I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I cannot accept concepts such as Gülenism or Gülenist. I was only a writer and an official preacher among people. I can have no direct influence on any person or activity. It is inconceivable that I can exert pressure on anybody.”
“I cannot accept that to be realistic means to tolerate misery, violence and hate. I do not believe that the hungry man should be treated as subversive for expressing his suffering. I shall never accept that the law can be used to justify tragedy, to keep things as they are, to make us abandon our ideas of a different world. Law is the path of liberty, and must as such open the way to progress for everyone.”
“I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.”
Source: Conversations with Wole Soyinka
“I cannot accept this invitation [to celebrate the bicentenial of the Constitution], for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever 'fixed' at the Philadelphia Convention... To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]”
“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“I cannot admit this out loud. In the first place, we are expected to be supermoms these days, instead of admitting that we have flaws. It is tempting to believe that all mothers wake up feeling fresh every morning, never raise their voices, only cook with organic food, and are equally at ease with the CEO and the PTA.”
Source: House Rules: A Novel
“I cannot affirm God if I fail to affirm man. Therefore, I affirm both. Without a belief in human unity I am hungry and incomplete. Human unity is the fulfillment of diversity. It is the harmony of opposites. It is a many-stranded texture, with color and depth.”
Source: The Celebration of Life: A Dialogue on Hope, Spirit, and the Immortality of the Soul
“I cannot afford to believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the fronts upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.”
“I cannot afford to have one thought in my mind that is not in His”
“I cannot afford to lose you, too"
"You cannot lose something you do not own. Take me with you”
Source: And I Darken
“I cannot afford to make mistakes.”
“I cannot afford to waste my time making money”
“I cannot afford to watch Fox News.”
“I cannot agree that mountain climbing is merely one manifestation of man's spiritual aspirations. I think instead it is a hysterical paroxysm of his infantile vanity.”
Source: Triple Jeopardy
“I cannot agree with any astronomer who insists that all of these things are mirages, planets, clouds, or illusions. The majority of the people are articulate enough to tell their stories and sincere enough to make depositions before notaries public. Even scientists concede that these folk saw something.”
“I cannot agree with those who say that they have 'new truth' to teach. The two words seem to me to contradict each other; that
which is new is not true. It is the old that is true, for truth is as old as God himself.”
“I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age...The evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us now, they exist today.”
“I cannot allow a third party to decide on my country's future.”
“I cannot allow another man to take what I already consider mine.”
“I cannot allow my own convictions to get in the way of truth, for only in knowing the truth can victory be secured.”
“I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.”
“I cannot always sympathize with that demand which we hear so frequently for cheap things. Things may be too cheap. They are too cheap when the man or woman who produces them upon the farm or the man or woman who produces them in the factory does not get out of them living wages with a margin for old age and for a dowry for the incidents that are to follow. I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process.”
“I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.”
“I cannot and don't really want to control my mind, soul, or heart when I write and must recognize that I don't think about the readers at that moment of writing.”
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this season's fashions.”
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.”
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”
“I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I, and you, the people, are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”
Source: Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations
“I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”
“I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.”
“I cannot approve of monarchs who want to rule over the conscience of the people, and take away their freedom of choice and religion.”
“I cannot approve of your foible for dancing-shoes to wade through snow in such weather.”
Source: Doom Castle
“I cannot approve of your method of operation, you proceed like a bewildered idiot, taking not the least notice of my orders.”
“I cannot articulate enough to express my dislike to people who think that understanding spoils your experience... How would they know?”
“I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong.”
Source: John Quincy Adams and American continental empire: letters, papers and speeches
“I cannot assume emotions I do not feel, and must describe Jerusalem as I found it. Since being here, I have read the accounts of several travellers, and in many cases the devotional rhapsodies - the ecstacies of awe and reverence - in which they indulge, strike me as forced and affected.”
Source: Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor ...
“I cannot assume you will understand me. It is just as likely that as I invent what I want to say, you will invent what you want to hear. Some story we must have. Stray words on crumpled paper. A weak signal into the outer space of each other. The probability of seperate worlds meeting is very small. The lure is immense. We send starships. We fall in love”
“I cannot attain the intensity that is unfolded before my senses. I have not the magnificent richness of colouring that animates nature.”
“I cannot avoid condemning all those who, from self-conceit have the pretension to imitate great artists of the past. If their powers of emotion be weak, their powers of expression will be likewise.”
“I cannot avoid wondering about the feelings of those who are now the apparent rulers of Iran. They are, despite their mistakes and the crimes which they have instigated, men of faith who claim to be sent by God. I hope they will eventually realize that the revolution which they believe they have brought about is not to the glory of God, but serves the forces of evil.”
“I cannot be a character in a bad movie. I can't be.”
“I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.”
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
“I cannot be a materialist - but Oh, how is it possible that a God who speaks to all hearts can let Belgravia go laughing to a vicious luxury, and Whitechapel cursing to a filthy debauchery - such suffering, such dreadful suffering - and shall the short years of Christ's mission atone for it all?”
Source: The Letters of D. H. Lawrence
“I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.”
“I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am.”
Source: Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage
“I cannot be a traitor, since I never swore fealty to the English king.”
“I cannot be afraid of being afraid. Rather, I need to realize that it is my fear that gives me the energy to wrestle that which I fear into the dirt that is soon to become the road underneath my feet.”
“I cannot be alone in being pretty nauseated by Red Nose Day, or at least its television manifestation. Do I think that wretchedly poor children in Africa should get food and life-saving drugs? Of course. Do I want to be hectored into contributing by celebrities who earn more in a 10-minute slot than many of these families get in a year? Nope.”
“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.”
“I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe.”