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Approximation Quotes

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Approximation Quotes

“Through its creative power, art may trigger approximation, reconciliation and harmonization between individuals and peoples. Through art, beings can meet and exchange their points of view, as it rules out alienation, and arouses chemistry and understanding. By definition, art is universal and helps to cross borders and barriers without prejudice.”

ArtUnderstandingCreativeBordersChemistryAlienationReconciliationApproximationHarmonization
Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“Imitation is for the most part so unconscious that its effects are almost unheeded, but its influence is not the less permanent on that account. It is only when an impressive nature is placed in contact with an impressionable one that the alteration in the character becomes recognizable. Yet even the weakest natures exercise some influence upon those about them. The approximation of feeling, thought, and habit is constant, and the action of example unceasing.”

CharacterFeelingsActionInfluenceEffectsExampleHabitExerciseAccountsConstantContactPermanentUnconsciousImitationImpressiveAlterationsApproximationImpressionable
Book:Happy Homes and the Hearts that Make Them. Or Thrifty People and why They Thrive
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“Spirituality is much wider than any particular religion, and in the larger ideas of it that are now coming on us even the greatest religion becomes no more than a broad sect or branch of the one universal religion, by which we shall understand in the future man's seeking for the eternal, the divine, the greater self, the source of unity and his attempt to arrive at some equation, some increasing approximation of the values of human life with the eternal and the divine values.”

MenHumansIdeasSelfValuesSpiritualityGreaterDivineParticularSourceEternalUniversalUnitySeekingHuman LifeBranchesBroadsEquationsSectsApproximationValue Of Human Life
Book:Bulletin
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“Men of science have made abundant mistakes of every kind; their knowledge has improved only because of their gradual abandonment of ancient errors, poor approximations, and premature conclusions.”

MenKindMadePoorMistakeErrorsAncientConclusionAbandonmentPrematureApproximation
Book:A History of Science: Hellenistic science and culture in the last three centuries B.C
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“Every improvement in our conceptions of justice, as well as in the machinery for the administration of justice, whereby a closer approximation to exact justice may be secured, will make for social peace, though the mere adjudication of conflicting interests will not remove the conflicts themselves nor their cause. That lies deeper than legislatures or courts can probe.”

WellsMayLyingSocialCausesInterestJusticeConflictCourtMereDeeperImprovementAdministrationRemoveConceptionMachineryLegislatureSecuredApproximationAdministration Of Justice
Book:Essays in Social Justice
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“Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.”

KnowsMenHumansProblemLife IsDiesFightingEvilJusticePerfectHalfWillingSolutionsAbsolutesFinalsAffairToleranceCompromiseManifestationRejectionEtcGood LifeImperfectionInherentEquityNihilismNot PerfectFree ManLoatheInsistenceApproximationHuman ProblemsLesser EvilJustice EqualityHalf Measures
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“It has been said that men carry on a kind of coasting trade with religion. In the voyage of life, they profess to be in search of heaven, but take care not to venture so far in their approximations to it, as entirely to lose sight of the earth; and should their frail vessel be in danger of shipwreck, they will gladly throw their darling vices overboard, as other mariners their treasures, only to fish them up again when the storm is over.”

MenShouldKindHas BeensSaidCareEarthReligionHeavenLosesDangerSightTradeFishesVicesTake CareStormTreasureVentureVesselDarlingVoyagesFrailShipwreckOverboardApproximationMariners
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off--and we will thankfully content ourselves with any not intolerable approximation thereto! Let no man, as Schiller says, too querulously "measure by a scale of perfection the meager product of reality" in this poor world of ours.”

KnowsMenWorldWayRealityLyingPoorPracticeProductsIdealsPerfectionScalesAlasApproximation
Book:On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History
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“An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave: the best and the worst are only approximations of those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself: Who are those that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quan∣tum of congruities and incongruities.”

MenSelfQualityWorstHonestHonestyMereDetermineProportionContradictionQuantumSevereHonest ManKnavesApproximationIncongruityKnavery
Author:Johann Kaspar Lavater
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“I think I am most fond of the unseen part. I mean that the various cultural experiences that I go through, and the behavioral aspects of getting the work done, are just as important as the installation and the photograph. So, for me, the relationship between the two is more about hybridism and the search for an ideal form that I'm never going to arrive at. The installation and the photograph are mere approximations of this ideal.”

ThinkingMeanTwoImportantDoneFormAspectIdealsMerePhotographVariousUnseenWork DoneApproximationInstallation
Book:Sandy Skoglund: reality under siege : a retrospective
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“The fascinating thing to a dispassionate observer about the structure of life in the Soviet Union is that in their efforts to produce an unknown that we may let its ideologists call Socialism the Communist dictators have produced a brutal approximation of monopoly Capitalism, a system that has all the disadvantages of our own, with none of the palliatives which come to us from surviving competition and from the essential division of economic and political power which has so far made it possible for the humane traditions of the Western world to continue.”

