Vigorous Quotes - Page 3

• A really intelligent nation might be held together by far stronger forces than are derived from the purely gregarious instincts. A nation need not be a mob of slaves, clinging to one another through fear, and for the most part incapable of self-government, and begging to be led; but it might consist of vigorous self-reliant men, knit to one another by innumerable ties, into a strong, tense, and elastic organisation.

  Francis Galton

  Strong, Intelligent, Men

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• A cheerful mind is a vigorous mind.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Cute, Mind, Cheerful

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• Possibly everyone now dead considered his own death as a freak accident, a mistake. Some bad luck caused it. Every enterprising man jack of them, and every sunlit vigorous woman and child, too, who had seemed so alive and pleased, was cold as a meat hook, and new chattering people trampled their bones unregarding, and rubbed their hands together and got to work improving their prospects till their own feet slipped and they went under themselves ... Every place was a tilting edge.

  Annie Dillard

  Children, Mistake, Men

  Annie Dillard (1994). “The Annie Dillard reader”, Harpercollins

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• All of our presidents come into office looking so vigorous ... They grow grayer and grayer, and by the time they leave, they’re as white as the building they live in ... I have one big advantage: I’ve been coloring my hair for years. So you’re not going to see me turn white in the White House.

  Hillary Clinton

  Years, White, Hair

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• I spent on the Other Earth many "other years," wandering from mind to mind and country to country, but I did not gain any clear understanding of the psychology of the Other Men and the significance of their history till I encountered one of their philosophers, an aging but still vigorous man whose eccentric and unpalatable views had prevented him from attaining eminence.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Country, Men, Views

  "Star Maker" by Olaf Stapledon, Dover Books, (p. 26), 1937.

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• No matter where the skeptical thought originates, or how it gets access to our minds, we see at once that it flattens the level of life and every aspiration. It makes our character less vigorous. The gospel is not simply a philosophy of religion or law of life, but it is an apocalypse, showing the heavens to our thought, and so bringing its spiritual benedictions to every heart and life.

  Richard Salter Storrs

  Spiritual, Philosophy, Character

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 347), 1895.

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• The chase is among the best of all national pastimes; it cultivates that vigorous manliness for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, the possession of no other qualities can possibly atone.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Quality, Individual, Possession

  Theodore Roosevelt (2000). “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman and The Wilderness Hunter”, p.14, Modern Library

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• Vigorous Scout games are the best form of physical education because most of them bring in moral education.

  Baden Powell de Aquino

  Wisdom, Games, Moral

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• The American press is extraordinarily free and vigorous, as it should be. It should be, not because it is free of inaccuracy, oversimplification and bias, but because the alternative to that freedom is worse than those failings.

  Robert Bork

  Government, Alternatives, Failing

  "Abroad At Home; Getting Even" by Anthony Lewis, www.nytimes.com. April 11, 1985.

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• Physical well-being is not only a priceless asset to oneself-it is a heritage to be passed on. With good health, all other activities of life are greatly enhanced. A clean mind in a healthy body enables one to render far more effective service to others. It helps one provide more vigorous leadership. It gives our every experience in life more zest and more meaning. Robust health is a noble and worthwhile attainment.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Exercise, Zest, Giving

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• WHAT WE NEED IN AMERICA TODAY IS A VIGOROUS RETURN TO THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS AND A MOST VIGOROUS DEFENSE AGAINST THE MINION OF GODLESSNESS AND ATHEISM.

  J. Edgar Hoover

  Father, America, Atheism

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• Some people act as if it were demeaning to their manhood to wish to be well-read but you can no more be a healthy person mentally without reading substantial books than you can be a vigorous person physically without eating solid food. Books should be chosen, not for their freedom from evil, but for their possession of good. Dr. Johnson said: "Whilst you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both."

  Earl Nightingale

  Reading, Book, Son

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• ..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.

