I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“It is curious that we talk so little about the flavour of formula, given that it is the main food many babies taste for that crucial first year.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“It is curious that what these psychedelics do, on a scale of a community, is they release new ideas. . . . And that this is how culture moves forward. That culture is a phenomenon dependent on the generation of ideas, plans, notions, connections. So this is precisely what these compounds are doing.”
“It is curious that when you are watching artillery-fire from a distance you always want the gunner to hit his mark, even though the mark contains your dinner and some of your comrades.”
Source: Homage to Catalonia
“It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.”
Source: Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence
“It is curious that while one's education is the part of one's life over the conditions of which one has least individual control, the results of it are held to brand one irrevocably.”
Source: The decline and fall of science
“IT is curious that, with my somewhat antinomian tendencies, I should have gone to Trinity Hall - which was, and is, before all a Law College - and should thus have been thrown into close touch with the legal element in life.”
Source: My days and dreams: being autobiographical notes
“It is curious to be treated by the old-fashioned people as a criminal because my thoughts and ways are beyond them.”
“It is curious to engage in a competition where no one is in participation.”
Source: Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1
“It is curious to look back and realize upon what trivial and apparently coincidental circumstances great events frequently turn as easily and naturally as a door on its hinges.”
Source: Delphi Works of H. Rider Haggard (Illustrated)
“It is curious to note that when for reasons of conscience, people refuse to kill, they are often exempted from active military duty. But there are no exemptions for people who, for reasons of conscience, refuse to financially support the bureaucracy that actually does the killing. Apparently, the state takes money more seriously than life.”
“It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind; and what incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things, that trifles light as air shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immovable within it, that Euclid's demonstrations, could they be brought to batter it in breach, should not all have power to overthrow it!”
“It is curious to reflect, for example, upon the remarkable legend of the Philosopher's Stone, one of the oldest and most universal beliefs, the origin of which, however far back we penetrate into the records of the past, we do not probably trace its real source.”
Source: The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom
“It is curious to see America, the United States, looking on herself, first, as a sort of natural peacemaker, then as a moral protagonist in this terrible time. No nation is less fitted for this rôle. For two or more centuries America has marched proudly in the van of human hatred,—making bonfires of human flesh and laughing at them hideously, and making the insulting of millions more than a matter of dislike,—rather a great religion, a world war-cry: Up white, down black; to your tents, O white folk, and world war with black and parti-colored mongrel beasts! Instead of standing as a great example of the success of democracy and the possibility of human brotherhood America has taken her place as an awful example of its pitfalls and failures, so far as black and brown and yellow peoples are concerned.”
Source: Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
“It is curious to what a degree one may become attached to a fine tree, especially when it is placed where trees are rare.”
Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
“It is curious what patches of hardness and tenderness lie side by side in men’s dispositions. I suppose he has some test by which he finds out whom Heaven cares for.”
Source: Middlemarch
“It is curious, isn't it, that things you know well never look dirty and dilapidated-other people's old furniture looks shabby and moth-eaten. “I would never have that horrible old couch in my room,” you say. But your own old couch is every bit as bad and you are not disgusted with its appearance; it is your friend, you see, and you remember it when it was new and smart. Friends that you have known for a long time and love very dearly never seem to grow old.”
“It is currently said that hope goes with youth, and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, poetic; but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine until not. It is from the backs of the elderly gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should burst.”
Source: Charles Dickens: A Critical Study
“It is customary for columnists to complain about the excesses of Premiership footballers, whenever - as happens regularly - there is an incident involving some combination of sex, drugs, drink, violence and the constabulary. But modern footballers have a lot of both money and disposable time, a combination that has proved a recipe for personal disaster throughout history. And these incidents take place generally round night clubs rather than football clubs. The average Premiership player who turned up for work drunk would have a career-expectancy measurable in minutes.”
“It is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of literature. At this particular time, however, I think it would be well to consider the high duties and the responsibilities of the makers of literature.”
Source: William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill [and] John Steinbeck
“It is customary for those who wish to have the most beautiful ones to endeavourer to offer them gifts of those things which they hold most precious in order to win their hearts.”
“It is customary that no man cross the bridge to the tower of the betrothed, except your betrothed himself,” Christian explained.
Sig coughed, a few words escaping that sounded suspiciously like “which one?”