WorldMayMadePoliticalPoliticsEffortEconomicProduceEssentialsCapitalismTraditionStructureCompetitionUnionsWesternSocialismMade ItCommunismFascinatingDivisionCommunistSovietBrutalDictatorSoviet UnionObserversMonopolySurvivingHumaneDisadvantagesPolitical PowerWestern WorldApproximationDispassionate
Author:John Dos Passos
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“There is a clear acknowledgement all over the world that we should not teach people to read and then to leave them without literature. For they would then relapse into a dreary and ultimately dangerous state of half-education, in which they would be easily satisfied by crude semi-pictorial approximations of the strip cartoon and by the abundant supply of degenerate literature which destroys, rather than promotes, a capacity to face the problems of the world with skill and courage”

PeopleWorldShouldStatesProblemWould BeFacesLiteratureHalfTeachClearDangerousSkillsCapacitySatisfiedCartoonCrudeDegeneratesDrearyAcknowledgementApproximationPictorialRelapse
Author:A. D. Patel
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“Each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors.”

IfsMayHas BeensAnswersCenturyIgnoranceProveAuthorityAccountsTwentiesRemainsMereFinalsAcceptedEsteemFollowersTestedSuccessorsTolerableApproximation
Book:The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley
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“Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as I am aware, inconsistent with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of Development, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geographical Distribution, and of Palaeontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning such as they never possessed before; and I, for one, am fully convinced that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation to the truth as, for example, the Copernican hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary motions.”

IfsFactsTogetherKnownExampleTheoryDevelopmentConnectedConvincedContraryPossessedHypothesisDistributionExhibitsAnatomyInconsistentApproximation
Author:Thomas Huxley
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“Macroscopic objects, as we see them all around us, are governed by a variety of forces, derived from a variety of approximations to a variety of physical theories. In contrast, the only elements in the construction of black holes are our basic concepts of space and time. They are, thus, almost by definition, the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe.”

UniverseForceBlackSpacePerfectObjectsTheoryElementsConceptsDefinitionsHolesVarietyConstructionContrastTime And SpaceBlack HoleApproximation
Author:Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
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“Properly understood, style is not a seductive decoration added to a functional structure; it is of the essence of a work of art. The necessary elements of style are lucidity, elegance, and individuality; these three qualities combine to form a preservative which ensures the nearest approximation to permanence in the fugitive art of letters.”

ArtFormThreeQualityStyleElementsUnderstoodLettersEssenceStructureIndividualityWorks Of ArtEleganceSeductivePermanenceDecorationFugitiveApproximationLucidity
Author:Evelyn Waugh
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“It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most effective way he knew to accomplish that, the most powerful tool at his disposal, was the scientific method, which over time winnows out deception. It can't give you absolute truth because science is a permanent revolution, always subject to revision, but it can give you successive approximations of reality.”

WayGivingRealityUniversePowerfulAcceptingSubjectsHumilityRevolutionToolsAbsolutesMethodAccomplishFearlessDeceptionPermanentMost PowerfulScientific MethodRevisionAbsolute TruthApproximation
Author:Ann Druyan
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“In this game he had acquired a great deal of muddled knowledge, more than one approximation and less than one certitude. And absence of energy, a curiosity that was too sharp to be crushed immediately, a lack of order in his ideas, a weakening of his spiritual boundaries, which were promptly twisted, an excessive passion for running along forked roads and wearying of the path as soon as he had started on it, mental indigestion demanding varied dishes, quickly tiring of the foods he desired, digesting almost all, but badly, was his state.”

IdeasStatesRunningSpiritualOrderPassionGamesEnergyDealsPathCuriosityAbsenceBoundariesDishesTireTwistedCrushedWeakeningCertitudeIndigestionApproximation
Author:Joris-Karl Huysmans
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“Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.”

WritingHumansHandsBeliefStudyAtheismMiracleClaimsMereAtheistCertaintyProphetEncountersRevelationsReportsFrightenedDisplaySubmitAccustomedAmbiguityPeasantsMessiahIlliterateRedeemerApproximationDictation
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Justice based purely on laws is about as accurate as a portrait created out of large low-resolution color pixels. If you stand back far enough it looks good. Come any closer and the glaring approximations overtake all semblance of the original. Justice should be viewable under the microscope, not from a telescope. And for that it needs to be based not on law but on truth.”

IfsNeedsShouldLooksEnoughLawJusticeColorLowsOriginalsResolutionAccuratePortraitsTelescopesMicroscopesSemblanceApproximationPixels
Author:Vera Nazarian
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“Miss Wynter, I think you should be the evil queen,” Harriet said. “There’s an evil queen?” Daniel echoed. With obvious delight. “Of course,” Harriet replied. “Every good play has an evil queen.” Frances actually raised her hand. “And a un—” “Don’t say it,” Elizabeth growled. Frances crossed her eyes, put her knife to her forehead in an approximation of a horn, and neighed.”

ThinkingShouldSaidPlayHandsEyeCoursesEvilMissingRaisedObviousDelightFranceQueensKnivesHer EyesHornsForeheadsApproximation
Author:Julia Quinn
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