I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“If all our common-sense notions about the universe were correct, then science would have solved the secrets of the universe thousands of years ago. The purpose of science is to peel back the layer of the appearance of the objects to reveal their underlying nature. In fact, if appearance and essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.”
“If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.”
Source: The Conquest of Happiness
“If all our national holidays were observed on Wednesdays, we could wind up with nine-day weekends.”
“If all our political and intellectual elite offers by way of a national culture is "pop music, gambling, fashionable clothes or television," then we can neither mount a convincing intellectual defense against our enemies, nor hope to integrate intelligent, inquiring, and unfulfilled Muslim youths young men principally, of course to our way of life.”
“If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.”
Source: Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley
“If all people are encouraged to actually see who they're coexisting with, or even if they're not coexisting with other people.It's like to look at the world you're in.”
“If all people are free, all are equal. If they are equal, they are just.”
“If all people are unique, and if they are constantly changing each and every day, then all one can say about any social research finding is that it applied to that group of people on that given day, and given the propensity of humans to be different and to change, then it is unlikely that one would get the same results if one were to repeat the study.”
“If all people became ghosts my social life would be so over" - Suze Simon in the Mediator”
“If all people learned to think in the non Aristotelian manner of quantum mechanics, the world would change so radically that most of what we call "stupidity" and even a great deal of what we consider "insanity" might disappear, and the "intractable" problems of war, poverty and injustice would suddenly seem a great deal closer to solution.”
“If all people needed to be content at their job was a great paycheck, the world would be a happier place.”
Source: Real-World Feminist Handbook: Practical Advice on How to Find, Win & Kick Ass at Your First Job
“If all people were to be judged by ‘right and wrong’, nobody would be wholly right or wholly wrong - for have not all people ‘sinned and fallen from the glory of God’? It seems more than a little unfair (and unhinged) that some folks with at least as much ‘sin’ themselves as any gay or trans person, like to jump up and down and point fingers at what other people are up to in their own lives.”
Source: Pearls Before Swine
“If all people were to be judged by 'right and wrong', nobody would be wholly right or wholly wrong - for have not all people 'sinned and fallen from the glory of God'? It seems more than a little unfair that some folks with at least as much 'sin' themselves as any gay or trans person, like to jump up and down and point fingers at other people.”
Source: Blachart
“If all persons with any trace of homosexual history, or those who were predominantly homosexual, were eliminated from the population today, there is no reason for believing that the incidence of the homosexual in the next generation would be materially reduced. The homosexual has been a significant part of human sexual activity since the dawn of history, primarily because it is an expression of capacities that are basic in the human animal.”
“If all pleasure has, preserved within it, earlier pain, then here pain, as pride in bearing it, is raised directly, untransformed, as a stereotype, to pleasure: unlike wine, each glass of whisky, each inhalation of cigar smoke, still recalls the repugnance that it cost the organism to become attuned to such strong stimuli, and this alone is registered as pleasure.”
Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life
“If all pleasure is relief from tension, junk affords relief from the whole life process, in disconnecting the hypothalamus, which is the center of psychic energy and libido.”
Source: Naked lunch
“If all politicians fished instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world.”
“If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.”
“If all power is in the people, if there is no higher law than their will, and if by counting their votes, their will may be ascertained - then the people may entrust all their power to anyone, and the power of the pretender and the usurper is then legitimate. It is not to be challenged since it came originally from the sovereign people.”
Source: The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy
“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
Source: Autobiographical Writings
“If all properly economic problems were solved once for all . . . the social struggle and strife would . . . [not necessarily] be reduced in amount or intensity . . . in the absence of some moral revolution which could by no means be assumed to follow in consequence of this change itself.”
Source: Freedom and reform: essays in economics and social philosophy
“If 'All' --quite seriously all---'for love' is implicit in the Beloved's attitude, his or her love is not worth having. It is not related in the right way to Love Himself.”
“If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibility;yet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility.”
