“Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.” WorldDesireFoundSocietyTruth IsAbsolutesFinalsPassionateDemonstrationFanaticsAbsolute TruthConvertingTrue BelieverProselytizing Author:Eric Hoffer
“Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance; I mean where a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune.” WellsMayMeanPersonsDesireFoundLimitsAbsolutesIndependenceFortuneAbundanceContracts Author:William Shenstone
“I've hung around in absolute exhaustion and starvation waiting for an idea to hit, which might have been months. I've talked things over with editors, found out what they wanted, and when they wanted it delivered.” Has BeensIdeasMightWantedFoundWaitingMonthsAbsolutesEditorsHungMight Have BeenStarvationExhaustion Author:Theodore Sturgeon
“Independence of mind or strength of character is rarely found among those who cannot be confident that they will make their way by their own effort.... Indeed, when security is understood in too absolute a sense, the general striving for it, far from increasing the chances of freedom, becomes the greatest threat to it.” WayMindCharacterFoundChanceEffortSecurityUnderstoodAbsolutesIndependenceThreatStriveStrength Of CharacterBe Confident Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“When the sacred manifests itself in any hierophany, there is not only a break in the homogeneity of space; there is also a revelation of an absolute reality, opposed to the nonreality of the vast surrounding expanse. The manifestation of the sacred ontologically founds the world. In the homogenous and infinite expanse, in which no point of reference is possible and hence no orientation can be established, the hierophany reveals an absolute fixed point, a center.” WorldRealityFoundSpaceBreakAbsolutesInfiniteSacredFixedManifestationRevelationsNo PointOrientationExpanseHomogeneity Author:Mircea Eliade
“My pessimism (which, by the way, is far from absolute) originated with my despair in the lack of perfection to be found in human nature. I was attempting in my successive books to show the inevitable handicap of the human condition.” WayHumansBookShowsFoundConditionsHuman NatureDespairPerfectionAbsolutesInevitablePessimismHuman ConditionAttemptingHandicaps Author:Stanislaw Lem
“I read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writers ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.” WritingHumansSelfPhilosophyStoriesFoundPowerfulRaceReaderHorrorUltimateAbsolutesMonstersHuman RaceConspiracyHorror Stories Author:Nic Pizzolatto
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society.” HumansWellsMayDoeHas BeensRealPoliticalSufferingFoundPoliticsVoiceExistenceStruggleNormalRelationAbsolutesVictimIllnessMental IllnessHopelessSymptomsNeuroticAbnormalHuman Voice Author:Aldous Huxley
“I never intended to be a historian of religion. My aim was to become a professor of English Literature in a university, but I had a series of absolute career disasters and found myself making television programs about the nature of religion and about Christian history and started to discover about other religious traditions, and that was an absolute eye-opener for me.” EyeChristianFoundLiteratureReligiousCareersTelevisionProgramTraditionAbsolutesAimSeriesUniversityDisasterProfessorsHistorianEnglish LiteratureReligious Traditions Author:Karen Armstrong
“Though it is only in a very imperfect state of the world's arrangements that anyone can best serve the happiness of others by the absolute sacrifice of his own, yet, so long as the world is in that imperfect state, I fully acknowledge that the readiness to make such a sacrifice is the highest virtue which can be found in man.” MenWorldLongStatesFoundVirtueSacrificeHighestAbsolutesAcknowledgeImperfectArrangementsReadiness Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill Source: The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill
“It's a practice for me every day, sometimes every hour of every day. It is an absolute practice. When I went into the research, I really thought that there are authentic people and inauthentic people, period. What I found is, there people who practice authenticity and people who don't. The people who practice authenticity work their ass off at it.” PeopleSometimesFoundHoursPracticePeriodsResearchAbsolutesAuthenticityAss Author:Brené Brown
