Unwilling Quotes - Page 10

• I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity? Are we sure it is desirable for a man's spirit not to be at war with itself, or that it is better to be serene and ready to go to dinner than to be excited and unwilling to stop for a cup of coffee, even?

  William Saroyan

  War, Coffee, Believe

  "Short Drive, Sweet Chariot". Book by William Saroyan, 1966.

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• Sanity, as the project of keeping ourselves recognizably human, therefore has to limit the range of human experience. To keep faith with recognition we have to stay recognizable. Sanity, in other words, becomes a pressing preoccupation as soon as we recognize the importance of recognition. When we define ourselves by what we can recognize, by what we can comprehend- rather than, say, by what we can describe- we are continually under threat from what we are unwilling and/or unable to see. We are tyrannized by our blind spots, and by whatever it is about ourselves that we find unacceptable.

  Adam Phillips

  Blind Spots, Limits, Recognition

  Adam Phillips (2005). “Going sane”, Egully.com

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• You're unwilling to go out on a limb because it just might break underneath you.

  Jodi Picoult

  Might, Break, Limbs

  Jodi Picoult (2007). “Plain Truth”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

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• If you took this thing on yourself, unwilling, at others' asking, then you have pity and honour from me. And I marvel at you: to keep it hid and not to use it. You are a new people and a new world to me. Are all your kin of like sort? Your land must be a realm of peace and content, and there must gardners be in high hounour.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Land, People, Asking

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• I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims instead of grateful participants.

  Donald Miller

  Grateful, Moving, Responsibility

  Donald Miller (2009). “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life”, p.59, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• One is seduced and battered in turn. The result is presumably wisdom. Wisdom! We are clinging to life like lizards. Why is it so difficult to assemble those things that really matter in life and to dwell among them only? I am referring to certain landscapes, persons, beasts, books, rooms, meteorological conditions, fruits. In fact, I insist on it. A letter is like a poem, it leaps into life and shows very clearly the marks, perhaps I should say thumbprints, of an unwilling or unready composer.

  James Salter

  Book, Landscape, Letters

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• I don't lack for bed partners, so I don't need to scrounge for unwilling scraps.-Spade

  Jeaniene Frost

  Bed, Needs, Classic

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• The Hamas organization is unwilling to honor the obligations that the Palestinian Authority has signed.

  Moshe Katsav

  Organization, Honor, Authority

  "Interview: Israeli President Discusses Iran Nuclear Standoff". Interview with Farnoush Ram, www.rferl.org. March 20, 2006.

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• Fate is fickle, and the company of unwilling friends short lived.

  Brian Jacques

  Fate, Fickle, Company

  Brian Jacques (2006). “The Ribbajack: and Other Haunting Tales”, p.51, Penguin

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• If 'extreme' means that I am unwilling to go to Washington, D.C., and do what President Obama tells me, then so be it. But I am certainly not going to Washington, D.C. to represent the interests of D.C. I'm going there to represent Colorado values.

  Ken Buck

  Mean, President, Colorado

  "Interview with Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck". Interview with John King, www.realclearpolitics.com. August 11, 2010.

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• When I looked at the state of women's MMA, what I saw was that it was missing rivalries or anything theatrical about it. Everybody was trying to be Miss America, unwilling to go under any kind of criticism, and taking the safe answers. I thought I needed to do whatever I could to get attention.

  Ronda Rousey

  Mma, America, Missing

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• We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Faults, Ethics, Virtue

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• The soul grows into lovely habits as easily as into ugly ones, and the moment a life begins to blossom into beautiful words and deeds, that moment a new standard of conduct is established, and your eager neighbors look to you for a continuous manifestation of the good cheer, the sympathy, the ready wit, the comradeship, or the inspiration, you once showed yourself capable of. Bear figs for a season or two, and the world outside the orchard is very unwilling you should bear thistles.

  Kate Douglas Wiggin

  Beautiful, Cheer, Inspiration

  Kate Douglas Wiggin (2016). “REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM & NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA (Children’s Book Classics): Adventure Novels”, p.124, e-artnow

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• The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.

  Eric Hoffer

  Believe, People, Mind

  "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1951.

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• God forbids suicide, and is unwilling that his creatures should destroy themselves.

  Anatole France

  Suicide, Suicidal, Should

  Anatole France (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Anatole France (Illustrated)”, p.1935, Delphi Classics

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• The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.

  Arthur Ransome

  Tired, Men, Ideas

  Arthur Ransome, Brian Hammett (2002). “Racundra's third cruise”, Wiley

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• Willem, I suspect deep down you know exactly why you're here, exactly what you want, but you're unwilling to the wanting, let alone the having. Because both of those propositions are terrifying.

  Gayle Forman

  Want, Propositions, Knows

  FaceBook post by Gayle Forman from Mar 20, 2014

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• And it was kind of funny to see all these professional fighters unwilling to get within a mile of the female. Then again, if you wanted to survive doing the work they did, accurate risk assessment was something you developed early -- and even Qhuinn, who was the object of the protective instinct the Chosen was rocking, wouldn't have dared touch her.

  J.R. Ward

  Assessment, Risk, Female

  J.R. Ward (2013). “Lover At Last: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood”, p.249, Penguin

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• When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.

  Randy Alcorn

  Giving, Needs, Failing

  Randy Alcorn (2011). “Managing God's Money: A Biblical Guide”, p.195, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• I wondered why I was so startled by the encounter when there was something that seemed utterly inevitable about the moment. Not in any grand, destined sense; just in the quiet, stubborn way that unfinished business has of imposing its will on the unwilling.

  Emily Giffin

  Unfinished Business, Encounters, Stubborn

  Emily Giffin (2010). “Something Borrowed: A Novel”, p.335, Macmillan

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• On tiptoes the redhead wouldn't even reach my shoulders; she is clearly too young to be a bride. And the willowy girl is too forlorn. And I am too unwilling. Yet here we are.

  Lauren DeStefano

  Girl, Tiptoes, Forlorn

  Lauren DeStefano (2011). “The Seeds of Wither: EBook Sampler with Exclusive Short Story”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

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• If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, People, Leader

  "Success Stories Lee Kuan Yew". DVD, documentary, 2002.

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• As a society, you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums, not least my family, now facing war thousands of miles away.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Pain, War, Differences

  Mohsin Hamid (2007). “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, p.168, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The great majority of Americans are suspended between these opposing attitudes. They are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Attitude, Majority, Pay

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• Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Selfish, Refinement, Busybodies

  "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, Book III, (5), (c. 161 - 180 AD).

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