Unlikely Quotes - Page 16

• Women believe -- or at least often pretend to believe -- that all our tenderness for them springs from desire; that we love them when we have not for a time enjoyed them, and dismiss them when we are sated, or to express it more precisely, exhausted. There is no truth in this idea, though it may be made to appear true. When we are rigid with desire, we are apt to pretend a great tenderness in the hope of satisfying that desire; but at no other time are we in fact so liable to treat women brutally, and so unlikely to feel any deep emotion but one.

  Gene Wolfe

  Spring, Women, Believe

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.372, Macmillan

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• It's very unlikely that a writer is going to make a living by writing. So then the question is: how do you balance work, life, and writing? If you find out, please tell me.

  Kelly Link

  Writing, Balance, Please

  Interview with Maggie Slater, www.apex-magazine.com. July 2, 2013.

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• It is not unlikely, too, that the rejection of God is a kind of punishment: we may well believe that those who knew the Gods and neglected them in one life may in another life be deprived of the knowledge of them altogether. Also those who have worshipped their own kings as gods have deserved as their punishment to lose all knowledge of God.

  Sallust

  Kings, Believe, Punishment

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• Will Herman Cain become the first black President that I acknowledge? I call him a dark horse because he's an unlikely candidate who surged forward, and not because he's a horse.

  Stephen Colbert

  Horse, Dark, Black

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• Mark Twain was so good with crowds that he became, in competition with singers and dancers and actors and acrobats, one of the most popular performers of his time. It is so unusual, and so psychologically unlikely, too, for a great writer to be a great performer, too.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Writing, Dancer, Competition

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• As long as the peace-makers are armed with assault rifles, it's highly unlikely we'll ever have peace.

  Wayne Gerard Trotman

  Long, Rifles, Makers

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• You can never be absolutely certain that anything doesn't exist. But you can show that it's unlikely.

  Richard Dawkins

  Certain, Shows

  The Hugh Hewitt Show, www.hughhewitt.com. October 20, 2009.

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• We should always keep an open mind about any new phenomenon in nature. To merely say that's impossible, therefore it doesn't exist, is to commit a serious error. A much better approach would be to say That's quite unlikely, but show me the evidence you have that says that it may be so. It would be the height of arrogance to think that man knows everything possible about the Universe or the Earth. There are many things yet to be discovered, and that is why we have scientific research (or any kind of research). That should be the rationalist's approach to parapsychology and the occult.

  Gordon Stein

  Men, Thinking, Errors

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• The idea that we are alone in the universe seems to me completely implausible and arrogant, considering the number of planets and stars that we know exist, it's extremely unlikely that we are the only form of evolved life.

  Stephen Hawking

  Stars, Ideas, Numbers

  "'I’m an Atheist’: Stephen Hawking on God and Space Travel". El Mundo Interview with Pablo Jauregui, www.nbcnews.com. September 23, 2014.

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• I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that's the most unlikely thing ever to have been... But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I've come to.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Bullying, Reading, Believe

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan, 1998.

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• Anything at all is possible. Some things are unlikely. Some things will never happen. But they always could, at any time.

  Ashly Lorenzana

  Happens

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• America is built around this premise that you can do it, and there are an awful lot of people who are unlikely to have done it who did.

  Michael Bloomberg

  America, People, Done

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• Often it was the most unlikely people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best.

  Jonathan Maberry

  Knowing, People, Sparks

  Jonathan Maberry (2011). “Rot and Ruin”, p.201, Simon and Schuster

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• It would seem unlikely that a manufacturer of short-lived paperboard boxes could make the slightest cultural impact upon his time. But the facts show that if even the humblest product is designed, manufactured, and distributed with a sense of human values and with a taste for quality, the world will recognize the presence of a creative force.

  Herbert Bayer

  Impact, Creative, Quality

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• Heaven can be found in the most unlikely corners.

  Mitch Albom

  Heaven, Found, Corners

  "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". Book by Mitch Albom, 2003.

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• So my antagonist said, "Is it impossible that there are flying saucers? Can you prove that it's impossible?" "No," I said, "I can't prove it's impossible. It's just very unlikely." At that he said, "You are very unscientific. If you can't prove it impossible then how can you say that it's unlikely?" But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Possible And Impossible, Flying, Way

  "The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

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• I've started to look at life differently. When you're thanking God for every little you - every meal, every time you wake up, every time you take a sip of water - you can't help but be more thankful for life itself, for the unlikely and miraculous fact that you exist at all.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Water, Thank God, Meals

  A J Jacobs (2012). “The Year of Living Biblically”, p.165, Random House

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• Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed.

  Thomas Sowell

  Jobs, Zero, Real

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• How different things might be if, rather than saying "I think I'm in love," we were saying "I've connected with someone in a way that makes me think I'm on the way to knowing love." Or if instead of saying "I am in love" we say "I am loving" or "I will love." Our patterns around romantic love are unlikely to change if we do not change our language.

  Bell Hooks

  Romantic Love, Thinking, Knowing Love

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• No storyteller has been able to dream up anything as fantastically unlikely as what really does happen in this mad Universe.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Dream, Science, Mad

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.41, Penguin

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• If all people are unique, and if they are constantly changing each and every day, then all one can say about any social research finding is that it applied to that group of people on that given day, and given the propensity of humans to be different and to change, then it is unlikely that one would get the same results if one were to repeat the study.

  Wayne Dyer

  Change, Unique, People

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• Miracles are instantaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves, usually at unlikely moments and to those who least expect them.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Character, Angel, Miracle

  Ship of Fools pt. 3 (1962)

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• Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.

  Noam Chomsky

  Leadership, Believe, Responsibility

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• If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.

  Seth Godin

  Journey, Talking, People

  Seth Godin (2011). “Tribes: We need you to lead us”, p.82, Hachette UK

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• Memory was that woman on the train. Insane in the way she sifted through dark things in a closet and emerged with the most unlikely ones - a fleeting look, a feeling. The smell of smoke. A windscreen wiper. A mother's marble eyes. Quite sane in the way she left huge tracts of darkness veiled. Unremembered.

  Arundhati Roy

  Mother, Memories, Eye

  Arundhati Roy (2002). “The God of Small Things”, p.72, Penguin Books India

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