A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“According to Robert S. McNamara, former president of the World Bank, without firm action to further reduce the population growth rate, world population will not stabilize below eleven billion. "At the national level," states McNamara, "rapid population growth translates into a steadily worsening employment future, massive city growth, pressure on food supplies, degradation of the environment, an increase in the number of 'absolute poor,' and a stimulus to authoritarian government.”
Source: Christ's Victorious Kingdom
“According to rumors, the lowest level is is Level 2. It seems that nobody is graded at Level 1, so that even the Level 2 people think there's still someone beneath them. The fear of being able to fall lower is considered useful, because people who think they have nothing to lose are dangerous.”
Source: QualityLand
“According to Sarah, who had gone two years ago, prom was famous for being an overpriced disappointment where most people had no fun.”
Source: Say What You Will
“According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.”
Source: Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory
“According to science/religion/philosophy, there is a part/piece/place in our body that is the source of our energy. It has no end or beginning. It is the concentration of everything that we are made up of. It is our version of the Chicago-fire that burns us down, only to make us emerge from our ashes like the Phoenix. It makes us who we are. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been named yet. They can’t find a word in any language that can explain the sheer beauty and infinite power that it holds. They must have never met you. If it were up to me, I would have named “it” after you. You.”
“According to science, the universe began as a swirl of gas that, as it cooled, spun off the Ten Commandments.”
“According to scientists, there are three stages of love: lust, attraction, and attachment. And, it turns out, each of the stages is orchestrated by chemicals—neurotransmitters—in the brain.
As you might expect, lust is ruled by testosterone and estrogen.
The second stage, attraction, is governed by dopamine and serotonin. When, for example, couples report feeling indescribably happy in each other’s presence, that’s dopamine, the pleasure hormone, doing its work.
Taking cocaine fosters the same level of euphoria. In fact, scientists who study both the brains of new lovers and cocaine addicts are hard-pressed to tell the difference.
The second chemical of the attraction phase is serotonin. When couples confess that they can’t stop thinking about each other, it’s because their serotonin level has dropped. People in love have the same low serotonin levels as people with OCD. The reason they can’t stop thinking about each other is that they are literally obsessed.
Oxytocin and vasopressin control the third stage: attachment or long-term bonding. Oxytocin is released during orgasm and makes you feel closer to the person you’ve had sex with. It’s also released during childbirth and helps bond mother to child. Vasopressin is released postcoitally.
Natasha knows these facts cold. Knowing them helped her get over Rob’s betrayal. So she knows: love is just chemicals and coincidence.
So why does Daniel feel like something more?”
Source: The Sun Is Also a Star
“According to Scripture, the invisible church includes everyone who has ever been genuinely born again for every age of church history. This church will not meet in a visible way until Christ returns. The visible church consists of believers who are alive and meeting together right now.”
“According to scriptures at least I know the Bible states not to make any permanent marks on your body.”
“According to Shaivism, anupaya may also be reached by entering into the infinite blissfulness of the Self through the powerful experiences of sensual pleasures. This practice is designed to help the practitioner reach the highest levels by accelerating their progress through the sakta and sambhava upayas. These carefully guarded doctrines of Tantric sadhana are the basis for certain practices, like the use of the five makaras (hrdaya) mentioned earlier. The experience of a powerful sensual pleasure quickly removes a person’s dullness or indifference. It awakens in them the hidden nature and source of blissfulness and starts its inner vibration. Abhinavagupta says that only those people who are awakened to their own inner vitality can truly be said to have a heart (hrdaya). They are known as sahrdaya (connoisseurs). Those uninfluenced by this type of experiences are said to be heartless. In his words:
“It is explained thus—The heart of a person, shedding of its attitude of indifference while listening to the sweet sounds of a song or while feeling the delightful touch of something like sandalpaste, immediately starts a wonderful vibratory movement. (This) is called ananda-sakti and because of its presence the person concerned is considered to have a heart (in their body) (Tantraloka, III.209-10).
People who do not become one (with such blissful experiences), and who do not feel their physical body being merged into it, are said to be heartless because their consciousness itself remains immersed (in the gross body) (ibid., III.24).”
