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Absolutes Quotes

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Absolutes Quotes

“No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.”

HumansHas BeensAblePainPoliticalDeathSocialSadnessSocietyConditionsEmotionalDepressionAbsolutesVicesHuman ConditionThirstFear Of DeathVice VersaPolitical SystemsAbolishThis SocietySad LifeSocial ConditionsSadness Of LifeSadness And Love
Author:Eugene Ionesco
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“Had today's technophobic zealots [environmental activists] been in charge in previous centuries, we would have to roll human progress back to the Middle Ages - and beyond, since even fire, the wheel and organic farming pose risks, and none would have passed the "absolute safety" test the zealots demand. Putting them in charge now would mean an end to progress, and perpetual deprivation for inhabitants of developing nations.”

HumansMeanEndsAgeTodayNationsFireProgressRiskMiddleCenturyDemandTestsAbsolutesSafetyEnvironmentalDevelopingWheelsActivistPerpetualFarmingMiddle AgesDeprivationHuman ProgressZealotOrganic Farming
Author:Paul Driessen
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“The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth. I'm not contending in a dogmatic way that there is not a God. What I'm contending is that we don't know that there is. I don't like the word "absolute." I don't think there is anything absolute whatever. The moral law, for example, is always changing. At one period in the development of the human race, almost everybody thought cannibalism was a duty.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWayHumansFactsLawBeliefRaceMoralEffectsExampleDutyDevelopmentPeriodsEvidenceAbsolutesFavorsHuman RaceDogmaticMoral LawCannibalismContendingGood Moral
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“It's not demons (who at least have a human face) but Hell itself that seems to be laughing inside me, it's the croaking madness of the dead universe, the spinning cadaver of physical space, the end of all worlds blowing blackly in the wind, formless and timeless, without a God who created it, without even its own self, impossibly whirling in the absolute darkness as the one and only reality, everything.”

WorldHumansEndsSelfRealitySeemsFacesUniverseSpaceDarknessLaughingHellWindMadnessAbsolutesDemonTimelessSpinningHuman FacesCadavers
Book:The Book of Disquiet
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“Animals are God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God's sight. ...Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God's absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent suffering.”

HumansEyeChristianSufferingChristAnimalSpecialPositionCreaturesResourcesCrossesWeakSightAbsolutesPropertyInnocentVulnerableFixedVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsCommodityPowerlessUtilityIdentificationCrucifixionVegan HealthAwfulness
Author:Andrew Linzey
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“Everybody was cratered after Copenhagen. If the movie had worked the way that it should have, if it had been scripted by Holywood, the world would have come together and addressed the biggest problem it ever had faced and delegates would have embraced each other, and it all would have been a good happy scene instead of the complete farce and debacle that it turned into - maybe in certain ways, an absolute low point for human diplomacy.”

IfsWorldWayShouldHumansHas BeensProblemTogetherCertainSceneLowsShould HaveAbsolutesDiplomacyDelegatesFarceCopenhagenLow PointsDebacles
Author:Bill McKibben
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“Our nations are run by absolute worthless scum, our streets are taken over by sub-humans, the food we eat and the water we drink contains poison, our cultures are systematically replaced by "anti-culture", history is a big lie, et cetera et cetera. Of all the options I chose to start this blog, to spread dissent, to tell others - yes Burzum fans too - that there is an alternative to all of this.”

HumansBigsRunningLyingCultureNationsWaterTakenFansStreetsDrinkAbsolutesSpreadAlternativesPoisonReplacedWorthlessBlogsDissentScum
Author:Varg Vikernes
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“This is the most important thing I will ever say to you. The human mind is the ultimate testing device. You can take all the notes you want on the technical data, anything you forget you can look up again, but this must be engraved on your hearts in letters of fire. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, more important to me in the men and women I train than their absolute personal integrity. Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool metal. That’s all.”

MenWantMindHumansLooksHeartMayImportantLawLyingForgetFireFoolIntegrityMen And WomenLettersUltimateFunctionAbsolutesImportant ThingsTrainNotesPhysicsDataLook UpDevicesHuman MindMetalsTestingForget YouLaws Of PhysicsInspectorsEngravedPersonal Integrity
Author:Lois McMaster Bujold
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“Authority is a solvent of humanity: look at any husband, any father of a family,and note the absorption of the person by the persona, the individual by the role. Then multiply the family, and the authority, by some hundreds and see the effect upon a sea-captain, to say nothing of an absolute monarch.Surely man in general is born to be oppressed or solitary, if he is to be fully human; unless it so happens that he is immune to the poison.”

