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Active Quotes

“The essential fact which emerges ... is that the three smallest and most active reservoirs ( of carbon in the global carbon cycle), the atmosphere, the plants and the soil, are all of roughly the same size. This means that large human disturbance of any one of these reservoirs will have large effects on all three. We cannot hope either to understand or to manage the carbon in the atmosphere unless we understand and manage the trees and the soil too.”

HumansMeanFactsScienceThreeTreeEffectsEssentialsPlantSizeActiveManageAtmosphereSoilCyclesSmallestCarbonDisturbanceReservoirsCarbon Cycle
Author:Freeman Dyson
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“We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing which colors went together. We knew that the girls were our twins, that we all existed in space like animals with identical skins, and that they knew everything about us though we couldn’t fathom them at all. We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.”

WayMindMadeTogetherJobsGirlFeltSpaceAnimalKnowingColorUnderstoodSkinsActiveNoiseTwinsDisguiseIdenticalImprisonmentFathomDreamyBeing A GirlVirgin Suicides
Book:The Virgin Suicides: A Novel
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“Merely to resist evil with evil by hating those who hate us and seeking to destroy them, is actually no resistance at all. It is active and purposeful collaboration in evil that brings the Christian into direct and intimate contact with the same source of evil and hatred which inspires the acts of his enemy. It leads in practice to a denial of Christ and to the service of hatred rather than love.”

WisdomChristianHateEvilChristEnemyPracticeInspireSourceDirectHatredSeekingActiveResistanceContactDenialIntimateCollaborationLead In
Author:Thomas Merton
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“We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

KnowsShouldKindMayChildrenHelpingAgeSchoolHumanityReligiousSunChildhoodSweetFlowerIntellectualConsequenceActiveDawnSpontaneitySplendorMontessoriSuppressingVeneration
Author:Maria Montessori
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“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

InspirationalWarStrongCourageMilitaryBattleBraveryBraveActivePatriotVeteranAmerican RevolutionVigilantVeterans DayOur VeteransHonoring VeteransAmerican MilitaryHonoring Our VeteransVeterans Day Thank YouGreat Veterans DayAmerican FreedomThank A VeteranUs MilitaryThank You VeteranVeterans Day InspirationalVeterans Day PoemsWar VeteranHappy Veterans DayFunny Veterans DaySoldiers At WarAmerican VeteransUs VeteransBrave SoldiersMilitary VeteranHeroes DayVeterans Day RemembranceChristian Veterans DayThanking Our VeteransVeterans BraveryPatriotic VeteranServing In The Military
Author:Patrick Henry
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“Perseverance means to continue in a given course until we have reached a goal or objective, regardless of obstacles, opposition, and other counterinfluences...Perseverance is a positive, active characteristic...It gives us hope by helping us realize that the righteous suffer no failure except in giving up and no longer trying.”

GivingTryingMeanHelpingSufferingCoursesGivenGoalRealizingGiving UpPerseveranceObstaclesActiveObjectivesCharacteristicsOppositionRighteousLdsNo Failure
Author:Joseph B. Wirthlin
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“My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening to active assistance, is simply bad; and I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else. Humility, after the first shock, is a cheerful virtue.”

ThinkingFirstsIdeasMy OwnSinVirtueSadnessHumilityOptimismActivePityShockRepentanceRejoiceAmendmentsConcreteAssistanceCheerfulApostolicRestitutionDisobeying
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“My language limitations here are real. My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life. If I really knew this language, there would surely be in my head, as there is in Webster's or the Dictionary of American Slang, that unreducible verb designed to tell a person like me what to do next.”

IfsWritingPersonsRealNextLanguageMoralNotesActiveLike MeLimitationUselessJournalVocabularyAdequateDictionaryVerbsSlangMoral LifeKeeping A JournalWriting Notes
Book:Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories
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“There's something about sober living and sober thinking, about facing long afternoons without the numbing distraction of anesthesia that disabuses you of the belief in the externals, shows you that strength and hope come not from circumstances or the acquisition of things, but from the simple accumulation of active experience, from gritting the teeth and checking the items off the list, one by one, even if it's painful and you're afraid.”