The philosopher Jayaratha addresses this topic as well when he quotes a verse from a work by an author named Parasastabhutipada:
“The worship to be performed by advanced aspirants consists of strengthening their position in the basic state of (infinite and blissful pure consciousness), on the occasions of the experiences of all such delightful objects which are to be seen here as having sweet and beautiful forms (Tantraloka, II.219).”
These authors are pointing out that if people participate in pleasurable experiences with that special sharp alertness known as avadhana, they will become oblivious to the limitations of their usual body-consciousness and their pure consciousness will be fully illumined. According to Vijnanabhairava:
“A Shiva yogin, having directed his attention to the inner bliss which arises on the occasion of some immense joy, or on seeing a close relative after a long time, should immerse his mind in that bliss and become one with it (Vijnanabhairava, 71).
A yogin should fix his mind on each phenomenon which brings satisfaction (because) his own state of infinite bliss arises therein (ibid., 74).”
In summary, Kashmir Shaivism is a philosophy that embraces life in its totality. Unlike puritanical systems it does not shy away from the pleasant and aesthetically pleasing aspects of life as somehow being unspiritual or contaminated. On the contrary, great importance has been placed on the aesthetic quality of spiritual practice in Kashmir Shaivism. In fact, recognizing and celebrating the aesthetic aspect of the Absolute is one of the central principles of this philosophy.
— B. N. Pandit, Specific Principles of Kashmir Shaivism (3rd ed., 2008), p. 124–125.”
Source: Specific Principles of Kashmir Saivism [Hardcover] [Apr 01, 1998] Paṇḍita, BalajinnaÌ"tha
“According to Shakyamuni Buddha, it's normal for human beings to be anxious, because it's normal for human beings not to understand themselves. When you don't understand yourself, you're uncomfortable and scared. When you realize that you're anxious, Buddha's teaching is to practice being patient with it.”
“According to Shelby, the longer you know someone, the longer they have to let you down. But sometimes, the longer you know someone, the more time they have to surprise you.”
Source: Love and Other Theories
“According to Shiva, life is in the end about fixing holes. Shiva didn't speak in metaphors. fixing holes is precisely what he did. Still, it's an apt metaphor for our profession. But there's another kind of hole, and that is the wound that divides family. Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of birth, sometimes it happens later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation.”
“According to Solomon, life and death are in the power of the tongue; and as Euripides truly affirmeth, every unbridled tongue in the end shall find itself unfortunate; for in all that ever I observed in the course of worldly things, I ever found that men's fortunes are oftener made by their tongues than by their virtues, and more men's fortunes overthrown thereby, also, than by their vices.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“According to some Eastern religion, there is a belt that goes across the world, and I've heard that Minnesota is right in the heart of this spiritual-creative belt of energy.”
“According to some law of fuckery and bad luck, enemies always arrived at the most inconvenient time, by chance if not by design.”
Source: Revenant Gun
“According to some liberation theologians atheism is not the cause of the conflict between Christianity and Marxism, but is rather the link between them.”
“According to some measures, Russia is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with 87% of wealth concentraded in the hands of the richest 10% of people.”
“According to some reports coming out of Washington today, President Obama said Kanye West is a 'jackass.' Not since 'yes, we can' has Obama found a slogan so many Americans can get behind.”
“According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking.”
Source: Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Three: Ptolemy's Gate
“According to St. Anselm (1033/4—1109), God is a "being than which no greater can be conceived." As we can see here, this is a reformulated idea of St. Augustine, who thought similarly centuries earlier, not to mention ancient Greek philosophers.”
Source: ABSOLUTE
“According to St. Augustine of Hippo (354—430), “The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God … And consequently, if He alone is unchangeable, all things that He has made, because He has made them out of nothing, are changeable.” Augustine also used the idea of logoi spermatikoi in the context of seminal reasons (rationes seminales, Latin from the Greek λόγοι σπερματικοὶ or logoi spermatikoi), or “seedlike principles,” “causal principles.” Based on this theory, God created the world by inseminating the void with seed. Other Christian thinkers accepted the idea, including Justin Martyr (100—165), Athenagoras of Athens (133—190), Tertullian (155—220), Gregory of Nyssa (335—395), Bonaventure (1221—1274), Albertus Magnus (1200—1280), and Roger Bacon (1219/20—1292).”
