W Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with W. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“When an obstacle’s too tough, you don’t hit it head-on. If an object is truly immoveable, it’s also nailed to one place. Find a way around it.”
Source: A Pause in the Perpetual Rotation
“When an Occupy demo in the centre of Frankfurt makes world news, I shall hurry to join in.”
“When an office begins to look like a family tree, you'll find worms tucked away snug and cheerful in most of the apples.”
Source: Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-made Merchant to His Son
“When an office-holder facing a multi-count indictment says that he has decided to spend more time with his family, the proper response is a horse-laugh. When an accused politician explains that a charge of corruption is 'really' an attack on his or her race, religion, ethnic background or gender, the odds that something felonious happened jumps.”
“When an officer finds themselves arresting pastors that are feeding people who have nothing, they should know they’re on the wrong side.”
“When an official report in the UK was commissioned to examine the mathematics needed in the workplace, the investigator found that estimation was the most useful mathematical activity. Yet when children who have experienced traditional math classes are asked to estimate, they are often completely flummoxed and try to work out exact answers, then round them off to look like an estimate. This is because they have not developed a good feel for numbers, which would allow them to estimate instead of calculate, and also because they have learned, wrongly, that mathematics is all about precision, not about making estimates or guesses. Yet both are at the heart of mathematical problem solving.”
Source: What's Math Got to Do with It?: Helping Children Learn to Love Their Least Favorite Subject--and Why It's Important for America
“When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect — but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate — may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical — always think for yourself.”
“When an old man and a young man work together, it can make an ugly sight or a pretty one, depending on who's in charge. If the young man's in charge or won't let the old man take over, the young man's brute strength becomes destructive and inefficient, and the old man's intelligence, out of frustration, grows cruel and inefficient. Sometimes the old man forgets that he is old and tries to compete with the young man's strength, and then it's a sad sight. Or the young man forgets that he is young and argues with the old man about how to do the work, and that's a sad sight, too.”
Source: Trailerpark
“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.”
“When an old truth ceases to be applicable, it does not become any truer by being stood on its head.”
Source: On Revolution
“When an older writer tries to tell a younger writer through a review what kind of career she should be pursuing, it tends to speak to the reviewer's anxieties rather than the book itself.”
“When an opera star sings her head off? she usually improves her appearance.”
“When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it.
“Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking
great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.”
Source: Democracy in America
“When an opinionated person starts to challenge something, his mind shuts out all that could clear up the matter. The argument irritates him, however just it might be, and it seems that he is afraid of discovering the truth.”
“When an opponent comes forward, move in and greet him; if he wants to pull back, send him on his way.”
“When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already...What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."”
“When an opportunity comes your way, it's about making sure you're prepared to be the one who can walk through the door and deliver the goods. And I've had a lot of luck on my side and I've been prepared for that luck.”
“When an organism can react in a protective way for little cost but potentially huge benefit (e.g. avoiding death), the optimal system expresses many false alarms. Vomiting may only cost only a few hundred calories and a few minutes, whereas not vomiting risks death from poisoning.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“When an orphan is depressed," wrote Wilbur Larch, "he is attracted to telling lies. A lie is at least a vigorous enterprise, it keeps you on your toes by making you suddenly responsible for what happens because of it. You must be alert to lie, and stay alert to keep your lie a secret. Orphans are not the masters of their fates; they are the last to believe you if you tell them that other people are also not in charge of theirs. When you lie, it makes you feel in charge of your life. Telling lies is very seductive to orphans. I know," Dr. Larch wrote. "I know because I tell them, too. I love to lie. When you lie, you feel as if you have cheated fate--your own, and everybody else's.”
Source: The Cider House Rules
“When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again.”
Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna: The Most Exhaustive Collection of Them, Their Number Being 1120
“When an unconquered country is conquered, people are killed... . That the beloved of the Gods finds very pitiful and grievous. ... If anyone does him wrong, it will be forgiven as far as it can be forgiven... . The beloved of the Gods considers that the greatest of all victories is the victory of righteousness.”
“When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When, however, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intuitions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained are often so profound and so unerring as to possess the character of truth supernaturally revealed.”
