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Common Quotes

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Common Quotes

“Magicians and scientists are, on the face of it, poles apart. Certainly, a group of people who often dress strangely, live in a world of their own, speak a specialized language and frequently make statements that appear to be in flagrant breach of common sense have nothing in common with a group of people who often dress strangely, speak a specialized language, live in ... er.”

People World Faces Speak Language Common Magic Groups Scientist Dresses Statements Common Sense Magician Breach

Author:Terry Pratchett

“Those who live not by law would be justified by Custom: but, as common practice is the worst teacher that ever was, so the truth and goodness of things is not to be estimated by the entertainment and acceptance they find in the world.”

World Would Be Law Common Practice Teacher Worst Acceptance Goodness Entertainment Customs Justified

Book:Moral and religious aphorisms [collected by J. Jeffery from the papers of B. Whichcote]. Now re-publ., with additions, by S. Salter. To which are added, Eight letters: which passed between dr. Whichcote, and dr. Tuckney

Source: Moral and religious aphorisms [collected by J. Jeffery from the papers of B. Whichcote]. Now re-publ., with additions, by S. Salter. To which are added, Eight letters: which passed between dr. Whichcote, and dr. Tuckney

“After 9-11, the President had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead, by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests, President Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.”

World War Faces Values Opportunity Causes President Interest Common Policy Iraq Torture Divided Afghanistan Historic President Bush Surveillance Finishing Optional Detainees

Author:Joe Biden

“We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.”

Ifs Men World Want May Common Share Talent Please Consequence Perfection Stations Discretion

Book:The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 1-314

Source: The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 1-314

“No man of common sense will value a woman the less, for not giving herself up at the first attack, or for not accepting his proposal without enquiring into his person or character; on the contrary, he must think her the weakest of all creatures in the world, as the rate of men now goes; in short, he must have a very contemptible opinion of her capacities, nay, even of her understanding, that having but one cast for her life, shall cast that life away at once, and make matrimony like death, be a leap in the dark.”

Thinking Men World Giving Firsts Persons Character Values Understanding Dark Common Accepting Opinion Creatures Capacity Rate Casts Contrary Common Sense Leap Proposal Matrimony

Book:Moll Flanders

Source: Moll Flanders

“In this world laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out in life on the basis of the common greed. In this world irrationality clings to man like his shadow so that the right things get done for the wrong reasons - afterwards, we dredge up the right reasons for justification. It is a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our enemies always immoral; a world where "reconciliation" means that when one side gets the power and the other side gets reconciled to it.”

“Common sense tells us that the world is flat, that the sun goes around the earth, that heavy bodies always fall faster than light bodies, that boats made of iron will sink.”

World Made Body Light Earth Fall Common Sun Heavy Common Sense Boat Faster Iron Flats Iron Will World Is Flat

Book:The Proper Study of Mankind

Source: The Proper Study of Mankind

“Heroes in books should be so much better than heroes got up for the world's common wear and tear”

World Should Book Common Tears Hero

Book:Framley parsonage

Source: Framley parsonage

“If a work of art is to be truly immortal, it must pass quite beyond the limits of the human world, without any sign of common sense and logic. In this way the work will draw nearer to dream and to the mind of a child.”

Ifs World Way Mind Humans Children Art Dream Common Limits Draws Art Is Logic Common Sense Immortal Works Of Art

Author:Giorgio de Chirico

“The great goal of the backlash is to nurture a cultural class war, and the first step in doing so, as we have seen, is to deny the economic basis of social class. After all, you can hardly deride liberals as society's "elite" or present the GOP as the party of the common man if you acknowledge the existence of the corporate world - the power that creates the nation's real elite, that dominates its real class system, and that wields the Republican Party as its personal political sidearm.”

“My view is there will be problems and bad people as long as the earth exists, and since we're moving into a completely interdependent global environment, we're better off building a world we'd like to live in when the United States are not the only military superpower. That is, we need to build a world of shared responsibility, shared benefits, and shared commitment to our common humanity.”