Source: A City of Whispers
“It is customary these days to ignore what should be done in favour of what pleases us.”
“It is customary to call the point of view of the advocates of the welfare state the “social” point of view as distinguished from the “individualistic” and “selfish” point of view of the champions of the rule of law. In fact, however, the supporters of the welfare state are utterly anti-social and intolerant zealots. For their ideology tacitly implies that the government will exactly execute what they themselves deem right and beneficial. They entirely disregard the possibility that there could arise disagreement with regard to the question of what is right and expedient and what is not. They advocate enlightened despotism, but they are convinced that the enlightened despot will in every detail comply with their own opinion concerning the measures to be adopted. They favour planning, but what they have in mind is exclusively their own plan, not those of other people.”
Source: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
“It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle.”
Source: The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
“It is cycling as a professional sport that represents the problem. It can transform someone into a liar.”
“It is cynicism, and not idealism, that is generally the mark of youthful immaturity, or rather it is the cynic who is generally the most foolish romantic.”
Source: The American cinema: directors and directions, 1929-1968
“It is daffodil time, so the robins all cry, For the sun's a big daffodil up in the sky, And when down the midnight the owl call to-whoo! Why, then the round moon is a daffodil too; Now sheer to the bough-tops the sap starts to climb, So, merry my masters, it's daffodil time.”
Source: Ballads, Patriotic & Romantic
“It is damaging to tie yourself. To a country and a home. Sooner or later both will fuck you up.”
Source: EEG
“It is dancing that gives you a reason to cross the divide of sadness towards smiles.”
Source: The Book of Dance
“It is dangerous and harmful to be guided in our life's course by hatreds and aversions, for they are wasteful of energy and limit and twist the mind and prevent it from perceiving the truth.”
Source: Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India
“It is dangerous and unbelievably fast and entirely different from the kind of track I am used to racing on”
“It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.”
Source: Parting Shots from My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life
“It is dangerous for a ruler to trust others. He who trusts others can be manipulated by others.”
“It is dangerous for a spiritual master to accept almost any aspirant. Although it is an aspect of mercy, it is dangerous. The danger also depends on the spiritual potency of the particular guru. Without sufficient potency, a few offensive or faithless disciples can lead to the guru's fall.”
“It is dangerous for a woman to defy the gods;
To taunt them with the tongue's thin tip,
Or strut in the weakness of mere humanity,
Or draw a line daring them to cross.”
“It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq
“It is dangerous. For people to fell that they alone have suffered, it is very dangerous. Having such a degree of resentment is a recipe for trouble. Our society has made itself open for such people, but when they come in, all you hear is complaints. Why would you want to move somewhere only to prove how different you are? And why would a society like that want to welcome you? But if you live as long as I do, you will see that there is an endless variety of difficulties in the world. It's difficult for everybody. I nodded. But it would of been different, I said, if you only heard him tell it. He's not a complainer, and I don't think he's full of resentment, not really. I think the hurt is genuine. Well, I'm sure it is, she said, but if you're too loyal to your own suffering, you forget that others suffer, too. There's a reason, she said, I had to leave Belgium and try to make my life in another country. I don't complain and, to be honest, I really have little patience for people who do. You're not a complainer are you?”
Source: Open City
“It is dangerous if our identity as a leader becomes more important than our identity as a child of God.”
“It is dangerous it seems to me for a civilization when there is a complete abyss betewen people in general and the artists. Or is it always so? The poets who are most ardently on the people's side write in such a way that the people cannot see rhyme nor reason to their work.”
“It is dangerous to attach probability zero to anything other than a logical impossibility.”
“It is dangerous to attempt to live all the levels of your humanity while totally immersed in spiritual ecstasy. One does not drive a car while drunk, nor should one propose marriage to a woman in bed with you whom you just met, while feeling at one with all humanity.”
Source: 666: Connection with Crowley
“It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.”
“It is dangerous to be in a passive position”
“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”
“It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.”
“It is dangerous to be so busy that you have no time to wait on God.”
“It is dangerous to become useless to God”
“It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.”
“It is dangerous to engage in even the most innocuous-seeming discourse with the FBI/ Homeland Security/ a local detective.”
“It is dangerous to exist in the world. To exist is to be threatened. We must live with threats.”