Source: ABSOLUTE
“According to St. Bonaventure, all the angels in heaven unceasingly call out to her: "Holy, holy, holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God." They greet her countless times each day with the angelic greeting, "Hail, Mary", while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests. According to St. Augustine, even St. Michael, though prince of all the heavenly court, is the most eager of all the angels to honour her and lead others to honour her. At all times he awaits the privilege of going at her word to the aid of one of her servants.”
Source: True Devotion to Mary: Saint Louis de Montfort
“According to statistics, it's a lot easier to get hit by lightning than to win a Lotto jackpot. The good side: you don't hear from your relatives.”
“According to statistics, one person out of five is disturbed. If there are four people around you who seem normal, that's not good.”
“According to String Theory, what appears to be empty space is actually a tumultuous ocean of strings vibrating at the precise frequencies that create the 4 dimensions you and I call height, width, depth and time.”
“According to studies led by Dr. Allan C. Wilson of the University of California, there is genetic evidence that the entire human species arose from a single female in North Africa between 140,000 and 280,000 years ago. In other words, it is conceivable that we all started from the womb of a single woman.
...
Or would we find an even greater mystery, that the whole pantheon of our reality was somehow contained in the wobbling mind of that creature, who fell down to thank her raw new gods after a panther leaped at her throat, and by a miracle missed devouring us all.”
Source: Communion: A True Story
“According to success do we gain a reputation for judgement.”
Source: Ten Plays by Euripides
“According to such great attacking players as Bronstein and Tal, most combinations are inspired by the player's memories of earlier games.”
“According to survivor accounts, Ramon Ontiveros posed as a teenager online, using fake profiles to lure adults into sexualized conversations. The most explosive allegation: that explicit images of real teenagers were sent during these interactions. If true, this is not vigilance. It is distribution of CSAM, a felony, no matter the story told to justify it.”
“According to Swedenborg, all human experience was only a reflection of a larger spiritual one. The human soul was what gave meaning and expression to the concrete world.”
Source: The Reluctant Spiritualist: A Life of Maggie Fox
“According to technologist David Rosenthal, speculation on cryptocurrencies is the engine that drives Web3—that it can’t work without it. “[A] permissionless blockchain requires a cryptocurrency to function, and this cryptocurrency requires speculation to function,” he said in a talk at Stanford in early 2022.4 Basically, he’s describing a pyramid scheme: Blockchains need to give people something in exchange for volunteering computing power, and cryptocurrencies fill that role—but the system works only if other people are willing to buy them believing that they’ll be worth more in the future. Stephen Diehl, a technologist and vocal critic of Web3, floridly dismissed blockchain as “a one-trick pony whose only application is creating censorship-resistant crypto investment schemes, an invention whose negative externalities and capacity for harm vastly outweigh any possible uses.”
Source: Web3: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
“According to Teenage Research Unlimited, 51 percent of 13-15 year olds say they will be faced with making a decision regarding alcohol in the next three months.”
“According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle bullet fired straight at a mark; according to Darwin, organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits something and the rest fall wide.
For the teleologist an organism exists because it was made for the conditions in which it is found; for the Darwinian an organism exists because, out of many of its kind, it is the only one which has been able to persist in the conditions in which it is found.
Teleology implies that the organs of every organism are perfect and cannot be improved; the Darwinian theory simply affirms that they work well enough to enable the organism to hold its own against such competitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of indefinite improvement.”
Source: Criticism on "The Origin of Species"
“According to Terry Nichols, that winter of 1995, in Junction City, Timothy McVeigh accidentally let slip his FBI handler’s name: “Larry Potts.” Potts, the demoted former FBI deputy director, would surely have outraged McVeigh for his prominent roles in the FBI sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco. Potts had set the rules of engagement that led to the horrendous sniper killing of Vicki Weaver on her cabin porch in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as she held her newborn baby in her arms. Then at Waco, Potts had toured the scene late in the FBI’s long siege and recommended the attorney general approve the deadly tear gas raid that ended the Texas standoff with scores of deaths.
