  Sex, Powerful, Hands

  Jim Butcher (2006). “Dead Beat: A Novel of The Dresden Files”, p.262, Penguin

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• We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently. Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century writer who managed to be a prolific novelist while also revolutionizing the British postal system, observed, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity.

  Gretchen Rubin

  Running, Creativity, Daily Tasks

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• People always make this totally artificial distinction between what is commercial and what is good. They quote that maxim "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the public's taste" and I think that's very wrongheaded. I like to believe the audience is actually intelligent, because it's made up of other people like yourself.

  Douglas Adams

  Believe, Intelligent, Thinking

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• To underestimate one's thirst, to pass a given landmark to the right or left, to find a dry spring where one looked for running water - there is no help for any of these things.

  Mary Hunter Austin

  Running, Spring, Water

  Mary Hunter Austin, Reuben J. Ellis (1996). “Beyond Borders: The Selected Essays of Mary Austin”, p.34, SIU Press

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• To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating.

  Eric Hoffer

  Serious, Originality, Sensitivity

  "Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

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• When I ran for the U.S. Senate the assumption was that anyone's name that was close to "Osama" doesn't stand a chance. So if somebody thought that tacking on "Hussein" in there would be a killer, then I think they underestimate the American people and the seriousness of the problems we face.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Names, People

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• We must never underestimate the power of the prayer that is lifted up by wonderful saints all around the world.
  Prayer is of paramount importance in developing our relationship with our Savior and in building up and supporting others through the work of the Holy Spirit.

  Will Graham

  Prayer, Building Up, Saint

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• Men constantly miscalculate what they can do in a day, and grossly underestimate what can be achieved in a year.

  Chris Murray

  Men, Years, Can Do

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• Don't underestimate the power of the nonplussed look and the shake of the head. Letting noxious words hang in the air can be very powerful.

  Emily Yoffe

  Powerful, Air, Looks

  "Lipstick on a Kid". Live chat, www.slate.com. June 16, 2015.

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• Don't underestimate the value of beginning a headline by naming the people you want to reach.

  John Caples

  People, Want, Headlines

  John Caples (2011). “Making Ads Pay: Timeless Tips for Successful Copywriting”, p.106, Courier Corporation

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• There is danger that totalitarian governments, not subject to vigorous popular debate, will underestimate the will and unity of democratic societies where vital interests are concerned.

  John F. Kennedy

  Government, Unity, Debate

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.477, Best Books on

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• The Power of One Hail Mary can change the world. In all our efforts and endeavors, we can never underestimate the power of prayer, and must always rely upon the help of God. In a special way we commend our efforts to the Mother of God and our own Blessed Mother.

  Thomas Vose Daily

  Mother, Prayer, Blessed

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• Of course most people underestimate the warrior characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman peoples anyway. It takes a heap of piety to keep a Viking from wanting to go sack a city.

  Jerry Pournelle

  Warrior, Cities, People

  Reply to reader email on "The View from Chaos Manor" - personal blog, www.jerrypournelle.com. February 21, 2001.

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• We underestimate teenagers at our peril. Even the dismissive thing out on the street--look at what they're wearing. Then we'll hear stories about how a toddler fell on the tracks, and it's often a teenager who comes to the rescue and walks away because he or she doesn't want any credit. I recognize it because I've written books for teenagers--it's basically that they feel things more than adults do. They want things more than you think. They want things with greater depth than you think they do. Teenagers have got a lot of soul that adults have forgotten they have within themselves.

  Markus Zusak

  Teenager, Book, Thinking

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• I never underestimate the power of hot rollers for your hair and eyelash curlers for your eyelashes.

  Busy Philipps

  Hair, Eyelashes, Hot

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Practically everyone is going to have a general purpose computer in their pocket, it's so easy to underestimate that, that has got to be the really, really big one.

  Marc Andreessen

  Purpose, Pockets, Computer

  "Andreessen: There Is No Tech Bubble (And the Smartphone Is Still Under-Hyped)" by Michael V. Copeland, www.wired.com. May 01, 2012.

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• I say this as a young dad seeing children going into primary school: I don't think we should underestimate the formative effect on a child of those first years in primary school.

  Nick Clegg

  Dad, Children, School

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• I also argued before the war that the administration was underestimating Arab nationalism and Iraqi nationalism, that it was not going to be as easy to rule Iraq as they thought.

  Juan Cole

  War, Iraq, Administration

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