“The world is now unipolar and contains only one superpower. Canada shares a continent with that superpower. In this context, given our common values and the political, economic and security interests that we share with the United States, there is now no more important foreign policy interest for Canada than maintaining the ability to exercise effective influence in Washington so as to advance unique Canadian policy objectives.”

“Canada has an experience of governance of which much of the world stands in dire need. It is a world of increasing dissension and conflict in which a significant contribution is the failure of different ethnic, tribal, religious, or social groups to search for, and agree upon, a common space for harmonious co-existence.”

World Needs Different Social Religious Space Common Existence Groups Conflict Agree Significant Contribution Canada Governance Harmonious Dissension Social Groups Agree Upon

Author:Aga Khan IV

“From the time of the Revolutionary War, when citizens stood forward to defend their liberties against the depredations of tyranny. All the way through Civil War, through the great World Wars, this nation has been defended by the tradition of common ordinary folks who come from behind the plow, come from the store-clerking, come from the classrooms, and so forth to get on the battlefields - ordinary citizens turned into heroes in defense of their liberty, because that's the potential of freedom.”

“America can restore its strengths as the world-respected land of opportunity by returning to open-society principles. An open society invests in people and new ideas, rewards talent and hard work, values dialogue and learns from dissent, operates to high standards with transparent information, looks for common ground, sees problems as opportunities for creative change, and encourages those who are fortunate to help others get the same chance, because service is the highest ideal. With such standards in mind, America the Beautiful can return to its admired role as America the Principled.”

Source: America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again

“The one reasonable goal of social life was affirmed to be the creation of a world of awakened, of sensitive, intelligent, and mutually understanding personalities, banded together for the common purpose of exploring the universe and developing the human spirit's manifold potentialities.”

Source: Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels

“We all feel a separateness; we wish that a drop of water would soften our ego; the world needs a common conscience: agreement... we must concentrate outside ourselves.”

World Needs Feels Wish Water Common Ego Conscience Agreement Drop Of Water Separateness

Author:Mark Tobey

“We must recognise that in an integrated world, trade cannot be divorced from other concerns. We need to promote free trade and serious global efforts with respect to common problems even as we support every nation's right to chart its own course.”

World Needs Problem Courses Nations Common Effort Support Serious Concern Trade Divorced Recognise Integrated Free Trade World Trade

Author:Lawrence Summers

“Evolutionism is a religious world view that is not supported by science, Scripture, popular opinion, or common sense. The exclusive teaching of this dangerous, mind-altering philosophy in tax supported schools, parks, museums, etc. is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

“Capitalism has been fully restored in Yugoslavia, as is well-known, but this capitalism knows how to disguise. Yugoslavia portrays itself as a socialist state, but of a special kind, as the world has never seen it before! The Titoites even boast that their state has nothing in common with the first socialist state which emerged from the socialist October Revolution and which was founded by Lenin and Stalin on the basis of the scientific theory of Marx and Engels.”

“Ultimately, all I wanted was for players to feel like they were in the real world. I wanted them to be able to apply real world common sense to the problems confronting them, and I thought recreating real world locations would encourage that kind of thinking. There's also just a real power, a real thrill, when you fire up a game and see a place you've been or want to go, and then get to do all the stuff you WANT to do there but know you'll get arrested if you try! If that isn't the stuff of fantasy - far more than exploring some goofy dwarven mine or alien spaceship - I don't know what is!”

“It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings out of shame. This is the tragedy of the world. For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile.”

Source: Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism

“[I]n contrast to the common belief that they are the world's greatest cynics, the best journalists are the world's great idealists. They have experienced firsthand the great soothing balance of human existence. For every disgrace there is triumph, for every wrong there is a moment of justice, for every funeral a wedding, for every obituary a birth announcement.”