Source: The Scarlet Letter
“When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Illustrated)
“When an upright man is in the greatest distress, which he might have avoided if he could only have disregarded duty, is he not sustained by the consciousness that he has maintained humanity in its proper dignity in his own person and honoured it, that he has no reason to be ashamed of himself in his own sight, or to dread the inward glance of self-examination? This consolation is not happiness, it is not even the smallest part of it, for no one would wish to have occasion for it, or would, perhaps, even desire a life in such circumstances. But he lives, and he cannot endure that he should be in his own eyes unworthy of life. This inward peace is therefore merely negative as regards what can make life pleasant; it is, in fact, only the escaping the danger of sinking in personal worth, after everything else that is valuable has been lost. It is the effect of a respect for something quite different from life, something in comparison and contrast with which life with all its enjoyment has no value. He still lives only because it is his duty, not because he finds anything pleasant in life.”
Source: The Critique of Pure Reason/A Commentary to Kant's Critique
“When an upstart dictator in the United States succeeds in making this a one-party form of government, I shall have the courage to stand up and advocate the use of bullets.”
“When anaesthetics were invented they were thought to be wicked as being an attempt to thwart God's will. Insanity was thought to be due to diabolic possession, and it was believed that demons inhabiting a madman could be driven out by inflicting pain upon him, and so making them uncomfortable. In pursuit of this opinion, lunatics were treated for years on end with systematic and conscientious brutality.”
Source: Bertrand Russell's Best
“When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.”
“When analyzing a business, keep things simple.”
“When anarchists are having a debate, they're having a debate about tactics, 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?' The question isn't 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?', the primary question is how do you build confidence among the masses of people who experience hierarchies, who experience exploitation, who experience oppression.”
“When anarchy is declared, the first thing we do, let's kill all the anarchists.”
“When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, "I knew he was mortal." So we in all casualties of life should say "I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man." Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected.”
“When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.”
Source: Reflections on the Revolution in France and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event: 1790
“When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law?”
Source: Public Papers and Addresses of Benjamin Harrison: Twenty -third President of the United States. March 4, 1889, to March 4, 1893
“When and where there is repression, what a woman does when she gets dressed in the morning may be considered political. Wearing or not wearing a veil, disobeying laws that prohibit transgender dressing, or wearing a large Afro in an institution that seeks to diminish the formation of racial alliances are all actions that can serve as challenges to domination”
Source: Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race
“When and where will another come to take your holy place?
Old man mumbling in his dotage, or crying child, unborn?”
Source: This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems
“When Anderson walks into a room, you can hear a rat pissing on cotton.”
“When Andrew [Ridgeley] first met my family, he heard my mom calling me "Yorgos." He just abbreviated it to Yog, and unfortunately it stuck. I hated it is a teenager. It was not the most glamorous-sounding name in the world.”
“When Andrew went with the girls, we were talking all morning and he was saying, ‘It’s okay, just remember we had such a good day, our wedding was so perfect,’ you know, because we’re such a unit together. He made me feel such a part of the day on April 29th.”
“When Andy Carroll first appeared on the scene he was a tall skinny kid and his coordination was all over the place. He reminded me of a giraffe.”
“When Andy died, I just drank to dumb my mind.”
“When anesthesia was developed, it was for many decades routinely withheld from women giving birth, since women were "supposed" to suffer. One of the few societies to take a contrary view was the Huichol tribe in Mexico. The Huichol believed that the pain of childbirth should be shared, so the mother would hold on to a string tied to her husband's testicles. With each painful contraction, she would give the string a yank so that the man could share the burden. Surely if such a mechanism were more widespread, injuries in childbirth would garner more attention.”
“When angels fly inside your heart, that's when you can fly.”
“When angels go bad they are worse than anyone else. Remember Lucifer used to be an angel.”
“When angels speak of love they tell us it is only by loving that we enter an earthly paradise. They tell us paradise is our home and love our true destiny.”
“When angels' tears do flood the earth, the gates of hell shall see rebirth. Wheh the demise of angels doth impend , the human boy shall meet his end' Halo -Alexandra Adornetto”
“When angels visit earth, the messengers Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind: Before the throne, they all are living fire.”
Source: Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings
“When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.”
Source: Christian Science Sentinel
“When angels woe for the pittyfullness of a soul,
the great diviner of oneself will cease to exist.
That’s the mortala purpose of the afterlife.”
“When anger and sorrow overflow, sometimes it becomes poetry.”
“When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs.”