I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“In a universe that defies description, all systems of belief can only be false.”
“In a universe that is vast and uncaring, the human brain is a rebellious anomaly. Here we
are, in a cold expanse of nothingness, thinking and feeling.”
Source: How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend: A Neuroscientist's Guide to a Healthier, Happier Life
“In a universe where all life is in movement, where ever fact seen in perspective is totally engaging, we impose stillness on lively young bodies, distort reality to dullness, make action drudgery. Those who submit - as the majority does - are conditioned to a life lived without their human birthright: work done with the joy and creativity of love.
But what are schools for if not to make children fall so deeply in love with the world that they really want to learn about it? That is the true business of schools. And if they succeed in it, all other desirable developments follow of themselves.
In a proper school, no fact would ever be presented as a soulless one, for the simple reason that there is no such thing. Every facet of reality, discovered where it lives, startles with its wonder, beauty, meaning.”
“In a universe where all things manifest, be careful only of the things you truly wish for.”
“In a Universe where anything is possible, perhaps rules are meant to be broken.”
Source: Ben Archer and the Toreq Son
“In a useful conversation... there is a double coincidence of wants. You have to be interested in what I have to say; I have to be interested in what you have to say. This is an important reason why people with conventional interests seem more socially intelligent. Even if they don't check whether their audience cares, it probably does.”
“In a user lead model, users are bringing in their own technology... and you can build software then, around the user.”
“In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
“In a utopia you want to win matches by several goals and by playing a wonderful brand of football. But that's utopia.”
“In a vacuum all photons travel at the same speed. They slow down when travelling through air or water or glass. Photons of different energies are slowed down at different rates. If Tolstoy had known this, would he have recognised the terrible untruth at the beginning of Anna Karenina? 'All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own particular way.' In fact it's the other way around. Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalisation. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.”
“In a vain man, the smallest spark may kindle into the greatest flame, because the materials are always prepared for it.”
“In a valley shaded with rhododendrons, close to the snow line, where a stream milky with meltwater splashed and where doves and linnets flew among the immense pines, lay a cave, half, hidden by the crag above and the stiff heavy leaves that clustered below.
The woods were full of sound: the stream between the rocks, the wind among the needles of the pine branches, the chitter of insects and the cries of small arboreal mammals, as well as the birdsong; and from time to time a stronger gust of wind would make one of the branches of a cedar or a fir move against another and groan like a cello.
It was a place of brilliant sunlight, never undappled. Shafts of lemon-gold brilliance lanced down to the forest floor between bars and pools of brown-green shade; and the light was never still, never constant, because drifting mist would often float among the treetops, filtering all the sunlight to a pearly sheen and brushing every pine cone with moisture that glistened when the mist lifted. Sometimes the wetness in the clouds condensed into tiny drops half mist and half rain, which floated downward rather than fell, making a soft rustling patter among the millions of needles.
There was a narrow path beside the stream, which led from a village-little more than a cluster of herdsmen's dwellings - at the foot of the valley to a half-ruined shrine near the glacier at its head, a place where faded silken flags streamed out in the Perpetual winds from the high mountains, and offerings of barley cakes and dried tea were placed by pious villagers. An odd effect of the light, the ice, and the vapor enveloped the head of the valley in perpetual rainbows.”
Source: The Amber Spyglass
“In a vast & huge country like India, e-governance is the only way for effective delivery unto the last.”
“In a vast space left free between the crowd and the fire, a young girl was dancing.
Whether this young girl was a human being, a fairy, or an angel, is what Gringoire, sceptical philosopher and ironical poet that he was, could not decide at the first moment, so fascinated was he by this dazzling vision.
She was not tall, though she seemed so, so boldly did her slender form dart about. She was swarthy of complexion, but one divined that, by day, her skin must possess that beautiful golden tone of the Andalusians and the Roman women. Her little foot, too, was Andalusian, for it was both pinched and at ease in its graceful shoe. She danced, she turned, she whirled rapidly about on an old Persian rug, spread negligently under her feet; and each time that her radiant face passed before you, as she whirled, her great black eyes darted a flash of lightning at you.
All around her, all glances were riveted, all mouths open; and, in fact, when she danced thus, to the humming of the Basque tambourine, which her two pure, rounded arms raised above her head, slender, frail and vivacious as a wasp, with her corsage of gold without a fold, her variegated gown puffing out, her bare shoulders, her delicate limbs, which her petticoat revealed at times, her black hair, her eyes of flame, she was a supernatural creature.”