IfsThinkingLongShowsBeliefSimpleCircumstancesPainfulActiveListsTeethDistractionAfternoonSoberItemsAccumulationAcquisitionNumbingAnesthesiaStrength And Hope
Book:Drinking: A Love Story
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“The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped — it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.”

WaySometimesJesusClearStrangeCircumstancesConversationReflectionFollowingActiveTerritoryQuestioningPausesParticipationGodlyHesitationUnfamiliarFollowing JesusPrayerfulUnfamiliar TerritoryActive Participation
Author:Eugene H. Peterson
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“In a cool medium, the audience is an active constituent of the viewing or listening experience. A girl wearing open-mesh silk stockings or glasses is inherently cool and sensual because the eye acts as a surrogate hand in filling in the low-definition image thus engendered. Which is why boys make passes at girls who wear glasses.”

HandsEyeGirlBoysAudienceListeningLowsGlassesDefinitionsActiveMediumsSensualFillingSilkConstituentsStockingsSurrogatesMeshFilling In
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“. . . freedom to creat and construct, to wonder and to venture. Such freedom requires that the individual be active and responsible, not a slave or a well-fed cog in the machine . . . It is not enough that men are not slaves; if social conditions further the existence of automatons, the result will not be love of life, but love of death.”

IfsMenWellsEnoughIndividualSocialResultsExistenceWonderConditionsMachinesResponsibleSlaveActiveLove LifeFedsVentureConstructsCogsSocial Conditions
Book:War Within Man: A Psychological Enquiry Into the Roots of Destructiveness
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“After all, is it not the way we humans shape the universe, shape time itself? Do we not take the raw stuff of chaos and impose a beginning, middle, and end on it, like the simplest and most profound of folktales, to reflect the shapes of our own tiny lives? And if the physicists are right, that the physical world changes as it is observed, and we are its only known observers, then might we not be bending the entire chaotic universe, the eternal, ever-active Now, to fit that familiar form?”

IfsWorldWayHumansEndsMightFormUniverseStuffKnownMiddleFitShapesEternalProfoundChaosActiveTinyFamiliarSimplestObserversPhysicistChaoticBendingBeginning Middle And EndFolktales
Book:Otherland 4: Sea of Silver Light
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“By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain.”

IfsBelieveHas BeensSoulSelfRealityCertainGrowsPerfectDoubtLove YouStriveActiveYour SoulImmortalityNo DoubtNeighbourForgetfulnessSelf Forgetfulness
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon. She had accepted this submergence as philosohpically as all her other trials, and now, in extreme old age, was rewarded by presenting to her mirror an almost unwrinkled expanse of firm pink and white flesh, in the centre of which the traces of a small face survived as if awaiting excavation.”

IfsLittlesAgeFacesNaturalWhiteCitiesFeetMiddleChangedMirrorsExtremesActiveFleshAcceptedTrialsOld AgeFirmPhenomenonImmenseFloodDoomedSurvivedCentreAugustPresentingAnklesLittle WomenExpanseLavaNatural Phenomena
Book:Edith Wharton The Dover Reader
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“A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part”

WorldNeedsMindDoeSelfLightHappensEnergyEffortSunMeditationAwarenessQuietMiracleWake UpSelf AwarenessCalmActiveAwakeningRisingSteady
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.”

WritingLooksPlayRunningFaithSpeakSinWalksLaughingCryPrayingTasteDrawsDareSmellActiveCirclesExperimentsScreamBowsProvokingRepentVerbsHide And SeekEmote
Book:Leap
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“Perhaps both men and women in America may hunger, in our material, outward, active, masculine culture, for the supposedly feminine qualities of heart, mind and spirit — qualities which are actually neither masculine nor feminine, but simply human qualities that have been neglected.”

