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Absolutes Quotes

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Absolutes Quotes

“The existence of a medium, after all, is its absolute justification, if as so many seem to think, it needs one and all comparison of potentialities is useless and irrelevant. Whether a water-color is inferior to an oil, or whether a drawing, an etching, or a photograph is not as important as either, is inconsequent. To have to despise something in order to respect something else is a sign of impotence. [emphasis added] Let us rather accept joyously and with gratitude everything through which the spirit of man seeks to an ever fuller and more intense self-realization.”

IfsThinkingMenNeedsImportantSelfSeemsSpiritOrderWaterExistenceAcceptingColorGratitudeAbsolutesPhotographOilDrawingIntenseSelf RealizationMediumsRealizationUselessComparisonDespiseJustificationInferiorsIrrelevantEmphasisImpotenceEtching
Author:Paul Strand
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“So you couldn't protect yourself? The absolute erodes; the boundary, the wall around the self erodes. If I was waiting I had been invaded by time. But do you think you're free? I think I recognize the patterns of my nature. Bud do you think you're free? I had nothing and I was still changed. Like a costume, my numbness was taken away. Then hunger was added.”

IfsThinkingStillsSelfWaitingTakenChangedWallProtectAbsolutesHungerPatternsBoundariesCostumesBudNumbnessProtect YourselfErode
Author:Louise Glück
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“In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are sometimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleeting aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.”

IfsSelfUseLawUniverseNamesConditionsAwarenessActivityAbsolutesLabelsTemporaryInfinityLaws Of NatureUnchangingInexorableShort LivedWitheringEphemera
Author:Frank Herbert
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“If I tell you my character has grey hair, you will not see her. If I tell you she has a tiny scar at the upper left corner of her lip from which protrudes one grey whisker—you will make up the rest of her face with absolute clarity. If I tell you my character is waiting in a car, you won’t be ‘caught,’ but if I tell you he pushes his fingers down in the crack of the car seat where the ancient leather has pulled away from the seat frame, and pulls up a small coin purse with a faded note in it—you will be mine.”

IfsCharacterFacesLeftWaitingCarMinesHairAbsolutesNotesFingersLipsAncientCaughtCornersTinyClaritySeatsCracksScarGreyCoinsLeatherPursesFadedPull UpsWhiskersGrey Hair
Book:Writing Alone and with Others
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“While theoretically a person may block God out, logically there will be a breakdown because ultimately all enunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind. And if that moral doctrine is not absolute then the definer himself becomes undefined. That's what we are living with - an undefined definer giving us definitions for our course, and we are being trapped in the quicksand of the absence of objective truth.”

IfsGivingKindMayPersonsCoursesMoralAbsolutesDefinitionsAbsenceDoctrineObjectivesBlockTrappedBreakdownQuicksandObjective TruthUndefined
Author:Ravi Zacharias
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“I feel that all you can do is give it your absolute best with whatever gifts the universe has given you. And if you make it in some way that other people can recognize, that's fine. But even if you don't quote-unquote make it, you're fine, if you've given it your whole heart and soul. You're totally in sync with your purpose and with the universe. And that's fine.”

PeopleIfsWayGivingFeelsHeartSoulWholePurposeUniverseGivenCan DoFineAbsolutesHeart And SoulSync
Author:Alice Walker
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“Logic, too, also rests on assumptions that do not correspond to anything in the real world, e.g., on the assumption that there areequal things, that the same thing is identical at different points in time: but this science arose as a result of the opposite belief (that such things actually exist in the real world). And it is the same with mathematics, which would certainly never have arisen if it had been understood from the beginning that there is no such thing in nature as a perfectly straight line, a true circle, and absolute measure.”

IfsWorldDifferentRealBeliefLinesResultsUnderstoodLogicOppositesAbsolutesMathematicsEqualityCirclesAssumptionReal WorldIdenticalStraight Lines
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“Do you call it doubting to write down on a piece of paper that you doubt? If so, doubt has nothing to do with any serious business. But do not make believe; if pedantry has not eaten all the reality out of you, recognize, as you must, that there is much that you do not doubt, in the least. Now that which you do not at all doubt, you must and do regard as infallible, absolute truth.”

