Vigorous Quotes - Page 11

• Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.

  George Washington

  Country, Failure, Honor

  George Washington (1840). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private”, p.449

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• Theatre for a New Audience is one of America's most admirable and exciting theatre companites...some of the best acted and directed work to be found on American stages, engaging with the canon of world dramatic literature in a vigorous way.

  Tony Kushner

  America, Theatre, Literature

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• Civilization depends upon the vigorous pursuit of the highest values by people who are intelligent enough to know that their values are qualified by their interests and corrupted by their prejudices.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Intelligent, Civilization, People

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.109, Library of America

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• Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. The acknowledgment of those virtues on which conscience congratulates us is a tribute that we can at any tine exact with confidence; but the celebration of those which we only feign, or desire without any vigorous endeavours to attain them, is received as a confession of sovereignty over regions never conquered, as a favourable decision of disputable claims, and is more welcome as more gratuitous.

  Samuel Johnson

  Decision, Desire, Debt

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The rambler”, p.294

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• In Christian work our initiative and motivation are too often simply the result of realizing that there is work to be done and that we must do it. Yet that is never the attitude of a spiritually vigorous saint. His aim is to achieve the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances.

  Oswald Chambers

  Christian, Jesus, Motivation

  Oswald Chambers (2010). “My Utmost for His Highest”, p.405, Discovery House

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• The Ice Storm, because of the movie, has had, or is to have, a vigorous life in other cultures.

  Rick Moody

  Hockey, Ice, Other Cultures

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• One of the great reasons, I am sure, why [David O.] McKay has lived to such a good, ripe, and vigorous old age has been the fact that as a young man he developed habits of retiring to bed early, arising early, generally before sun up, when his mind was clear and his body vigorous, to do the day's work.

  Ernest L. Wilkinson

  Men, Mind, Age

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• When we pray, we must begin by conceiving God in full and vigorous images, but we must go on to acknowledge the inadequacy of them and to adhere nakedly to the imageless truth of God.

  Austin Farrer

  Goes On, Praying, Invisible

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• A burning desire is the greatest motivator of every human action. The desire for success implants 'success consciousness' which, in turn, creates a vigorous and ever-increasing 'habit of success'.

  Paul J. Meyer

  Desire, Burning, Action

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• I do not believe that ever any building was truly great, unless it had mighty masses, vigorous and deep, of shadow mingled with its surface.

  John Ruskin

  Believe, Shadow, Building

  John Ruskin (1866). “The seven lamps of architecture”, p.70

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• We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences - "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.

  Joseph Stalin

  Powerful, Thinking, Differences

  "Our purposes". Pravda #1, Newspaper, January 22, 1912.

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• The vigorous branching of life's tree, and not the accumulating valor of mythical marches to progress, lies behind the persistence and expansion of organic diversity in our tough and constantly stressful world. And if we do not grasp the fundamental nature of branching as the key to life's passage across the geological stage, we will never understand evolution aright.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Lying, Persistence, Keys

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “I Have Landed: Splashes and Reflections in Natural History”, p.396, Random House

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• On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy, must be free. It is difficult enough to reconcile these two needs, but the problem holds another hazard: the need of action under the pressure of time.

  Jacques Barzun

  Hands, Two, Soul

  "Bernard Shaw in Twilight". The Kenyon Review, 1943.

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• Bankers, nepotists, contracts and talkies: on four fingers one may count the leeches which have sucked a young and vigorous industry into paresis.

  Dalton Trumbo

  May, Bankers, Leeches

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• I believe that a woman should always remain a woman and nothing feminine should be alien to her. At the same time, I strongly feel that no work done by a woman in the field of science or culture or whatever, however vigorous or demanding, can enter into conflict with her ancient 'wonderful mission' -- to love, to be loved -- and with her craving for the bliss of motherhood.

  Valentina Tereshkova

  Believe, Motherhood, Done

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• The task of youth is not only its own salvation but the salvation of those against whom it rebels, but in that case there must be something vital to rebel against and if the elderly stiffly refuse to put up a vigorous front of their own, it leaves the entire situation in a mist.

  Jane Addams

  Elderly, Rebel, Tasks

  Jane Addams (1930). “The second twenty years at Hull-House, September 1909 to September 1929, with a record of a growing world consciousness”

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• Slang is vigorous and apt. Probably most of our vital words were once slang.

  John Galsworthy

  Slang

  1927 Castles in Spain and Other Screeds

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• If Playboy ever loses its editorial balls, then it will deserve to be knocked over by a younger, more vigorous magazine in the coming generation. But that won't happen so long as I'm alive, I can promise you that.

  Hugh Hefner

  Long, Promise, Generations

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• Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Believe, Writing, Defense

  Michel de Montaigne (1979). “Essays”

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• Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links--admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Light, Flames

  Samuel Smiles (2009). “Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.528, The Floating Press

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• A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister... For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.

  Clarence Thomas

  Courage, Truth, Justice

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• If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be shared by all; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; opinions will be less vigorous and habits gentler; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Vices, Aristocracy

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Introduction, 1835.

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• In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin, Before polygamy was made a sin; When man, on many, multipli'd his kind, Ere one to one was cursedly confin'd: When Nature prompted, and no Law deni'd Promiscuous use of concubine and bride; Then, Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart, His vigorous warmth did variously impart To wives and slaves: and, wide as his command, Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.

  John Dryden

  Heart, Men, Israel

  John Dryden, “Absalom And Achitophel”

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• Language is properly the servant of thought, but not unfrequently becomes its master. The conceptions of a feeble writer are greatly modified by his style; a man of vigorous powers makes his style bend to his conceptions.

  William Benton Clulow

  Men, Style, Language

  William Benton Clulow (1843). “Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion”, p.286

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• Conversation opens our views, and gives our faculties a more vigorous play; it puts us upon turning our notions on every side, and holds them up to a light that discovers those latent flaws which would probably have lain concealed in the gloom of unagitated abstraction.

  William Melmoth

  Views, Play, Light

  William Melmoth (1805). “Fitzosborne's Letters on several subjects ... Eleventh edition, with the Dialogue on Oratory [translated from Tacitus]: to which is prefixed a life of the author”, p.191

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