Source: The Blue Octavo Notebooks
“If all seconds were as averse to duels as their principals, very little blood would be shed in that way.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though there would be no one around to write or talk about them. Huge prime numbers would continue to be prime, even if no one had proved them prime.”
Source: When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That
“If all simply insist on rights and no duties, there will be utter confusion and chaos.”
Source: India of My Dreams
“If all stories are fiction, fiction can be true -- not in detail or fact, but in some transformed version of feeling. If there is a memory of paradise, paradise can exist, in some other place or country dimensionally reminiscent of our own. The sad stories live there too, but in that country, we know what they mean and why they happened. We make our way back from them, finding the way through a bountiful wilderness we begin to understand. Years are nothing: Story conquers all distance.”
“If all struggles and sufferings were eliminated, the spirit would no more reach maturity than would the child.”
Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control
“If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.”
“If all that boasting doesn't tire you out, nothing will!' -- Peter Parker”
Source: Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1
“If all that is must one day wither, why is my yearning as clear as ever?”
“If all that we see are the scattered pieces of ‘what was,’ the story of ‘what is yet to be’ will never be told. If, however, we are able to envision the pieces as what they are now freed to be, the story of ‘what is yet to be’ will stand among the greatest ever told.”
“If all that you do with the fact that you’re here is to be here, no one will ever notice your absence at the point that you are not.”
“If all that you’re doing is going off at the mouth, a pound of words won’t make an ounce of sense.”
“If all that you’re praying for is an easy life, what you’re really praying for is the absence of life.”
“If all that you see, do, measure and discover is the will of a deity, then ideas can never be proven wrong, you have no predictive power, and you are at a loss to understand the principles behind most of the fundamental interconnections of nature.”
“If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time.”
“If all the actors are in the recording session at the same time, you can record all voices for one episode in an hour. Of course, the animation takes longer but the voice acting is done very quickly.”
“If all the ancient sacred writings had been preserved, some would be found to be heretical.”
“If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden, and no Fall. And if there had been no fall, then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin and the reason for an atonement ... collapsed like a house of cards.”
Source: H. G. WELLS Ultimate Collection: 120+ Science Fiction Classics, Novels & Stories; Including Scientific, Political and Historical Works: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, Modern Utopia, A Short History of the World, What Is Coming, The Story of the Last Trump…
“If all the arts aspire to the condition of music, all the sciences aspire to the condition of mathematics.”
Source: Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy
“If all the Atheists & Agnostics left America, they'd lose 93% of The National Academy of Sciences & less than 1% of the prison population.”
“If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash, or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless situation is almost incredible - but there it is.”
“If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.”
“If all the bishops in the world had been asked, two hundred years ago, whether slavery is allowed by God, 95 per cent of them, including the Pope, would have said, 'Yes, slavery is allowed'. Yet in spite of their number, they would all have been wrong.”
Source: The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church ; Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition
“If all the black land-owners who had ever held land here had kept it or left it in the hands of black men, the Negroes would have owned nearer thirty thousand acres than the fifteen thousand they now hold. And yet these fifteen thousand acres are a creditable showing,—a proof of no little weight of the worth and ability of the Negro people. If they had been given an economic start at Emancipation, if they had been in an enlightened and rich community which really desired their best good, then we might perhaps call such a result small or even insignificant. But for a few thousand poor ignorant field-hands, in the face of poverty, a falling market, and social stress, to save and capitalize two hundred thousand dollars in a generation has meant a tremendous effort. The rise of a nation, the pressing forward of a social class, means a bitter struggle, a hard and soul-sickening battle with the world such as few of the more favored classes know or appreciate.”
Source: The Souls of Black Folk
“If all the bruises and pain Dad had marked me with over the years formed a permanent stain,
people like Moustache Man might shut the hell up about what a great father I had.”
Source: Enemy: A True Story of Courage, Childhood Trauma and the Cost of War
“If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend”
“If all the Christians- I mean all of 'em- got outta the pews on Sundays and into the streets, we'd shut the city down.
We'd shut down hunger.
We'd shut down loneliness.
We'd shut down the notion that there is any such of a thing as a person that don't deserve a kind word and a second chance.”