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Absolutes Quotes

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Absolutes Quotes

“If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”

PeopleIfsYearsWould BeTodayPastLiteratureWrittenDangerousTruth IsTenAbsolutesPrisonIncludingJournalismCellsJournalistAnarchyCommodityHuntersHeresySeattleAbsolute TruthRottingGonzoRioGonzo JournalismPrison Cells
Author:Hunter S. Thompson
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“What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?”

IfsThinkingNeedsDoeEyeDiesSleepPleasureRaceExistenceLibertyPathDangerMastersDegreesAuthorityAbsolutesRemoveSmallestVitalityThornsTranquilLanguish
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.”

IfsWorldBelieveStillsStatesGovernmentHappensWishAbilityLibertyRiskSecurityCitizensTerribleIdealsClaimsAbsolutesSafetyWorthyThings HappenDefinedTerrible ThingsBlanketInterference
Author:Ron Paul
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“The question occurred to me: Well, if that's so, if the Divine is ultimately formless and genderless, what's the big deal? Why all this bother? The bother is because we have no other way of speaking about the Absolute. We need forms and images. Without them we have no way of relating to the Divine. Symbol and image create a universal spiritual language. It's the language the soul understands.”

IfsWayNeedsWellsSoulBigsSpiritualFormLanguageDealsDivineUniversalAbsolutesSymbolsBotherBig Deal
Author:Sue Monk Kidd
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“the intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable reactions to what life has dealt....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life.”

IfsGivingShouldMindBelieveMadeDifficultCostEssentialsDepressionGiving UpBehaviorGloryAbsolutesNotionOneselfIllnessExtremesMoodReactionsFlightMade ItSubstanceTemporaryIntensityPsychotic
Author:Kay Redfield Jamison
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“The people in the world, and the objects in it, and the world as a whole, are not absolute things, but on the contrary, are the phenomena of perception... If we were all alike: if we were millions of people saying do, re, mi, in unison, One poet would be enough... But we are not alone, and everything needs expounding all the time because, as people live and die, each one perceiving life and death for himself, and mostly by and in himself, there develops a curiosity about the perceptions of others. This is what makes it possible to go on saying new things about old things.”

PeopleIfsWorldNeedsEnoughWholeWould BeDiesMillionsObjectsPoetGoes OnPerceptionAbsolutesCuriosityContraryLife And DeathNew ThingsNot AloneOld ThingsUnisonPerception Of Others
Author:Wallace Stevens
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“How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.”

IfsFormTermImaginationImpossibleAchieveHigherLimitsTasksAbsolutesForgivingAtheistAppealsNovelistsOutcomesEntityAtonementAbsolute Power
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”

IfsThinkingI CanFactsMightScienceOrderOpportunityAnswersInterestingKnowingDoubtProgressDoorsAbsolutesAlternativesUncertaintyNot KnowingUncertainEnthusiasticAbsolute TruthUnsureScientific TruthProgress In ScienceUncertainty And Doubt
Author:Richard P. Feynman
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“I began to wonder whether anything truly existed, whether reality wasn't an unformed and gelatinous substance only half-captured by my senses....If that were true, each of us was living in absolute isolation. The thought terrified me. I was consoled by the idea that I could take that gelatin and mold it to create anything I wanted...At times I felt that the universe fabricated from the power of the imagination had stronger and more lasting contours than the blurred realm of the flesh-and-blood creatures around me.”

IfsIdeasRealityWantedUniverseFeltImaginationHalfWonderBloodCreaturesAbsolutesStrongerFleshSensesSubstanceRealmsIsolationLastingTerrifiedMoldCapturedFlesh And BloodGelatin
Author:Isabel Allende
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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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“What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute finite evil is ‘overruled’ already, we may, therefore, whenever we wish, treat the temporal as if it were potentially the eternal, be sure that we can trust its outcome, and, without sin, dismiss our fear and drop the worry of our finite responsibility. In short, they mean that we have a right ever and anon to take a moral holiday, to let the world wag in its own way, feeling that its issues are in better hands than ours and are none of our business.”

IfsWorldWayMayMeanFeelingsHandsEvilBeliefWishSinResponsibilityMoralWorryIssuesComfortEternalTreatsAbsolutesBelieverSavingOutcomesHolidayFiniteWagsAnon
Author:William James
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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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“If I had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think nothing.”

