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Able Quotes

Browse 14410 quotes about Able.

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Able Quotes

“The idea of some kind of objectively constant, universal literary value is seductive. It feels real. It feels like a stone cold fact that In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, is better than A Shore Thing, by Snooki. And it may be; Snooki definitely has more one-star reviews on Amazon. But if literary value is real, no one seems to be able to locate it or define it very well. We're increasingly adrift in a grey void of aesthetic relativism.”

IfsFeelsWellsKindMayIdeasRealFactsSeemsAbleValuesLostStarsColdStonesUniversalConstantReviewsShoreVoidAestheticGreyAmazonSeductiveRelativismProustLost TimeAdriftStone ColdSnooki
Author:Lev Grossman
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“What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.”

ShouldFirstsHumansEnoughStoriesHandsSeemsEyeAbleHuman BeingsFictionSituationReaderDrawsCleverDisplayImaginaryCompetentGood StoryHallmarkPsych
Author:H. L. Mencken
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“How strange it is, our little procession of life! The child says, "When I am a big boy." But what is that? The big boy says, "When I grow up." And then, grown up, he says, "When I get married." But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to "When I'm able to retire." And then, when retirement comes, he looks back over the landscape traversed; a cold wind seems to sweep over it; somehow he has missed it all, and it is gone.”

LifeLooksChildrenLittlesBigsSeemsAbleGrowsBoysGoneGrowing UpStrangeWindColdMarriedLandscapeOver ItRetirementRetiringBeing MarriedProcessionCold Wind
Book:Feast of Stephen
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“The great artist when he comes, uses everything that has been discovered or known about his art up to that point, being able to accept or reject in a time so short it seems that the knowledge was born with him, rather than that he takes instantly what it takes the ordinary man a lifetime to know, and then the great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own.”

KnowsMenHas BeensArtDoneUseSeemsAbleArtistBornKnownAcceptingOrdinaryLifetimeRejectsAfternoonNow And ThenGreat ArtGreat ArtistOrdinary Man
Book:The Hemingway Collection
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“Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story's persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.”

WritingMindHumansFactsStoriesShowsSeemsAbleLastsValuesBeliefResultsAttitudeFictionStudyPsychologyEffectsSeriousEvidenceArgumentDecadesHuman MindPersuasive
Author:Jonathan Gottschall
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“The Christian religion seems to have fulfilled its great biological purpose, in so far as we are able to judge. It has led human thought to independence, and has lost its significance, therefore, to a yet undetermined extent.... It seems to me that we might still make use in some way of its form of thought, and especially of its great wisdom of life, which for two thousand years has proven to be particularly efficacious.”

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Author:Carl Jung
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“Women have been charged with deviousness and duplicity since the dawn of civilization so they have never been able to pretend that their masks were anything but masks. It is a slender case but perhaps it does mean that women have always been in closer contact with reality than men: it would seem to be the just recompense for being deprived of idealism.”

MenMeanDoeHas BeensRealitySeemsAbleCasesCivilizationContactDawnMaskIdealismDeprivedSlenderRecompenseDuplicityDeviousness
Book:the female eunuch
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“Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future.”

ThinkingYearsMayStillsIdeasSeemsWould BeAgeAbleValuesEffortSituationStudyAchievePeriodsAchievementResearchScientistAddCurrentsGapsVacationProvidingNew IdeasMathematicianImprobableHaving HopeDeluded
Author:John Forbes Nash
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“People do this a lot. They don't seem to realise that the future is just like now, but in a little while, so they say they're going to do things in anticipation of some kind of seismic shift in their worldview that never actually materializes. But everything's not going to be made of leather, the world won't stink of sherbet. Tomorrow is not some mythical kingdom where you'll grow butterfly wings and be able to talk to animals -- you'll basically feel pretty much the same way you do at the moment.”

PeopleWorldWayFeelsKindLittlesMadeMomentsSeemsAbleGrowsAnimalTomorrowWingsKingdomsRealisingButterflyAnticipationWorldviewLeatherStinkButterfly WingsSherbet
Author:Russell Brand
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“I have way too many commitments. I get pulled in too many directions and I never seem to be able to satisfy anybody. People get turned on by knowing a celebrity, even my friends and family. They feel that there's something exciting about me, but in reality there's no substance to it. People in airports just hold on to me expecting something and it seems that I always come up empty. It's frustrating because I'm trying to please everybody, and ya just can't do that ... at least I can't.”