World Humans Moments Belief Justice Common Existence Birth Balance Triumph Journalist Funeral Contrast Disgrace Great Idea Human Existence Soothing Idealist Announcements Obituary

Author:Anna Quindlen

“Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a bird capable, say, of catching insects in mid-air, with the result that birds of similar habitats tend to have very similar anatomies, whatever their ancestry. For example, American vultures look and behave much like Old World vultures, but biologists have come to realize that the former are related to storks, the latter to hawks, and that their resemblances result from their common lifestyle.”

“People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.”

People Men World Wells Home Fighting Energy Common Known Leader Principles Teacher Capitalism Importance Engaged Well Known Imperialism Quarrels Herds Dividing Federal Reserve

Author:J. P. Morgan

“It should stimulate the mind as well as the appetite. The well made cocktail is one of the most gracious of drinks. It pleases the senses. The shared delight of those who partake in common of this refreshing nectar breaks the ice of formal reserve. Taut nerves relax, taut muscles relax, tired eyes brighten, tongues loosen, friendships deepen, the whole world becomes a better place in which to live.”

“It is not a question of patronizing philanthropy towards disabled people. They do not need the patronage of the non-disabled. It is not for them to adapt to the dominant and dominating world of the so-called non-disabled. It is for us to adapt our understanding of a common humanity; to learn of the richness of how human life is diverse; to recognize the presence of disability in our human midst as an enrichment of our diversity.”

“There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of men, and in common speech called discretion; a species of lower prudence, by the assistance of which, people of the meanest intellectuals, without any other qualification, pass through the world in great tranquillity, and with universal good treatment, neither giving nor taking offence.”

Source: The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author

“Nature seems to exult in abounding radicality, extremism, anarchy. If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The whole creation is one lunatic fringe. ... No claims of any and all revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe.”

Ifs World Believe Whole Seems Nature Common Creation Judging Claims Trade Common Sense Revelations Anarchy Fringe Extremism Lunatic Likelihood Giraffe Improbability

Author:Annie Dillard

“To be satisfied with the acquittal of the world, though accompanied with the secret condemnation of conscience, this is the mark of a little mind; but it requires a soul of no common stamp to be satisfied with its own acquittal, and to despise the condemnation of the world.”

World Mind Littles Soul Common Secret Conscience Mark Satisfied Despise Stamps Condemnation Little Minds Acquittal

Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words

Source: Lacon: or, Many things in few words

“There is to me a daintiness about early flowers that touches me like poetry. They blow out with such a simple loveliness among the common herbs of pastures, and breathe their lives so unobtrusively, like hearts whose beatings are too gentle for the world.”

World Heart Simple Common Flower Blow Breathe Gentle Herbs Loveliness Touch Me Pastures

Book:Fugitive Poetry

Source: Fugitive Poetry

“Nature seems to have taken a particular care to disseminate her blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to their mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, that the nations of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another and be united together by their common interest.”

Source: The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 1-314

“The world could not long ignore a holy church. The church is not despised because it is holy: it is despised because it is not holy enough. There is not enough difference between the people inside the church and those outside to be impressive. A church in which saints were as common as now they are rare would convict the world, if only by contrast. Sanctity cannot be ignored. Even a little bit is potent. So far from the gates of hell prevailing against it, it hammers on their triple steel.”

“One can hardly tell women that washing up saucepans is their divine mission, [so] they are told that bringing up children is their divine mission. But the way things are in the world, bringing up children has a great deal in common with washing up saucepans.”

World Way Children Women Deals Common Divine Missions Washing

Book:Simone De Beauvoir Today

Source: Simone De Beauvoir Today

“The World's a Printing-House, our words, our thoughts, Our deeds, are characters of several sizes. Each soul is a Compos'tor, of whose faults The Levites are Correctors; Heaven Revises. Death is the common Press, from whence being driven, We're gather'd, Sheet by Sheet, and bound for Heaven.”

World Soul Character House Heaven Common Presses Faults Bounds Size Deeds Driven Our Thoughts Sheets Printing Our Words

Author:Francis Quarles

“There's no healthy life possible without some sensual feeling between the husband and wife, but there's nothing in the world more awful than married life when it's the only common ground.”