IfsWritingBelieveRealityDoubtPiecesSeriousPaperAbsolutesRegardSkepticismInfallibleMake BelieveAbsolute TruthSerious BusinessPedantry
Book:Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)
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“It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.”

IfsMenWayDoeSelfWould BeMovingMistakeImpossibleArgumentAbsolutesSkepticismConsideringPropositionsContradictoryValidityScepticismSceptic
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“Only the more uncompromising of the mystics still seek for knowledge in a silent land of absolute intuition, where the intellect finally lays down its conceptual tools, and rests from its pragmatic labors, while its works do not follow it, but are simply forgotten, and are as if they never had been.”

IfsStillsLandLaborToolsAbsolutesLaysSilentForgottenIntuitionIntellectPragmaticUncompromising
Book:The Problem of Christianity: The real world and the Christian ideas
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“The division between the useful arts and the fine arts must not be understood in too absolute a manner. In the humblest work of the craftsmen, if art is there, there is a concern for beauty, through a kind of indirect repercussion that the requirements of the creativity of the spirit exercise upon the production of an object to serve human needs.”

IfsNeedsHumansKindArtSpiritCreativityObjectsFineExerciseUnderstoodArt IsConcernAbsolutesProductionsCraftsDivisionRequirementsFine ArtsRepercussionsHuman NeedsIndirectCraftsman
Author:Jacques Maritain
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“I always felt, and I still feel, that the media doesn't belong in a public official's private life. It's a very difficult balance, because if you are elected to public office, people have a right to know a great deal about you, and the press has an absolute obligation to report all of that. But the reality is that there are times in which the reporting is really happening for almost voyeuristic reasons, in the gossip columns. Maybe half of it is wrong, and half of it is correct, and a lot of it is exaggerated. You've just got to get used to that if you're in public life.”

PeopleIfsKnowsFeelsStillsReasonRealityUsedFeltDifficultDealsHalfMediaBalanceOfficeHappeningsAbsolutesPressesObligationOfficialsReportsGossipPrivate LifeColumnsPublic LifeExaggeratedPublic OfficePublic Officials
Author:Rudy Giuliani
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“There's only what you choose, and how you can have it. If you choose peace and joy and love, you won't get much of it through what you're doing. If you choose happiness and contentment, you'll find little of that on the path of doingness. If you choose reunion with God, supreme knowing, deep understanding, endless compassion, total awareness, absolute fulfillment, you won't achieve much of that out of what you're doing.”

IfsInspirationalLittlesJoyUnderstandingReligiousCompassionKnowingPathAchieveAwarenessLove YouAnd LoveAbsolutesSupremeEndlessFulfillmentContentmentYou ChooseReunionPeace And JoyDeep Understanding
Author:Neale Donald Walsch
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“It is a thoughtless and immodest presumption to learn anything about art from philosophy. Some do begin as if they hoped to learnsomething new here, since philosophy cannot and should not do anything further than develop the given art experiences and the existing art concepts into a science, improve the views of art, and promote them with the help of a thoroughly scholarly art history, and produce that logical mood about these subjects too which unites absolute liberalism with absolute rigor.”

IfsShouldArtPhilosophyHelpingGivenViewsSubjectsProduceConceptsAbsolutesPhilosophicalMoodLiberalismLogicalSomething NewPresumptionArt HistoryRigorScholarly
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“In England, wit is at least a profession, if not an art. everything becomes professional there, and even the rogues of that islandare pedants. So are the "wits" there too. They introduce into reality absolute freedom whose reflection lends a romantic and piquant air to wit, and thus they live wittily; hence their talent for madness. They die for their principles.”

IfsArtRealityDiesPrinciplesAirTalentReflectionMadnessEnglandAbsolutesProfessionWitIntroducingRoguesAbsolute FreedomPedants
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“If the essence of cynicism consists in preferring nature to art, virtue to beauty and science; in not bothering about the letter of things -- to which the Stoic strictly adheres -- but in looking up to the spirit of things; in absolute contempt of all economic values and political splendor, and in courageous defence of the rights of independent freedom; then Christianity would be nothing but universal cynicism.”