“In a verbally abusive relationship, the partner learns to tolerate abuse without realizing it and to lose self-esteem without realizing it. She is blamed by the abuser and becomes the scapegoat. The partner is then the victim.”
Source: The Verbally Abusive Relationship: How to Recognize It and How to Respond
“In a very basic way, a prominent landmark such as Mt. Holyoke tells you where you are. They let you know that you're not the first person in a place”
“In a very cold night, even houses want to have houses of their own to enter inside them and feel warm!”
“In a very complex way, things have improved in the dramatic field. Before you had the good and the bad and you couldn't mingle them. Now it's more ambiguous.”
“In a very humbling process, the Swiss have had to admit to their faults and compromise on secrecy, changing the law and releasing the names of bank clients to please the US, as well as signing a dozen double taxation agreements in six months to please the OECD.”
Source: The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths
“In a very little time they got to the corner of the field by the side of the pine wood where Eeyore's house wasn't any longer. 'There!' said Eeyore. 'Not a stick of it left! Of course, I've still got all this snow to do what I like with. One mustn't complain.”
Source: The House at Pooh Corner
“In a very philosophic sense I think doing the work is itself a good thing. But at the end of the day, since we're taking other people's shekels to do it, and their work is being able to make a return out of it, it forces you to consider the fact that you're doing it for other people. The whole construct is built around the assumption that it's going to get shared, and that someone else is going to find value in it - entertainment, catharsis, enlightenment, or whatever.”
“In a very real sense my science does inform my knowledge of God. If you would allow me to say that we never know God, because if I claim that I know God, I know something other than God, because God is not knowable, he is unknowable. So we have to approach it in that sense first, that my knowledge of God is always limited.”
“In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there's no danger that we will confuse God's work with our own, or God's glory with our own.”
Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels”
Source: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
“In a very real sense, all we need to know is that God knows all.”
“In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”
“In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.”
“In a very real sense, the Constitution is our compact with history . . . [but] the Constitution can maintain that compact and serve as the lodestar of our political system only if its terms are binding on us. To the extent we depart from the document's language and rely instead on generalities that we see written between the lines, we rob the Constitution of its binding force and give free reign to the fashions and passions of the day.”
“In a very real sense, the suffering of this world was created by man himself.”
“In a very real sense, there are only two roles in organisations: customers and suppliers. Everybody functions simultaneously in both roles, whether inside or outside the organisation the essence of good business, therefore, is the quality of the relationship between customer and supplier.”
Source: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
“In a very real sense, therefore, advocacy of the doctrine of continuity [i.e evolutionism] has always necessitated on retreat from pure empiricism [i.e., logic an observation], and contrary to what is widely assumed by evolutionary biologists today, it has always been the anti-evolutionists [i.e creationist], not the evolutionists, in the scientific community who have struck rigidly to the facts and adhered to a more strictly empirical approach... It was Darwin the evolutionist who was retreating from the facts.”
“In a very real sense, we are shipwrecked passengers on a doomed planet. Yet, even in a shipwreck, human decencies and human values do not necessarily vanish, and we must make the most of them. We shall go down, but let it be in a manner to which we may look forward as worthy of our dignity.”
Source: The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society
“In a very real sense, we are the authors of our own lives.”
Source: The Story of Your Life: Becoming the Author of Your Experience
“In a very real way Norman [Lear] godfathered me into my career. He was the best mentor anybody could have ever had.”
“In a very real way, one writes a story to find out what happens in it. Before it is written it sits in the mind like a piece of overheard gossip or a bit of intriguing tattle. The story process is like taking up such a piece of gossip, hunting down the people actually involved, questioning them, finding out what really occurred, and visiting pertinent locations. As with gossip, you can't be too surprised if important things turn up that were left out of the first-heard version entirely; or if points initially made much of turn out to have been distorted, or simply not to have happened at all.”
“In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that people’s value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank. A poor person, a person lacking material possessions, always maintains his or her dignity. The poor can teach us much about humility and trust in God.”
Source: Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Material Existence and the Meaning of Life
“In a very short period of time, actors can become kind of relevant and hot.”
“In a very small way, painting addresses the 'Big Questions' to which we'll never find the answers. You do what you have to do even if it seems hopeless.”
“In a very tragic kind of way, sometimes things have to be gone before I fully realize that they were ever there.”