“The idea that somehow "no self, no problem"- I don't exist because I don't have a self- would be a mistaken understanding. However, the selflessness teaching is not that hard to understand. What it means is a type of self that people feel they have, like a fixed, unchanging identity. Either they know they have it, or for some, they feel they need to seek it, and possibly have an experience where they feel like they found something. That type of fixed, unchanging, essential self, or absolute self doesn't exist. That's what "no self" means.” PeopleKnowsNeedsFeelsMeanIdeasSelfHardProblemWould BeFoundUnderstandingTeachingIdentityTypeEssentialsAbsolutesFixedMistakenSelflessnessNo ProblemUnchanging Author:Robert Thurman
“That whole Deep End experience of finding yourself with the dead body: you know you didn't kill it, but you know if you're found with it, you're gonna be done for it, so you have to get rid of it. And that's a really important nub of Young Adam Joe knows for absolute certain that if someone comes around the corner, that's it. Nobody's ever going to believe what happened. So that has nothing to do with identity or sexuality, but that is a link. I'm just fascinated by it.” IfsKnowsBelieveImportantEndsDoneWholeBodyYoungCertainFoundHappenedIdentityFindingsAbsolutesCornersSexualityFinding YourselfLinksFascinatedAdamAround The Corner Author:Tilda Swinton
“We have found ways to capture, kill and market ocean wildlife on an unprecedented scale. It's an absolute catastrophe.” WayFoundOceanAbsolutesScalesCaptureCatastropheWildlifeUnprecedented Author:Sylvia Earle
“Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He's sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.” NeedsHeartHelpingPainSufferingFoundFatherWorryDoubtAbsolutesDisappointmentAcceptedSufficientHeavenlyHeavenly FatherAbsolute TruthSuffering Pain Author:Charles Stanley
“In any society, order is the first need of all. Liberty and justice may be established only after order is tolerably secure. But the libertarians give primacy to an abstract liberty. Conservatives, knowing that "liberty inheres in some sensible object," are aware that true freedom can be found only within the framework of a social order, such as the constitutional order of these United States. In exalting an absolute and indefinable "liberty" at the expense of order, the libertarians imperil the very freedoms they praise.” NeedsGivingFirstsMayStatesOrderFoundSocialJusticeUnitedLibertyUnited StatesKnowingObjectsAbsolutesPraiseLibertarianSecureAbstractExpensesSensibleFrameworkSocial OrderTrue FreedomLiberty And JusticePrimacyIndefinable Book:Redeeming the Time Source: Redeeming the Time
“We godless lack that certainty, and we know the world is a complex place that requires compromise and is not ruled by a moral force - virtue is subject to negotiation, and is found in working together with others to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Good is not absolute, it is an emergent property that arises from successful networks of individuals. It is also something that is measured by evidence: we look at the good that people do, not the promises that they make and never keep, or the lies that dovetail nicely into dogma. Competence is a virtue. Intent is meaningless without action.” PeopleKnowsWorldLooksActionTogetherLyingFoundIndividualForceMoralVirtueSuccessfulSubjectsPromiseSolutionsEvidenceAbsolutesPropertyComplexesAtheistAriseCompromiseCertaintyWorking TogetherMeaninglessDogmaNegotiationCompetence Author:PZ Myers
“It's quite possible to arrive in the year 2030 where people are no longer dying of poverty. We could actually help lead a global end-not a reduction, but an end-to absolute poverty...I have always found that a committed, powerful group of leaders, can make a huge difference.” PeopleYearsEndsHelpingFoundDifferencesPowerfulLeaderPovertyGroupsDyingHugeAbsolutesCommittedReductionEnding PovertyGlobal Poverty Author:Jeffrey Sachs
“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.” PeopleWorldLongMatterStatesProblemGovernmentFoundCausesPoorLeaderLordCitizensPoliticianSolutionsAbsolutesFinancialInequalityGrantsHorizonHealthcareAutonomySpeculationAttackingDisturbedHeedRejecting Author:Pope Francis