Unlikely Quotes - Page 2

• We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

  Barack Obama

  Reality, Offering, Voice

  Barack Obama’s New Hampshire Primary Speech, www.nytimes.com. January 08, 2008.

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• Elodin proved a difficult man to find. He had an office in Hollows, but never seemed to use it. When I visited Ledgers and Lists, I discovered he only taught one class: Unlikely Maths. However, this was less than helpful in tracking him down, as according to the ledger, the time of the class was 'now' and the location was 'everywhere.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Math, Men, Class

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• Maybe one of the jobs of theory or philosophy is to elevate principles that seem impossible, or that have the status of the impossible, to stand by them and will them, even when it looks highly unlikely that they'll ever be realised. But that's ok, it's a service.

  Judith Butler

  Jobs, Philosophy, Principles

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• Siblings tend not to care much about boundaries and borders. Having worn each others' T-shirts, it's unlikely that they'd go to war over a border.

  Robert Bly

  War, Sibling, Care

  Source: www.utne.com

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• Do you suppose the St. Swithin's furnace-man was my one true love? Since I never spoke to him, it seems unlikely, but at least it was a passion unscathed by disappointment.

  Mary Ann Shaffer

  Disappointment, Passion, Spokes

  Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows (2009). “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”, p.11, A&C Black

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• Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you're doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they're hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.

  Seth Godin

  Mean, Organization, Engagement

  Seth Godin (2010). “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?”, p.101, Penguin

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• In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past.

  Alan Moore

  Stress, Past, Reality

  "Watchmen". Comic book series by Alan Moore, 1986 - 1987.

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• It is unlikely that you'll have anything emerge from MEF (Major Economies Forum) by way of detailed programmatic specificity.

  Kevin Rudd

  Way, Economy, Forums

  "Rudd bamboozles Germans with 'programmatic specificity'". Perth Now, July 9, 2009.

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• An It bag is an It bag, only if you’re unlikely to possess it.

  Plum Sykes

  Bags, Ifs

  "Small is the new big as micro bags takes over the high street" by Morwenna Ferrier, www.theguardian.com. April 8, 2018.

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• Those [scientists] who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas.

  Max Planck

  Science, Ideas, Scientist

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• I started to get so many letters from unlikely people; a single mum going, "I watch your show, I'm not into survival, but I hold down four jobs and I get it when you say it's about persistence and putting a positive attitude into things during difficult times." That for me was a great liberator to realize that the show isn't about me running around, jumping off stuff and flexing muscles, it's about inspiring people. That makes me really happy.

  Bear Grylls

  Running, Jobs, Attitude

  "​I Went Camping With Bear Grylls, And Survived". Interview with Wes Siler, gizmodo.com. November 20, 2014.

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• The duke contents himself mainly with attempting to rule the world and other suchlike nonsense. When one is guiding the patterns of the social universe, a single spinster preternatural is unlikely to cause one undue distress.

  Gail Carriger

  World, Patterns, Causes

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• We know that within the solar system is very unlikely there will be anything more advanced than microbial life, but if we think outside the solar system and then, the distances are, of course, immense, then there could be Earth-like planets with more advanced form of life.

  Paul Davies

  Distance, Thinking, Earth

  "Big Think Interview With Paul Davies". Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. April 15, 2010.

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• It is possible to move to an enlightened state of mind from a lower bardo or level of awareness. It can happen, but it is extremely unlikely.

  Frederick Lenz

  Moving, Mind, Enlightenment

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• By the laws of statistics we could probably approximate just how unlikely it is that it would happen. But people forget especially those who ought to know better, such as yourself that while the laws of statistics tell you how unlikely a particular coincidence is, they state just as firmly that coincidences do happen.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Law, People, Statistics

  Robert A. Heinlein (1959). “The Door Into Summer”, Roc

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• Today it is generally accepted that although the earliest humans probably ate some meat, it was unlikely to have played a major role in their diet. Plants would have been a much more important source of food.

  Jane Goodall

  Important, Today, Meat

  "Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating". Book by Gail Hudson, Gary McAvoy, Jane Goodall, 2006.

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• Many, perhaps most, very learned people prefer the company of their books to sitting in a crowd listening to history and art being mangled; furthermore, it is unlikely that the venerable scholars will stand up afterward to declare, "This lecture was a load of crap." The more profound a professor's distaste with the proceedings, the more likely he is to melt away at the end of the talk.

  Camille Paglia

  Art, Book, People

  "Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf". Camille Paglia, "Arion", Third Series, Volume 1, No. 2, Spring 1991.

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• Christina Baker Kline writes exquisitely about two unlikely friends—one, a 91-year-old survivor of the grinding poverty of rural Ireland, immigrant New York and the hardscrabble Midwest; and the other, a casualty of a string of foster homes—each struggling to transcend a past of isolation and hardship. Orphan Train will hold you in its grip as their fascinating tales unfold.

  Cathy Marie Buchanan

  New York, Struggle, Home

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• A cloud can look like a camel, but a camel is unlikely to look like a cloud. This is so because the signifier must be able to stand for the whole category of the signified. The cloud looks like all camels, but no camel looks like all clouds.

  Rudolf Arnheim

  Clouds, Able, Camels

  Rudolf Arnheim (1990). “Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest”, p.245, Univ of California Press

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• Although technology is proceeding at a dizzying pace, I believe that the human mind will always have control of itself. And since the human mind has a degree of infinity and imagination unlikely to be matched by a machine for a very, very long time, I don't think that we will become the machines of the machines.

  Alan Lightman

  Believe, Thinking, Technology

  Alan Lightman (2005). “A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit”, p.115, Vintage

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• The loss of candor is grievous, and in my opinion it may yet prove to be mortal, because if we cannot discuss our problems in plain speech that describes reality, it is unlikely that we will be able to solve them.

  Alexander Haig

  Truth, Loss, Reality

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• Choose your allies carefully: it's highly unlikely that you'll ever be held morally, legally, or historically accountable for the actions of your enemies.

  L. Neil Smith

  Enemy, Allies, Action

  L. Neil Smith (2001). “The American Zone”, p.57, Macmillan

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• I always say nothing you can imagine is totally impossible. It might be unlikely, but that's as far as I'll go.

  Emily Rodda

  Might, Impossible, Imagine

  Emily Rodda (1989). “The Pigs Are Flying”, Camelot

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• I do think it's probably true to a certain extent that you tend to sing music that fits your voice. If you're Lou Reed, you're unlikely to become a country singer.

  Teddy Thompson

  Country, Thinking, Voice

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• Will you succeed because you are more well-rounded than others? Because you fit in better than everyone else? Bloody unlikely. We succeed when we are trusted to be the best at what we do.

  Seth Godin

  Succeed, Fit, Being The Best

  Interview with Bryan Hutchinson, positivewriter.com.

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