Yes Or No Quotes

• When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.

  Erma Bombeck

  Inspirational, Mothers Day, Mom

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  The oldest, shortest words - 'yes' and 'no' - are those which require the most thought.

  Pythagoras

  Thoughtful, Thought Provoking, Greek

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• If you must say yes, say it with an open heart. If you must say no, say it without fear.

  Paulo Coelho

  Inspirational, Confidence, Fear

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Apr 22, 2012

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• Your capacity to say "No" determines your capacity to say "Yes" to greater things.

  E. Stanley Jones

  Inspirational, Choices, Saying Yes

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• Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no.

  Carl Sagan

  Binary, Crisps

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.23, Ballantine Books

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• The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Fighting, Racism

  Interview with Marilyn Berlin Snell, www.motherjones.com. July/August 1997.

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• All roads are blocked to a philosophy which reduces everything to the word "no." To "no" there is only one answer and that is "yes." Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing. Man lives more by affirmation than by bread.

  Victor Hugo

  Zero, Philosophy, Men

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• Every choice moves us closer to or farther away from something. Where are your choices taking your life? What do your behaviors demonstrate that you are saying yes or no to in life?

  Eric Allen

  Moving, Choices, Decision

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• One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Doubt, Certainty, Converting

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• And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it's the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people.

  Jason Reitman

  Moving, Blue, People

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• Only a Bush could answer a 'yes' or 'no' question two different ways and be wrong both times.

  Bill Maher

  Two, Different, Answers

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• There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.

  Viggo Mortensen

  Inspirational, Sad, Depression

  "Finding Viggo" by Alex Kuczynski, Vanity Fair, January 1, 2004.

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• You always go by your gut. That's the best you can do. You go by what you feel, and you say yes or no based on what it inspires in you.

  Alex Kurtzman

  Inspire, Feels, Guts

  Source: collider.com

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• If we have to go through a mental exercise, yes or no, every time we are faced with a tough decision, we will continue to have trouble with living what we supposedly believe.

  LaVell Edwards

  Believe, Exercise, Decision

  Source: universe.byu.edu

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• Sometimes when I visit schools, kids will interview me for the school newspaper. They ask me questions and my answers tend to go on and on, and they try to write down everything I'm saying as quickly as they can. And one day, a kid holds up her hand and said, 'Do you think you could just answer 'yes' or 'no?' Aren't kids wonderful?

  Patricia Reilly Giff

  Writing, School, Kids

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• Here is the crux of the matter, the distilled essence, the only thing you need to remember: When considering whether to say yes or no, you must choose the response that feels like freedom. Period.

  Martha Beck

  Essence, Needs, Matter

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• Here's the problem: the description of the world is always reduced to yes or no, black or white. Superficial stories. Superhero stories. One side is the good one. The other one is evil.

  Marjane Satrapi

  White, Evil, Superhero

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.

  Patrick Ness

  Life, Cutting, Hands

  Patrick Ness (2008). “The Knife of Never Letting Go”, Candlewick Press (MA)

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• Moral issues rarely have yes or no answers. -Myles to Alanna when she asks about the Gift

  Tamora Pierce

  Issues, Answers, Moral

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• I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.

  William Gaddis

  Player, Piano Music, Piano Playing

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• People read the papers not in the hopes of learning something new, but in the expectation of being told what they already know. This is a form of living death. Its apotheosis is the daily poll in USA Today, which informs us what percentage of a small number of unscientifically selected people called a toll number to vote on questions that cannot possibly be responded to with a yes or no.

  Roger Ebert

  Learning Something New, Small Numbers, Media

  Roger Ebert, David Bordwell (2017). “Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert: Second Edition”, p.432, University of Chicago Press

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• An ignorant man is always able to say yes or no immediately to any proposition. To a wise man, comparatively few things can be propounded which do not require a response with qualifications, with discriminations, with proportion.

  Horace Mann

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

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• God is love. Yes or no? No.

  Samuel Beckett

  Love, God, God Love

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Company / Ill Seen Ill Said / Worstward Ho / Stirrings Still”, p.32, Faber & Faber

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• If somebody says what they want or what they need it gives the person the chance to say yes or no, instead of suffering in silence or depravation or whatever it is.

  David Duchovny

  Giving, Silence, Suffering

  "Trust The Man with Julianne Moore and David Duchovny". Interview with Julian Roman, movieweb.com. August 22, 2006.

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• It is a big problem and so I don't know for sure if I say yes or no to Ferrari.

  Valentino Garavani

  Sports, Ferrari, Problem

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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