IfsArtWould BePoliticalSpiritValuesChristianityVirtueRightsEconomicLettersEssenceUniversalAbsolutesIndependentBotherCourageousContemptCynicismDefenceSplendorStoicEconomic Value
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“I was asked the other day if I would be interested in the Nobel Prize, but I think that for me it would be an absolute catastrophe. I would certainly be interested in deserving it, but to receive it would be terrible. It would just complicate even more the problems of fame. The only thing I really regret in life is not having a daughter.”

IfsThinkingProblemWould BeLife IsRegretTerribleFameDaughterAbsolutesPrizeCatastropheDeservingNobelNobel PrizeLife RegretHaving A DaughterDeserving It
Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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“But if one wishes to be absolute master of all, to obtain the entire inheritance, and to exclude his brothers from even a third or fifth part, he is not a brother, but a harsh tyrant, a rude savage, nay, more, an insatiable beast that would devour the whole sweet banquet with his own gaping mouth.”

IfsWholeWishSweetBrotherMastersMouthsThirdsAbsolutesEnvironmentalBeastTyrantsSavagesHarshRudeFifthInheritanceStewardshipInsatiableBanquets
Author:Gregory of Nyssa
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“If devotion to the Blessed Virgin is necessary for all men simply to work out their salvation, it is even more necessary for those who are called to a special perfection. I do not believe that anyone can acquire intimate union with our Lord and perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without a very close union with the most Blessed Virgin and an absolute dependence on her support.”

IfsMenBelieveChristianSpiritPerfectLordSupportSpecialHolyPerfectionAbsolutesBlessedSalvationUnionsWork OutDevotionIntimateHoly SpiritAcquireDependenceVirginsOur LordFidelityHoly Mary
Author:Louis de Montfort
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“If the suns come down, and the moons crumble into dust, and systems after systems are hurled into annihilation, what is that to you? Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self, the God of the universe. Say - "I am Existence Absolute, Bliss Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, I am He," and like a lion breaking its cage, break your chain and be free forever. What frightens you, what holds you down? Only ignorance and delusion; nothing else can bind you. You are the Pure One, the Ever-blessed.”

IfsSelfMotivationalUniverseExistenceBreakSunForeverRocksIgnorancePureMoonAbsolutesDown AndBlessedDustChainsBlissDelusionLionsCagesAnnihilationIndestructible
Book:Jnana Yoga
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“Let me define a garden as the meeting of raw nature and the human imagination in which both seek the fulfillment of their beauty. Every sign indicates that nature wants us and wishes for collaboration with us, just as we long for nature to be fulfilled in us. If our original state was to live in a garden, as Adam and Eve did, then a garden signals our absolute origins as well as our condition of eternity, while life outside the garden is time and temporality.”

IfsWantHumansWellsLongStatesTimeWishImaginationBeautyConditionsGardenLet MeEternityAbsolutesOriginalsMeetingsFulfillmentCollaborationAdamFulfilledSignalsWant UAdam And EveHuman ImaginationTemporality
Author:Thomas Moore
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“Your character is your destiny. Building character is a task for the brave and dedicated. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building character. If you wish to cure minimalism in your own life, to develop a complete commitment to excellence and an absolute rejection of mediocrity, the question you need to start asking yourself is, "What is the most I can do?"”

IfsNeedsI CanCharacterWishCan DoDestinyBuildingCommitmentTasksAbsolutesAskingBraveExcellenceCuresRejectionMediocrityDedicatedOur DestinyYour DestinyMinimalismShortcutsBuilding CharacterCommitment To Excellence
Book:The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose
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“I think Katrina is one more indication of how inefficient and corrupt this Administration is, and indicates the absolute lack of seriousness that [George W.] Bush has in making the government respond to the needs of the people. They are so separated from the lives of normal, low-income people that it never occurred to them that if you're poor and have no money, no car, that you can't leave.”

PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsGovernmentPoorCarNormalLowsAbsolutesIncomeAdministrationSeriousnessIndicationNo MoneyKatrinaLow Income
Author:Bernie Sanders
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“The pet food recall, which was after all just about pets, and treated as if it were an inconsequential matter, was an absolute forerunner of what's going on in China, where 50,000 infants have been sickened because of a contaminated infant formula. So these things are all closely related. You cannot separate the food supply for pets, farm animals, and people, and you cannot separate problems in one area of a country from problems in another area.”

PeopleIfsHas BeensCountryMatterProblemAnimalAreasAbsolutesChinaTreatedRelatedPetFarmsFormulasRecallsInfantInconsequentialFood SupplyForerunnersPet Food
Author:Marion Nestle
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“I don't think scientists can dictate from above what we should do, because it's not a matter of scientific decision. If you want to have everybody living like a Beverly Hills millionaire, then 2 billion people might be too many. If we want to have a battery-chicken kind of world, with everybody having an absolute minimum diet, you might be able to support 10 billion.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWantShouldKindMatterMightAbleDecisionSupportScientistAbsolutesBillionsHillsDietsChickensMinimumMillionaireBatteriesBeverly Hills
Author:Paul R. Ehrlich
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“People in the United States don't like to hear it, but puritanical Islam has been on the rise because of our unequivocal policy of absolute support for Israel, regardless of what Israel does - even if they invade Lebanon and bombard a major city like Beirut, full of civilians. Israel has atomic bombs, but we go nuts if any Arab country or Iran develops even nuclear capabilities.”

PeopleIfsDoeHas BeensCountryStatesUnitedCitiesUnited StatesSupportPolicyMajorsAbsolutesIslamIsraelNuclearBombsIranNutsCapabilityCiviliansAtomic BombLebanonBeirutUnequivocal
Author:Khaled Abou El Fadl
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“The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials "for the sake of humanity", and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.”

IfsThinkingMenEndsMightHumanityCan DoJusticeDangerousOughtCostSafeDevilEvidenceAbsolutesSakeGuidesTrialsImpulseAgreementFinding YourselfDangerous ThingsTreacherous
Book:Mere Christianity
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“Stuffwise we are not a lean operation. We're the kind of people who, if we were deciding what absolute minimum essential items we'd need to carry in our backpacks for the final, treacherous ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, would take along aquarium filters, just in case.”

PeopleIfsNeedsKindCasesEssentialsAbsolutesFinalsOperationsMinimumItemsSummitFiltersTreacherousEverestAscentAquariumsMount Everest
Book:Dave Barry Talks Back
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“We are in a period called post. In previous periods, anti-Semitism was always direct. Today's anti-Semitism isn't direct. If you say today that the Jews are absolute evil, or Israel is absolute evil, you must say Israeli is committing genocide against the Palestinians. It is very rare to find a Western politician who repeats these things.”

IfsTodayEvilPeriodsPoliticianDirectAbsolutesWesternJewIsraelPostsRepeatsGenocidePalestinianIsraeliAnti Semitism
Author:Manfred Gerstenfeld
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“Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except upon the side of mercy.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenGivingRealCharacterUseWishEasySidesBearsGloryWeakTestsMercyAbsolutesAdversitySupremeGentleAbsolute PowerReal CharacterUse Of Power
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“Everyone has an equal and absolute right to sovereignty over his own body, his own property, and his own life, and to pursue his own happiness in any way that he chooses. No one has the authority to grant rights to anyone else, because human beings already possess all natural rights at birth. These rights include both personal and economic freedoms, and the only way they can be lost is if someone takes them away by force. The only right that an individual does not naturally possess is the right to violate someone else's liberty.”

IfsWayHumansDoeBodyIndividualLostForceNaturalHuman BeingsLibertyRightsEconomicBirthEqualAuthorityAbsolutesPropertyPursueGrantsSovereigntyEconomic FreedomNatural Rights
Author:Robert Ringer
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