IfsMenHumansLooksPersonsHappensHumanityFatherIndividualBornRolesSeaEffectsHusbandAuthorityAbsolutesNotesPoisonSolitaryCaptainsOppressedPersonaImmuneMonarchsAbsorption
Author:Patrick O'Brian
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“Because they claim to be concerned with the welfare of whole societies, governments arrogate to themselves the right to pass off as mere abstract profit or loss the human unhappiness that their decisions provoke or their negligence permits. It is a duty of an international citizenship to always bring the testimony of people's suffering to the eyes and ears of governments, sufferings for which it's untrue that they are not responsible. The suffering of men must never be a mere silent residue of policy. It grounds an absolute right to stand up and speak to those who hold power.”

PeopleMenHumansWholeGovernmentEyeSufferingSpeakLossDecisionPolicyDutyConcernedEarsClaimsAbsolutesResponsibleMereSilentInternationalProfitWelfareAbstractUnhappinessPermitProvokingCitizenshipTestimonyUntrueNegligence
Author:Michel Foucault
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“Even though the discples were not aware of it, the presence was with them while they were reviewing the scriptures together on the road. Henceforth, we will catch only a fleeting glimpse of it -- in the study of sacred writings, in other human beings, in liturgy, and in communion with strangers. But these moments remain us that our fellow men and women are themselves sacred; there is something about them taht is worthy of absolute reverence, is in the last resort mysterious, and we will always elude us.”

MenWritingHumansMomentsTogetherLastsHuman BeingsStudyMen And WomenAbsolutesFellowsSacredStrangerWorthyScriptureMysteriousReverenceCommunionGlimpseFleetingResortsFellow ManEludeLiturgyElude Us
Author:Karen Armstrong
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“He spoke of human solitude, about the intrinsic loneliness of a sophisticated mind, one that is capable of reason and poetry but which grasps at straws when it comes to understanding another, a mind aware of the impossibility of absolute understanding. The difficulty of having a mind that understands that it will always be misunderstood.”

MindHumansReasonUnderstandingLonelinessSolitudeCapableDifficultyAbsolutesSpokesSophisticatedImpossibilityMisunderstoodStraws
Book:Man Walks Into a Room
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“Human love, human trust, are always perilous, because they break down. The greater the love, the greater the trust, and the greater the peril, the greater the disaster. Because to place absolute trust on another human being is in itself a disaster, both ways, since each human being is a ship that must sail its own course, even if it go in company with another ship.... And yet, love is the greatest thing between human beings.”

IfsWayHumansCoursesHuman BeingsLove IsCompanyBreakGreaterAbsolutesDisasterShipsSailBreaking DownPerilHuman Love
Book:Kangaroo
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“Morality is neither rational nor absolute nor natural. World has known many moral systems, each of which advances claims universality; all moral systems are therefore particular, serving a specific purpose for their propagators or creators, and enforcing a certain regime that disciplines human beings for social life by narrowing our perspectives and limiting our horizons.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“I will defend the absolute value of Mozart over Miley Cyrus, of course I will, but we should be wary of false dichotomies. You do not have to choose between one or the other. You can have both. The human cultural jungle should be as varied and plural as the Amazonian rainforest. We are all richer for biodiversity. We may decide that a puma is worth more to us than a caterpillar, but surely we can agree that the habitat is all the better for being able to sustain each.”

ShouldHumansMayAbleValuesCoursesAbsolutesAgreeJungleHabitatBiodiversityCaterpillarsDichotomyRainforestMileyAmazon Rainforest
Book:The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography
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“To see and feel one's beloved naked for the first time is one of life's pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.”

IfsFeelsFirstsHumansPersonsPainUniverseSexHuman BeingsLossLove IsMistakeForeverConditionsLonelinessPureDeserveFirst TimeAbsolutesRewardsNakedContactCompromiseBelovedHuman ConditionMaking LoveHollowEpiphanyRight PersonTrue ReligionAwkwardnessIdiocyClumsinessEndymionTrue Person
Book:Rise of Endymion
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“What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me - that I understand. And these two certainties - my appetite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle - I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my conditions?”