IfsThinkingMenWayHeartLongSaidSometimesMatterHappensEyeHalfSeaHonestMy HeartInvolvedAbsolutesStriveCommittedShipsFancySuspectsDictatorSuspicionStrifeVoyagesCover Ups
Book:Moby-Dick
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“My father is the harbinger of death and destruction. My grandmother the Great Destroyer. My mother is the goddess of the hunt. I think I’ll be okay. (Kat) Yeah, you do have the history of absolute terror and cruelty in your veins. (Sin) Remember that if you ever come between me and my chocolate bar. (Kat)”

IfsThinkingRememberMotherFatherSinDestructionOkayAbsolutesYeahTerrorBarsCrueltyGrandmotherChocolateGoddessMy GrandmotherVeinsHuntsDestroyersHarbingerChocolate Bars
Author:Sherrilyn Kenyon
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“...the only thing that had tethered her to the earth had been him and it was strange, but she felt welded to him on some core level now. He had seen her at her absolute worst, at her weakest and most insane, and he hadn't looked away. He hadn't judged and he hadn't been burned. It was as if in the heat of her meltdown they had melted together. This was more than emotion. It was a matter of soul.”

IfsSoulMatterEarthTogetherFeltLevelsEmotionWorstStrangeAbsolutesCoreInsaneHeatJudgedBurnedMeltdowns
Author:J.R. Ward
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“What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss - absolute bliss - as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle into every finger and toe?”

IfsLittlesFeelingsSunPiecesStreetsLateOvercomingAbsolutesFingersCornersBlissThirtySparksAfternoonBurnedShowersToesParticlesBosomsLate AfternoonFingers And ToesAfternoon Sun
Book:KATHERINE MANSFIELD – The Ultimate Short Stories & Poetry Collection: 100+ Titles in One Volume (Literature Classics Series): Prelude, Bliss, At the Bay, The Garden Party, A Birthday, Poems at the Villa Pauline, Child Verses and many more
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“I learned the real meaning of love. Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades. You can depend so much on certain people, you can set your watch by them. And that's love, even if it doesn't seem very exciting.”

PeopleIfsLoveLooksRealSeemsCertainLove IsMarriageWatchesLove YouDependsExcitingAbsolutesLoyaltyInspirational LoveFadesI Love YouFamous LoveI Loved YouTime And LoveMeaning Of LoveNever FadeTrue Love Never EndsI Fell In Love With YouCelebrity RelationshipAbsolute Love
Author:Sylvester Stallone
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“It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.”

IfsMenNeedsTryingHardHandsEyeSpiritStarsExistenceSunBloodShareConditionsLonelinessSightAbsolutesRemainsFleshPerceiveFixedIntimateWarmthAnother ManElusiveEnvelopesFlesh And BloodCapriciousMistyWaveringWarmth Of The Sun
Book:Lord Jim
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“The problem is that it has become politically awkward to draw attention to absolutes of bad and good. In place of manners, we now have doctrines of political correctness, against which one offends at one's peril: by means of a considerable circular logic, such offences mark you as reactionary and therefore a bad person. Therefore if you say people are bad, you are bad.”

PeopleIfsMeanPersonsProblemPoliticalAttentionDrawsLogicMarkAbsolutesDoctrineMannersAwkwardPerilPolitical CorrectnessCorrectnessReactionariesOffence
Author:Lynne Truss
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“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. And an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable…it would have complete power to decide what we are to be given and on what terms. It would not only decide what commodities and services were to be available and in what quantities; it would be able to direct their distributions between persons to any degree it liked.”

IfsPersonsCountryWholeFactsWould BeAbleFacesTurnsChoicesGivenWishTermPowerfulEconomicDegreesAuthorityDirectMercyAbsolutesRefuseAvailableMost PowerfulQuantityCommodityDistributionFreedom Of ChoiceEconomic Systems
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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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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“We have a language that is full of ambiguities; we have a way of expressing ourselves that is often complex and elusive, poetic and modulated; all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places. Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking. If it goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face is unimaginable.”

IfsThinkingWayFacesLanguageCausesClearDegreesIntellectualAbsolutesComplexesClarityBotherPoeticOur ThoughtsAmbiguityRight PlaceElusiveDotsUnimaginablePunctuationClear Thinking
Author:Lynne Truss
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“How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy- and seeing shows the way in.”

IfsWayGivingI CanHardShowsEyeJoyChristianitySeeingPerspectiveKeysGloryAll ThingsAbsolutesGood ThingsThanksGatesFullnessHard Things
Author:Ann Voskamp
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“I couldn't joke about the person who'd saved me from facing absolute heartbreak at home, who fed my family boxes of sweets, who ran to me worried that i was hurt if I asked for him. A month ago, I had looked at the TV and seen a stiff, distant, boring person-someone I couldn't imagine anyone loving. And while he wasn't anything close to the person I did love, he was worthy of having someone to love in his life.”

IfsPersonsHomeHurtImagineSweetTvsMonthsJokesMy FamilyAbsolutesBoxesBoringWorthySavedWorriedRanFedsLoving LifeI Was HurtBoring Person
Author:Kiera Cass
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“The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.”

IfsShouldStatesWholeNationsCommunityChurchOughtTaxesEqualOrganizationAbsolutesPropertyDivorceSeparationPresidentialTaxationChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateSeparation Between Church And State
Author:James A. Garfield
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