W Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with W. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Why are solutions not just as newsworthy as problems? The notion that hostility is necessary all the time to create interest and news is not going to help us [humanity] come to agreements and solve the huge problems we have.”
“Why are some countries able, despite their very real and serious problems, to press ahead along the road to reconciliation, recovery, and redevelopment while others cannot? These are critical questions for Africa, and their answers are complex and not always clear. Leadership is crucial, of course. Kagame was a strong leader–decisive, focused, disciplined, and honest–and he remains so today. I believe that sometimes people's characters are molded by their environment. Angola, like Liberia, like Sierra Leone, is resource-rich, a natural blessing that sometimes has the sad effect of diminishing the human drive for self-sufficiency, the ability and determination to maximize that which one has. Kagame had nothing. He grew up in a refugee camp, equipped with only his own strength of will and determination to create a better life for himself and his countrymen.”
Source: This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
“Why are some people born with a fire in the belly, while others need something to get their pilot light lit?”
“Why are some people bullied? Because they are different. How? It doesn't matter.”
“Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.”
“Why are some people like Chuck Schumer, who`s probably going to be leader of the Senate, why is he switching from a big city financial center pro-trader to being an anti-trader? Is that because of upstate New York? What`s going on? I can`t figure this out.”
“Why are some people’s lives so hard and painful?” “It goes back to the two-sided coin. The opposite sides are needed to complete the lesson. Some lives seem very difficult, and others seem relatively easy, but both pose different lessons. If a person needs to learn self-respect, they might return and have an abusive relationship with a family member who pushes those boundaries. That situation encourages individuals to stand up for themselves and draw healthy boundaries. But if you come back to learn compassion or empathy, living a life of luxury can cause a person to be complacent, and therefore, they might live their whole life without learning their lesson. An easy life might set a person up for a more challenging lesson than a difficult life. They might get so caught up in their life of luxury that they see no reason for soul searching, and as a result, they never learn their lessons. Imagine an individual driving down the road, seeing a repeating sign—LIFE LESSON . . . LIFE LESSON—but they pay it no mind; they just keep driving! Hopefully, they’ll make a U-turn; otherwise, they’ve missed their exit—their opportunity to learn an important lesson.”
Source: Through the Darkness: A Story of Love from the Other Side
“Why are some things easier to remember the more time has passed since they occurred?”
Source: Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall
“Why are some things easier to write than say?”
“Why are some words bad? The idea that they could be bothered me as a kid. Words are strings of sounds. How could sounds be bad? But of course: words aren’t just strings of sound. They are strings of sound to which we attach meaning. And yet it’s not the meaning of words that makes them bad either. Just consider this list: poop, crap, manure, dung, feces, stool. It’s all the same s**t. And yet, it’s only “s**t” we shouldn’t say. Why is that? F**k if I know.”
Source: Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids
“Why are stamps adorned with kings and presidents? That we may lick their hinder parts and thump their heads.”
Source: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
“Why are tall guys always attracted to short women? Not just moderately short women, either... Tiny women. Polly Pockets. The tallest guys always-always-always go for the shortest girls. Always. It's like they're so infatuated with their own height that they want to be with someone who makes them feel even taller. Someone they can tower over. A little doll that will make them feel even bigger and stronger.”
Source: Attachments
“Why are terms of endearment always food? Honey, cookie, sugar, pumpkin. Its not like caring about someone is enough to actually sustain you.”
Source: My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel
“Why Are Terrorists into Piracy? Well, they are movie buffs too!”
Source: Pirates of Bollywood
“Why are the architects of the family-values agenda so eager to punish into the next generation? What is being served by seeking, quite literally, a tooth for a tooth?”
“Why are the beautiful ones always the most evil?”
Source: The Darkest Note
“Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?”
Source: Codex Leicester: a masterpiece of science
“Why are the Chinese cheering America’s retreat from Afghanistan? Why are Russian and Chinese troops in Venezuela? Why are the Russians building military infrastructure in Nicaragua? Why have the Russians rebuilt their military in such a way that they now have the advantage in Europe? Why have the Chinese built the largest navy in the world? And why would the American people elect Joe Biden to the White House when Joe Biden has always been a communist shill? – lifted into the Senate by the efforts of KGB agent Armand Hammer, the Council for a Livable World and other communist fronts?
J.R.Nyquist”
“Why are the desert blooms that spring to life after a monsoon so magnificent? The answer is – their impermanence. The lush growth and blooming flowers do not last very long here in the desert, and this new growth only happens once a year. If this growth was never-ending, we would soon take it for granted. Likewise, our human lives. What makes them so special and unique? Our fleeting impermanence.”