World Feelings Sex Common Wife Healthy Husband Married Awful Sensual Husband And Wife Married Life Healthy Life Common Ground

Book:The Bent Twig

Source: The Bent Twig

“It isn't common sense that is paramount in this world, it's wishful thinking.”

Thinking World Common This World Common Sense Wishful Thinking Paramount

Author:Francoise Sagan

“What is this world?--A term which men have got, To signify not one in ten knows what; A term, which with no more precision passes To point out herds of men than herds of asses; In common use no more it means, we find, Than many fools in same opinions joined.”

Knows Men World Mean Use Term Common Opinion This World Fool Ten Ass Herds Precision

Book:The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan

Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan

“I believe deeply in a common humanity. The black man belongs to the family of man. One part of that family is out of control - like a virus or cancer - and that is the white man. He and his technological society are bent on destroying the world. Everywhere the white man has gone with his empire, he has destroyed people, races, societies, cultures, and in the course of it, has sterilized himself. He is completely the mechanical man: without heart, without soul. He is the Tin Man of The Wizard of Oz. But I don't believe that all the white people in the world are no good.”

Source: Conversations with Margaret Walker

“There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize--it creates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like this situation, but that's the way it goes. The books are being born and then walk around the world, just as children do.”

World Way Children Book Born Walks Common Situation Roles Around The World Prize Nobel Nobel Prize

Author:Stanislaw Lem

“Fancy has an extensive influence in morals. Some of the most powerful and dangerous feelings in nature, as those of ambition and envy, derive their principal nourishment from a cause apparently so trivial. Its effect on the common affairs of life is greater than might be supposed. Naked reality would scarcely keep the world in motion.”

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion

“I write to reach people's common sense and intelligence, to show them that if they unite they can make a different world possible.”

People Ifs World Writing Different Shows Common Common Sense Different Worlds

Author:Katharine Susannah Prichard

“The Arts, especially film, transcend all cultural barriers, hopefully offering an avenue where all people can find a common place to meet, understand each other, and nurture a safe world for all our children to grow strong within.”

People World Children Art Film Strong Grows Common Safe Our Children Hopefully Barriers Offering Nurture Avenues Cultural Barriers

Author:Carson Grant

“I wouldn't want to compare myself to David Byrne whom I consider a genius, but what I think what we have in common is that he's also a guy who is very interested in the world and who has a lot of passions beyond singing and playing guitar.”

Thinking World Want Guy Passion Common Genius Singing Guitar Compare Playing Guitar

Author:Anthony Bourdain

“The great, God-blessed churches in the world today have one common characteristic: an insistence upon an exposition of God's infallible Word.”

World Today Church Common Bible Blessed Characteristics World Today Infallible Insistence

Author:O. S. Hawkins

“Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at ease, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant finish by becoming themselves its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence.”

Men World Ideas Law Wealth Common Becoming Gold Independence Slave Possession Riches Pursue Ease Servant Association

Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words

Source: Lacon: or, Many things in few words

“Common sense, the half-truths of a deceitful society, is honored as the honest truths of a frank world.”

World Common Half Honest Common Sense Frank Honored Deceitful Honest Truth Half Truth

Book:Social Amnesia: A Critique of Conformist Psychology from Adler to Laing

Source: Social Amnesia: A Critique of Conformist Psychology from Adler to Laing

“From laboratories employing complex apparatus, poetry often emerges into the outside world after a long lapse of time, just as some scientific discoveries become common property only after they have entered the blood stream of the generations.”

World Long Common Generations Blood Discovery Property Complexes Streams Laboratory Outside World Lapses Scientific Discovery Employing

Author:Mieczyslaw Jastrun

“What all women have in common is that they share most of the unpaid work of the world.”

World Women Common Share

Book:Working your way to the bottom: the feminization of poverty

Source: Working your way to the bottom: the feminization of poverty