I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them.”
Source: My Story
“If a State has reliable scientific information that demonstrates that a warning is needed for a particular food, then in the interest of public health, it should share that information with the FDA and petition for a new national standard.”
“If a state political organization is founded in part upon a state religion with a dogma based on one or a few 'official' prophets, then shamanism, where every shaman is her or his own prophet, is dangerous to the state. [...] Shamanism, as I said, is not a religion. The spiritual experience usually becomes a religion after politics has entered into it.”
“If a State refused to let religious groups use facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion.”
“If a state should pass laws forbidding its citizens to become wise and holy, it would be made a byword for all time. But this, in effect, is what our commercial, social, and political systems do. They compel the sacrifice of mental and moral power to money and dissipation.”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion
“If a state, or nation, has laws it will not enforce for political reasons, it mocks both the law and politics, to say nothing of the cultural order.”
“If a statement is untrue, it is not the more respectable because it has been said in Latin.”
Source: Not That it Matters
“If a steaming hot potato fell in your hands you would get it off you as soon as you could. Do the same with negative destructive thoughts- just release them as fast as you can.”
“If a stick is floating down a river and gets stuck, it doesn't need years of therapy. It just needs a little nudge and then it will get back into the flow of the river.”
“If a stock doesn’t act right don’t touch it; because, being unable to tell precisely what is wrong, you cannot tell which way it is going. No diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.”
Source: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
“If a story does its job, it doesn't ever end. Not really. But it can change. This is the nature of folktales. They shift to fit each teller. Take whatever form suits the bearer best. What begins as a story of sorrow can be acknowledged, held like a sweetheart to the chest, rocked and sung to. And then it can be set down to sleep. It can become an offering. A lantern. An ember to lead you through the dark.”
Source: Thistlefoot
“If a story doesn't give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage.”
Source: A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking
“If a story is funny, and I made it up, then the big message is, `Aren't I clever?' .. If a story is funny and it actually happened, the big message is, `Isn't the world funny?' And actually I think that's a better message. I kind of want to think that about the world -- and it sounds less like boasting.”
“If a story is in you, it has to come out.”
“If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.”
Source: East of Eden
“If a story is only what it seems to be about, then somehow the author has failed.”
“If a story isn't working, I'm simply unable to finish it. That's what usually tells me something is wrong.”
“If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.”
Source: The Things They Carried
“If a storyteller worried about the facts - my dear Lucian, how could he ever get at the truth?”
“If a strange police officer is blatantly harassing you, you may be about to be seriously injured or die.”
“If a stranger taps you on the ass and says, "How's the little lady today!" you will probably cringe. But if he's an American, he's only being friendly.”
Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood
“If a strategy is widely available for free or is offered on a small payment can never work. A secret is not a secret if a YouTube commercial offers it for a small payment of a hundred dollars.”
“If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.”
“If a street has a spirit, no matter how narrow it is, we can breathe comfortably over there.”
“If a streetlight can make you sick, one can only wonder what exposure to a very high powered industrial LASER can do to you.”
“If a string has one end, it has another.”
“If a string is in a knot,
Patience will untie it.
Patience can do many things—
Did you ever try it?
If it was sold at any shop
I should like to buy it.
But you and I must find our own—
No other can supply it.”
“If a strong government finds that it can, with impunity, destroy a weak people, then the hour has struck for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment.”
“If a strong man has not in him the lift toward lofty things, his strength makes him only a curse to himself and his neighbor.”
Source: Works: The strenuous life
“If a Student isn't grateful for his Teacher, both are wasting their Time.”
“If a student takes a Stanford computer class and a Princeton business class, it shows they are motivated and have skills. We know it has helped employees get better jobs.”
“If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research.”
“If a studio sees that a female can bring in audiences, then they're going to make movies with that person.”
“If a subject has a delicate surface to it, you do not want to go charging in there. You need to establish some kind of presence and understanding. I will say, Try to forget I'm here. I won't ask you to pose, I won't ask you to do anything. It's important that I just be allowed to be around, to be present. Photographing people requires a willingness to be rejected. So, I think the best approach is to be honest and direct. Very often, I tell them, You don't know me. There's no reason why you should trust me... the only thing I can promise is that I'll try to do the most honest work I can.”
“If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.”
Source: If: What do I Know of Calvary Love?
“If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.”
“If a sufficient number of people who wanted to stop war really did gather together, they would first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way.”
“If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades', would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here - we'll leave the lights on'? Probably not - but this is more or less what is happening with AI.”
“If a superior give any order to one who is under him which is against that man's conscience, although he do not obey it yet he shall not be dismissed.”
“If a superior man abandon virtue, how can he fulfil the requirements of that name?”
Source: The Chinese Classics
“If a superior woman marry a vulgar or inferior man, he makes her miserable, but seldom governs her mind or vulgarizes her nature; and if there be love on his side, the chances are that in the end she will elevate and refine him.”
Source: A commonplace book of thoughts, memories and fancies, original and selected
“If a supernatural darkness exists, then a supernatural light must exist also...”
Source: Saturnine
“If a supernatural power tries to make you a saint or an emperor, refuse it, because the greatest beauty of life hides in having no position whatsoever! Positionless is the best position!”
“If a symbol should be discovered in a painting of mine, it was not my intention. It is a result I did not seek. It is something that may be found afterwards, and which can be interpreted according to taste.”
“If a symbolic language dies, it tortures us like a nightmare, like a thousand piece orchestra grating on our nerves and tearing our mind to pieces.. .It is a corpse with no symbolic power or strength.”
“If a synesthetic person says the letter a is green, it can't ever be anything but green.”
“If a tablet is not wiped clean of it's figures, nothing can be written upon it. A single heart cannot serve as the place for two things, let alone for several things. If the heart is filled with the forms of sensory perceptions, it is rare that it would perceive the meaning of Allah, even if one were to say Allah a thousand times. When the heart is empty of all that is other-than-God, if one uttered Allah only once, one would find such bliss that the tongue could not describe.”
“If a task is worthy of our attention, it is worthy of our best.”
“If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough.”
“If a tax hike makes it to my desk, I'll veto it in less time than it takes Vanna White to turn the letters V-E-T-O!”