  George Washington

  War, Government Debt, Owing A Debt

  George Washington, William Jackson (1838). “Monuments of Washington's Patriotism: Containing a Fac Simile of His Publick Accounts Kept During the Revolutionary War; and Some of the Most Interesting Documents Connected with His Military Command and Civil Administration; Embracing, Among Others, the Farewell Address to the People of the United States”, p.16

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• The end of an age is always a time of turmoil, war, economic catastrophe, cynicism, lawlessness and distress. But it is also an era of heightened challenge and creativity, of issues, and their world-wide scope, never has an era faced a more demanding and exciting crisis. This then, above all else, is the great and glorious era to live in, a time of of opportunity, one requiring fresh and vigorous thinking, indeed, a glorious time to be alive.

  R.J. Rushdoony

  War, Creativity, Thinking

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• Harriet Levin [is] a shining poet in her generation.... The dynamics of her language and her vigorous voice distinguish all her poems. Levin's fearless willingness to tackle any subject combines with her subtle intelligence to produce a rare reading experience, the moving, psychologically sophisticated and intriguing work of a poet with both guts and craft

  Molly Peacock

  Moving, Reading, Voice

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• Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, America, Order

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

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• Happy is the man who can with vigorous wing Mount to those luminous serene fields! The man whose thoughts, like larks, Take liberated flight toward the morning skies --Who hovers over life and understands without effort The language of flowers and voiceless things!

  Charles Baudelaire

  Morning, Flower, Men

  Charles Baudelaire (2013). “Flowers of Evil and Other Works: A Dual-Language Book”, p.27, Courier Corporation

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• Physical fitness takes commitment to exercise just as it requires good nutrition. But it doesn't have to be painful. Just the opposite: Vigorous exercise actually is stimulating. It boosts your energy levels, invigorates your mind, and just feels good afterward. The hardest part, of course, is getting started.

  Jack LaLanne

  Commitment, Exercise, Opposites

  Jack Lalanne (2008). “Fiscal Fitness: 8 Steps to Wealth & Health from America's Leaders of Fitness and Finance: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.164, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In the hill country, civilization steals in last, and the people retain much of the crude but vigorous mode of expression of the colonial days and earlier.

  Robert E. Howard

  Country, Expression, Civilization

  Letter to Robert W. Gordon, February 15, 1926.

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• Want and effective demand are not the same thing. If they were, the poorest nations would be the ones to display the most vigorous demand.

  Joseph A. Schumpeter

  Would Be, Demand, Want

  Joseph A. Schumpeter (2013). “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy”, p.114, Routledge

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• Sometimes, as is the case of peach and plum trees, which are often dwarfed, the plants are thrown into a flowering states, and then, as they flower freely year after year, they have little inclination to make vigorous growth.

  Robert Fortune

  Flower, Years, Tree

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• The salient mystery of Dark Ages sets the stage for mass amnesia. People living in vigorous cultures typically treasure those cultures and resist any threat to them. How and why can a people so totally discard a formerly vital culture that it becomes vitally lost?

  Jane Jacobs

  Dark, People, Age

  "Dark Age Ahead". Book by Jane Jacobs, Chapter One, The Hazard, p. 4, 2004.

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• We all know that each generation has its own test, the contemporaneous and current standard by which alone it can adequately judge of its own moral achievements, and that it may not legitimately use a previous and less vigorous test. The advanced test must indeed include that which has already been attained; but if it includes no more, we shall fail to go forward, thinking complacently that we have "arrived" when in reality we have not yet started.

  Jane Addams

  Reality, Thinking, Judging

  Jane Addams, Charlene Haddock Seigfried (2002). “Democracy and Social Ethics”, p.5, University of Illinois Press

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• Look at this vigorous plant that lifts its head from the meadow, See how its leaves are turned to the north, as true as the magnet; This is the compass-flower, that the finger of God has planted Here in the houseless wild, to direct the traveller's journey. Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the desert, Such in the soul of man is faith.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Flower, Journey, Men

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.359, Delphi Classics

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• Most good writing is clear, vigorous, honest, alive, sensuous, appropriate, unsentimental, rhythmic, without pretension, fresh, metaphorical, evocative in sound, economical, authoritative, surprising, memorable, and light.

  Ken Macrorie

  Memorable, Writing, Light

  Ken Macrorie (1985). “Telling Writing”, Boynton/Cook

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