“In a very true sense, I have no country or nationality. I am a dance of consciousness that belongs to this universe and to eternity.”
“In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other.”
Source: Aphorisms
“In a very unscientific statement, I feel that there's been a disconnect between this clever brain and the heart.”
“In a very weak economy, when you say 'cut government spending,' what you mean is you're laying off school teachers and you're de-funding various programs that put money into the economy. This means you have more unemployed people that then draw unemployment benefits and don't pay taxes.”
“In a victory speech, I always like to thank the opposition, because without their help and stupidity, I couldn’t have won.”
“In a Vietnamese village, as reported in a recent TV program, gas bombs had been thrown into holes and huts to drive out of hiding any remaining Viet Cong. Only women and children came out of the holes. One child, about two, routed out with his mother, sat on her lap looking up at a large Negro marine. The side of the child's face was dirty with the smoke and soot from the smoke bomb; he had been crying. He looked up with an expression of bewilderment, now beyond crying, not knowing what to make of such a world.
But the camera shifted immediately to the black American marine looking down at the child, commanding and somewhat hideous in his battle uniform. He had exactly the same expression: bewilderment, his eyes wide as he stared down at the child, his mouth slightly ajar; but his stare did not move, remaining fixed on that child. What should he make of a world in which he does this?
While the announcer of the program rattled on about how the gas is harmful for only ten minutes and then leaves no deleterious effects, the cameraman kept his camera focused on the face of the marine. Was the marine recalling that he too had once been a child in some Southern state, driven from caves and huts where he had been playing, recognizing that he too was of a race held to be 'inferior'? That he too was once a child in a world at which he could only look out and up, a world causing pain for reasons no child can begin to fathom? Does he see himself in this child, see his bewilderment as a black child?”
Source: Love and will
“In a village people were happy eating rice and vegetables. Then somebody started coming every morning to distribute sweets. Now villagers are happy only in the morning when they get sweets. Rest of the time they remain depressed. The sweets of hope and positivity and motivation being distributed everywhere are actually causing anxiety and depression.”
“In a village quaint and bright, Lived a chef with great delight. Every morn, with break of day, He’d cook his meals, then he’d say
“Did you eat?” His voice so clear, Echoed far and echoed near. Neighbors smiled, children played, In his care, their hearts were laid.
One fine day, a stranger came, Hungry, tired, seeking fame. “Teach me, chef, your art so fine, I long to make my dishes shine.”
With a nod and knowing glance, The chef began the culinary dance. “First, you learn to truly care, For food is love, you must declare.”
Days turned weeks, the lessons flew, The stranger learned and friendships grew. But fame and glory filled his mind, Leaving care and love behind.
He opened a place, grand and vast, But love for food, a thing of the past. “Did you eat?” He’d never ask, Focused solely on his task.
DID YOU EAT?
Customers came, then soon they went, For something vital had been spent. Food was fine, but heart was cold,
A lesson learned, a tale retold.
Back he went, with heavy heart, To the chef who’d played his part. “Teach me now, what I have missed, For love and care, I have dismissed.”
The chef then smiled, wise and kind, “To care for others, open your mind. The food you make, with love instill, And hearts you’ll nourish, a void you’ll fill.”
“Did you eat?” He asked anew, And in that question, wisdom true. For food with love is more than treat, It’s a bond, a joy, a life complete.
So here’s the tale, both light and deep, A lesson strong for all to keep.
In every meal, in every greet,
Ask with love, “Did you eat?”
Source: Did You Eat? : A Global Journey Through Food, Care, and Connection
“In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him.”
Source: Knowing How to Know : A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition
“in a village you can't sack or fight with someone, as you'll find yourself stuck beside them in the hairdresser's next morning.”
Source: Turn Right At The Spotted Dog
“In a violent worldview, the ends are deemed important enough that they may justify the use of violent or oppressive means. In the philosophy of ahimsa, however, the ends never justify the means. In fact, we realize that the means and the ends are ultimately the same, because the end must always be preexistent in the means. If we want to accomplish justice, we must behave justly; if we want to see peace, we must behave peacefully; if we want genuine brotherhood among all people, we must treat all people as our brothers and sisters. This is what Gandhi meant when he said, we must 'be the change' we wish to see in the world. We cannot have what we are not willing to be.”
Source: A Baptist Preacher's Buddhist Teacher: How My Interfaith Journey with Daisaku Ikeda Made Me a Better Christian