“McVeigh said he believed Potts was manipulating him and forcing him to go off script, which I understood meant to change the target of the bombing,” Nichols said. “That was the only time I ever heard McVeigh refer to Larry Potts in that context.”
Source: Blowback: The Untold Story of the FBI and the Oklahoma City Bombing
“According to the 'food waste pyramid', ensuring that food is eaten by people is the top priority. Failing that, the next best thing is to feed it to farm animals.”
“According to the 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 25.8 percent of [New Orleans] population lives below the poverty line... This is more than twice the national average, but is close tot he percentages in other American cities such as Miami (28.5), Los Angeles (22.1), Atlanta (24.4), and New York City (21.2).”
Source: Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City
“According to the American Heart Association, the prevalence of hypertension in African Americans in the United States is among the highest in the world.”
“According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the definition of the word ‘rebellion’ is ‘an act or a show of defiance toward an authority or established convention. Extensions of the expression include to fly in the face of danger and to fly in the face of providence, both of which carry a sense of reckless or impetuous disregard for safety.’
Because we did not grow up with our fathers, we became reckless with our lives and disregarded the lives of others as well. Therefore, the problem is not the gangs, so to speak; rather, it’s the conditions that create them. It is the dismantling of our homes and marriages that create the right conditions for gangs to flourish. If homes could be put back together or prevented from falling apart, then these symptoms could be, root cause eradicated.”
Source: The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father
“According to the American Psychological Association, the most effective stress-relief strategies are exercising or playing sports, praying or attending a religious service, reading, listening to music, spending time with friends or family, getting a massage, going outside of ra walk, meditating or doing yoga, and spending time with a creative hobby. The least effective strategies are gambling, shopping, smoking, drinking, eating, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and watching TV or movies for more than two hours.”
“According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
“According to the anthropic principle proponents, if the universal constants (e.g. gravitation, the strong force, etc.) were just a nose-hair off, the universe as we know it would not exist; stars wouldn't form and there would be no life and no us. That supposedly makes our universe truly special. To demonstrate just how ridiculous this fine-tuning argument is, consider the fact that no measurement in physics is perfect. All of them are approximations and have margins of error. That means the universal constants, that make our universe what it is, have some wiggle room. Within that wiggle room are an infinite quantity of real numbers. Each of those real numbers could represent constants that could make a universe like ours. Since there are an infinite number of potential constants within that wiggle room, there are an infinite number of potential universes, like ours, that could have existed in lieu of ours. Thus, there is really nothing special about our universe.”
Source: Debunking Darwin's God: A Case Against BioLogos and Theistic Evolution
“According to the artichoke theory, man had some inner essence, or “heart”; according to the onion theory, once you had unwrapped all the layers of society off of man, there was nothing there. Seen from this perspective, the idea of an onion masquerading as an artichoke seemed sinister, even sociopathic.”
Source: The Idiot
“According to the Asiatics, Cupid's bow is strung with bees which are apt to sting, sometimes fatally, those who meddle with it.”
“According to the best research, less than 3% of Americans have written goals, and less than 1% review and rewrite their goals on a daily basis.”
“According to the Bible a tyrant is somebody, some civil magistrate that seeks to impose upon it's people another law than the law of God; that derives it policies and it's laws from another source of law, than the source of the law of God contained in Holy Scripture.”
“According to the Bible, the believer's relationship with God is not instigated through self-realization, but rather through faith in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead...”
Source: Bowing to Yoga?
“According to the Bible, a genuine answer to prayer is getting what you ask for.”
Source: Prayer: Asking and Receiving
“According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is man’s prerogative - and woman’s - to create their own particular and private hell.”
“According to the bible, Heaven is completely perfect and Hell is completely evil. In Heaven, in order to keep everything completely perfect, everyone in it would have to follow a long, specific set of rules for it to be perfect. Heaven is prison. In Hell, everyone is already evil there, so no rules need to be set to make it completely evil. Hell is freedom.”