Source: Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life
“Why are the fundamental laws as we have described them? The ultimate theory must be consistent and must predict finite results for quantities that we can measure. We’ve seen that there must be a law like gravity, and we saw in Chapter 5 that for a theory of gravity to predict finite quantities, the theory must have what is called supersymmetry between the forces of nature and the matter on which they act. M-theory is the most general supersymmetric theory of gravity. For these reasons M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. If it is finite—and this has yet to be proved—it will be a model of a universe that creates itself. We must be part of this universe, because there is no other consistent model.
M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. The fact that we human beings—who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature—have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph. But perhaps the true miracle is that abstract considerations of logic lead to a unique theory that predicts and describes a vast universe full of the amazing variety that we see. If the theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design.”
Source: The Grand Design
“Why are the heavens not filled with light? Why is the universe plunged into darkness?”
Source: Darkness at night: a riddle of the universe
“Why are the Jews hated? It is the inevitable result of their laws; they either have to conquer everybody or be hated by the whole human race.”
“Why are the mainstream buzz things rarely contemporary? It doesn't happen very often. It's hard to feel culpable or implicated or even apathetic.”
“Why are the ones who are too good to be true always being true to someone else?”
“Why are the patriots the ones who don't want to spend money on trains?”
“Why are the people rebellious? Because the rulers interfere too much. Therefore they are rebellious.”
Source: 道德经
“Why are the people starving?-
Because their grain is being eaten up by the taxes
That's why they're starving
Why are people rebellious?-
Because those above them meddle in their lives
That's why they're rebellious
Why do people regard death so lightly?-
Because they are so involved with their own living
That's why they regard death so lightly
In the end,
The treasure of life is missed by those who hold on
and gained by those who let go”
“Why are the photographs of him as a little boy so incredibly hard to look at? Something is over. Now instead of those shiny moments being things we can share together in delighted memories, I, the survivor, have to bear them alone. So it is with all the memories of him. They all lead into blackness. All I can do is remember him, I cannot experience him. Nothing new can happen between us.”
Source: Lament for a Son
“Why are the police REALLY having trouble recruiting officers - especially Black officers? We have to bridge the gap between community and law enforcement.”
“Why are there beings at all instead of nothing? That is the question. Presumably it is not arbitrary question, "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing"- this is obviously the first of all questions. Of course it is not the first question in the chronological sense [...] And yet, we are each touched once, maybe even every now and then, by the concealed power of this question, without properly grasping what is happening to us. In great despair, for example, when all weight tends to dwindle away from things and the sense of things grows dark, the question looms.”
“Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?”
Source: Introduction to Metaphysics: Second Edition
“Why are there even in my silences?
Why does my loneliness keep talking
about you?”
“Why are there five syllables in the word “monosyllabic”?”
“Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?”
“Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood? Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?”
Source: Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
“Why are there no "during" pictures?”
“Why are there no clouds in the sky? ... 'Cause God wants to watch his favorite band again!”
“Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams?”
“Why are there no names for the abscence of things? Why is there no name for the abscence of humanity?”
“Why are there no nonhuman primates with an existing complex gestural language? One possible answer, it seems to me, is that humans have systematically exterminated those other primates who displayed signs of intelligence.”
Source: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
“Why are there no saxophone-flavored potato chips? It's like they don't want my car to run on an alternative form of energy.”
Source: Eggs, they’re not just for breakfast
“Why are there no windows in the toilets on aeroplanes? To protect you from the most dedicated perverts on the planet, hanging off the wing to get a peep?”
“Why are there not positive mysteries? It's always who stole the diamond, or who killed the butler? How about... who made cookies, somebody cleaned my room.”
“Why are there organized beings? Why is there something rather than nothing? Here again, I fully understand a scientist who refuses to ask it. He is welcome to tell me that the question does not make sense. Scientifically speaking, it does not. Metaphysically speaking, however, it does. Science can account for many things in the world; it may some day account for all that which the world of phenomena actually is. But why anything at all is, or exists, science knows not, precisely because it cannot even ask the question.”
“Why are there so many people out here?' Boomer asked as we bobbed and weaved roughly forward.
'Christmas shopping.' I explained.
'Already? Isn't it early to returning things?'
I really had no sense of how his mind worked.”
Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Why are there so many puritans in this country, and why can't the rest of us make them go away?!”
Source: New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer
“Why are there so many trees in the jungle?”
“Why are there so many young conservatives now serving our country? I'll tell you why? Because we grew up in an era of Reagan. And Ronald Reagan looked and acted nothing like Donald Trump and look at the Democrats.”
“Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?”
Source: Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
“Why are these things permitted? What sins have we done? The morning service was over, I was walking through the roads to clear my brain for the afternoon, and then—fire, earthquake, death! As if it were Sodom and Gomorrah! All our work undone, all the work— What are these Martians?
What are we? I answered, clearing my throat.”
Source: The War of the Worlds