KnowsWorldHumansMeanI CanTwoLyingTermPrinciplesConditionsThis WorldLimitsAbsolutesUnityRationalCertaintyReasonableAppetiteImpossibilityReducingReconcileSisyphusMyth Of Sisyphus
Author:Albert Camus
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“Thunderously, inarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.”

KnowsWantHumansStatesFactsHuman BeingsLevelsGraceLandProveIdealsAbsolutesSafetyFallenDesperateAppropriateTemperThievesMurdererSermonsKnowing GodSafety NetSermon On The MountLusterThrowers
Book:The Jesus I Never Knew
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“My husband, Andrius, says that evil will rule until good men or women choose to act. I believe him. This testimony was written to create an absolute record, to speak in a world where our voices have been extinguished. These writing may shock or horrify you, but that is not my intention. It is my greatest hope that the pages in this jar stir your deepest well of human compassion. I hope they prompt you to do something, to tell somone. Only then can we ensure that this kind of evil is never allowed to repeat itself.”

MenWorldWritingBelieveHumansWellsKindMayHas BeensEvilSpeakI BelieveVoiceCompassionRecordsWrittenHusbandPagesAbsolutesIntentionRepeatsShockGood ManMy HusbandTestimonyJarsPromptsHuman Compassion
Author:Ruta Sepetys
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“All of us carry around countless bags of dusty old knickknacks dated from childhood: collected resentments, long list of wounds of greater or lesser significance, glorified memories, absolute certainties that later turn out to be wrong. Humans are emotional pack rats. These bags define us.”

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Book:Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
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“In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being to which, if one were lucky, one might find access; in his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a gently familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia. Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.”

IfsKnowsHumansHeartStatesMomentsMightAgeHeavenSawsGraceMiddleConditionsYouthOughtBecomingLuckyIllusionDecidedAbsolutesExtremesAccessNostalgiaFamiliarMaturityContemptEmbarrassedMiddle AgesDisbeliefAmusedStoners
Author:John Edward Williams
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“I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom... [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men.”

IfsThinkingMenWantBelieveHumansHappensGivenI BelieveFreedomLibertyOne ThingAchieveLimitsDignityOrganizationAbsolutesI Believe InDenySuperiorsSuperior ManAbsolute Freedom
Author:H. L. Mencken
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“I just have this absolute belief that humans are moving away from cruelty and destruction towards a time when we can truly live in harmony with nature. When we understand that there is a spiritual power around us from which we can draw strength. That is where I believe human destiny ultimately is taking us. I just hope we have time.”

BelieveHumansGodSpiritualMovingTimeSpiritualityBeliefI BelieveNatureDestinyStrengthDrawsDestructionAbsolutesHarmonyCrueltySpiritual PowerMoving Away
Author:Jane Goodall
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“Jesus Christ was God - the Personal God become man. He has manifested Himself many times in different forms and these alone are what you can worship. God in His absolute nature is not to be worshipped. Worshipping such God would be nonsense. We have to worship Jesus Christ, the human manifestation, as God. You cannot worship anything higher than the manifestation of God. The sooner you give up the worship of God separate from Christ, the better for you.”

MenGivingHumansDifferentWould BeFormJesusChristHe ManHigherGiving UpWorshipJesus ChristAbsolutesManifestationNonsenseWorship GodWorship Jesus
Book:Complete Works
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“...any belief in supernatural creators, rulers, or influencers of natural or human process introduces an irreparable split into the universe, and prevents us from grasping its real unity. Any belief in Absolutes, whether the absolute validity of moral commandments, of authority of revelation, of inner certitudes, or of divine inspiration, erects a formidable barrier against progress and the responsibility of improvement, moral, rational, and religious.”

HumansRealInspirationUniverseBeliefProcessNaturalReligiousResponsibilityMoralProgressAtheismDivineAuthorityAbsolutesUnityCreatorImprovementRationalRevelationsBarriersIntroducingRulersSplitsCommandmentsValidityGraspingFormidableCertitudeDivine InspirationIrreparable
Author:Julian Huxley
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“The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights-for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”

IfsHumansPersonsMadeHomeCultureCommonRightsConditionsExampleExpressionReflectionDeterminationAbsolutesFundamentalsHuman RightsPrimariesHuman LifeAbortionBehalfMaximumIllusoryRight To LifePersonal Rights
Author:Pope John Paul II
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