PeopleWayFeelsTryingI CanRealitySeemsAbleKnowingPleaseMy FriendsCommitmentEmptyExcitingCome UpSubstanceExpectingFamily And FriendsFrustratingAirportsExpecting Something
Author:Tim Allen
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“Revolutionary feminism embraces men who are able to change, who are capable of responding mutually in a subject-to-subject encounter where desire and fulfillment are in no way linked to coercive subjugation. This feminist vision of the sexual imaginary is the space few men seem able to enter.”

MenWaySeemsAbleDesireSpaceVisionFeminismSubjectsCapableEmbraceFeministFulfillmentRevolutionaryEncountersImaginaryLinkedRespondingSubjugation
Book:Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations
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“I'm fascinated by the period that goes from the Industrial Revolution to right after World War II. There's something about that period that's epic and tragic. There's a point after the industrial period where it seems like humanity's finally going to make it right. There were advances in medicine and technology and education. People are going to be able to live longer lives; literacy is starting to spread. It seemed like finally, after centuries of toiling and misery, that humanity was going to get to a better stage. And then what happens is precisely the contrary. Humanity betrays itself.”

PeopleWorldWarSeemsHappensAbleHumanityTechnologyCenturyStageRevolutionPeriodsMedicineMiseryStartingSpreadContraryWar Of The WorldsTragicFascinatedWorld War IiBetrayWorld War IEpicLiteracyIndustrial RevolutionToilingTechnology And EducationLonger Life
Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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“What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?”

WantShouldFirstsMeanLongDoeHelpingSeemsCareAbleDesirePurposeSpeakLanguageTermAbilityAnswersPrinciplesReturnIntentionLong TermChipsGratificationShort LifePlain English
Author:Eric Liu
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“What is charm, it is not a moral quality, it is not intellectual for no man by much thinking is able to add a grain of it to his personality. One either has it or has it not, it cannot be acquired or even cultivated. It is not physical even, it seems to be added to the human personality, an aura, a glow, the gold dust upon a butterfly's wing, the bloom upon a peach.”

ThinkingMenHumansSeemsAbleQualityMoralPersonalityIntellectualGoldWingsAddDustCharmButterflyGrainAurasPeachesHuman PersonalityGold Dust
Author:Flora Thompson
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“I say then, that belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain. This variety of terms, which may seem so unphilosophical, is intended only to express that act of the mind, which renders realities, or what is taken for such, more present to us than fictions, causes them to weigh more in the thought, and gives them a superior influence on the passions and imagination.”

GivingMindMayRealitySeemsAblePassionBeliefCausesTermImaginationFictionTakenAtheismInfluenceObjectsPositive AtheismSuperiorsVarietyFirmConceptionSteadyVividLively
Book:Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition
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“You want to have enough of a profile to be able to do all the work you can, but at the same time you want to have your own space. But there are a lot of actors who achieve it, a lot of movie stars even, people like Emily Watson and Cate Blanchett. They seem to be able to carry on with their lives and still produce wonderful, high-profile work.”

PeopleWantStillsEnoughSeemsAbleActorsStarsSpaceWonderfulAchieveProduceMovie StarProfileWatsonEmilyHigh Profile
Author:Anne-Marie Duff
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“No substance in nature, as far as yet known, has, when it reaches the brain, such power to induce mental and moral changes of a disastrous character as alcohol. Its transforming power is marvelous, and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact with the brain, are able to hold possession.”

WayLongSoulCharacterSeemsAbleSpiritBrainKnownMoralClassRemainsPossessionAlcoholFoolishContactInsaneSubstanceMarvelousTransformingEntrances
Author:Timothy Shay Arthur
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“My vocation is to write and I have known this for a long time. I hope I won't be misunderstood; I know nothing about the value of the things I am able to write. I know that writing is my vocation. When I sit down to write I feel extraordinarily at ease, and I move in an element which, it seems to me, I know extraordinarily well; I use tools that are familiar to me and they fit snugly in my hands. But when I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers.”

KnowsFeelsWritingWellsChildrenLongCountryStoriesUseHandsSeemsAbleMovingValuesKnownTreeStreetsWallFitWalkingElementsLong TimeToolsFamiliarEaseVocationMisunderstood
Author:Natalia Ginzburg
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