MenWorldMindHumansHeartMayHas BeensWholeAmericaSpiritCultureIndividualGrowthLinesQualityMaterialsMen And WomenHungerActiveFeminineMasculineNeglectedHuman Qualities
Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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“Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we we cease to grow, we begin to die.”

IfsNeedsGivingMindLittlesUsedDiesGrowsEffectsInformationTelevisionSourceDrugResourcesRadioActiveCeaseImpressionDaily LifeSurroundArtificialAmusementStimulusProps
Author:Mortimer Adler
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“Holmes had cultivated the ability to still the noise of the mind, by smoking his pipe and playing nontunes on the violin. He once compared this mental state with the sort of passive seeing that enables the eye, in a dim light or at a great distance, to grasp details with greater clarity by focusing slightly to one side of the object of interest. When active, strained vision only obscures and frustrates, looking away often permits the eyes to see and interpret the shapes of what it sees. Thus does inattention allow the mind to register the still, small whisper of the daughter of the voice.”

MindDoeStillsStatesLightEyeSidesVoiceInterestAbilityVisionGreaterSeeingObjectsShapesDaughterDistanceDetailsActiveNoiseClaritySmokingPermitPassivePipeViolinRegisterHolmesInattentionLooking Away
Author:Laurie R. King
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“What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in the imminent dangers of the young.”

MenHumansSelfYoungFoundStrongCausesDecisionEmotionSupportConditionsDangerWallMassCapableInstitutionsErrorsActiveAriseDevotionSubtleHardshipLoyalFierceTendernessJustificationRestraintAlliancesOffspringParentalPremiumHuman IntelligenceSelf RestraintBiological Science
Author:H. G. Wells
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“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”

IfsThinkingLongUseUsedVoiceBreakCuttingSeeingFiguresSpeechEverydayMetaphorActivePhrasesPrintPassiveSay AnythingSimileJargonFigures Of SpeechLong WordsPassive Voice
Book:Shooting an Elephant: And Other Essays
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“Ideas come at any moment -- except when you demand them. Most ideas come while I'm physically active, at the gym, with friends, gardening, so I always carry pen and paper. My first draft is always written in longhand. But once the first dozen chapters, more like short stories, are written, then momentum builds until I can't leave the project until it's done.”

FirstsI CanIdeasDoneMomentsStoriesWrittenDemandPaperProjectsActivePensGymShort StoryDozenGardeningChaptersMomentumPhysically Active
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
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“Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

WayLovePersonsStatesCarePerfectAcceptingStruggleAcceptanceStriveCaringActiveDeep ThoughtLove SomeoneHere And NowNounsCapacity To LoveMeaning Of LoveConstant StruggleMr Perfect
Book:You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor
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“... active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with the love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with everyone watching. Indeed, it will go as far as the giving even of one's life, provided it does not take long but is soon over, as on stage, and eveyone is looking on and praising. Whereas active love is labor and persistence, and for some people, perhaps, a whole science.”

PeopleLoveGivingLongDoeWholeDreamActionLove IsStageLaborPraiseActivePersistenceFearfulHarshThirstImmediate Action
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.”

MenBelieveSoulPurposeBeliefVoiceCommunityReligiousWestActiveObedienceInwardFulfillingEscapingReligious BeliefObeyingWild WestUnfree
Book:Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)
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“The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!”

IfsMayWarEnoughDesireStrongPresidentHeardRevolutionBattleLateElectionSlaveryBraveActiveChainsInevitableRepeatsToo LateRetiringRetreatContestsSubmissionBostonAmerican RevolutionVigilantForged
Author:Patrick Henry
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“A good book deserves an active reading. The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging. The undemanding reader fails to satisfy this requirement, probably even more than he fails to analyze and interpret. He not only makes no effort to understand; he also dismisses a book simply by putting it aside and forgetting it. Worse than faintly praising it, he damns it by giving it no critical consideration whatever.”

GivingDoeBookReadingUnderstandingForgetEffortFailingJudgingReaderActivityDeserveCriticismPraiseCriticalActiveConsiderationRequirementsGood Book
Author:Mortimer Adler
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