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Contrary Quotes

“Bills of attainder, ex-post facto laws and laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.”

Firsts Law Social Sound Principles Bills Contrary Tyranny Obligation Posts Contracts Legislation Exes Compact

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents.”

Government Numbers Rights Majors Instruments Mere Contrary Invasion Property Rights Constituents Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:Selected Writings of James Madison

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“On the contrary a film can promote the idea of change without any political message whatsoever but in its form and language can tell people that they can change their lives and contribute to progressive changes in the world.”

People World Ideas Film Form Political Language Change Messages Contrary Progressive Progressive Change

Author:Wim Wenders

“All concord's born of contraries.”

Born Contrary Contradiction

Book:Works: Collated with all the former editions, and corrected with notes critical and explanatory

Source: Works: Collated with all the former editions, and corrected with notes critical and explanatory

“The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes - love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and unjust.”

“If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing. I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”

Ifs Thinking Love Feels Writing Mind Pain Pleasure Personality Empty Mad Contrary Torture Composition

Author:Lord Byron

“In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man becomes rarer: the bond of human affections is extended and loosened.”

Men Humans Individual Democracy Century Duty Democratic Species Affection Contrary Devotion One Man

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.”

Government Evil Justice Regret Ought Honor Members Benefits Weight Burden Debt Spending Contrary Doctrine Permit I Regret Duration Government Spending

Book:The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790

Source: The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790

“If every day a man takes orders in silence from an incompetent superior, if every day he solemnly performs ritual acts which he privately finds ridiculous, if he unhesitatingly gives answers to questionnaires which are contrary to his real opinions and is prepared to deny his own self in public, if he sees no difficulty in feigning sympathy or even affection where, in fact, he feels only indifference or aversion, it still does not mean that he has entirely lost the use of one of the basic human senses, namely, the sense of humiliation.”

“But having considered everything which has been said, one could by this believe that the earth and not the heavens is so moved, and there is no evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, this seems prima facie as much, or more, against natural reason as are all or several articles of our faith. Thus, that which I have said by way of diversion (esbatement) in this manner can be valuable to refute and check those who would impugn our faith by argument.”

Way Believe Has Beens Said Reason Seems Earth Science Heaven Natural Evidence Argument Moved Valuable Contrary Checks Articles Nevertheless Diversion

Author:Nicole Oresme

“The essence of peace is to merge two opposites. Therefore your notions should not scare you if you see another, who absolutely opposes you, and you presume that there is no chance for peace between you two. On the same token when you see two individuals who are exactly two opposites, never say it would be impossible for them to reconcile. On the contrary, and this is the perfection of peace to make it between two opposites.”

Ifs Should Two Would Be Individual Peace Chance Impossible Perfection Essence Opposites Notion Contrary Scare Reconcile Tokens Two Opposites

Author:Nachman of Breslov

“Yes, free markets tend to produce unequal incomes. We should not be ashamed of that. On the contrary, our system is the envy of the world and should be a source of pride.”

World Should Produce Source Pride Envy Contrary Income Ashamed Free Market

Author:Arthur C. Brooks

“Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders, so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.”

Action Wise Contrary Over You Thunder

Book:Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims

Source: Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims

“Novelists are perhaps the last people in the world to be entrusted with opinions. The nature of a novel is that it has no opinions, only the dialectic of contrary views, some of which, all of which, may be untenable and even silly. A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although he may be permitted to be an intellectual.”

People World Should May Lasts Nature Views Opinion Novel Intellectual Intelligent Contrary Silly Novelists Dialectics

Book:You've had your time: being the second part of the confessions of Anthony Burgess

Source: You've had your time: being the second part of the confessions of Anthony Burgess

“The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another mans right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the man and the dollar; but in cases of conflict, the man before the dollar.”

Men Liberty Cases Democracy He Man Republican Conflict Dollars Property Contrary One Man Absolutely Nothing

Book:Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings

Source: Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings

“The ordinary adult never gives a thought to space-time problems ... I, on the contrary, developed so slowly that I did not begin to wonder about space and time until I was an adult. I then delved more deeply into the problem than any other adult or child would have done.”

Giving Children Done Problem Space Wonder Ordinary Adults Contrary Time And Space Space Time

Book:The Ultimate Quotable Einstein

Source: The Ultimate Quotable Einstein

“There was a time when intellectual meant someone who uses reason and intellect. Today, people who call themselves intellectuals are in a form of mental death spiral: they search for, and find, those index cards that support their world view, and clutch little red books like rosaries in the face of all external evidence. They are ruled by appeals to authority. Their self-image and sense of emotional well-being trumps any and all objective evidence to the contrary.”

“The Soviet transition to a new political structure shows that the Soviet strategists are thinking, planning and acting in broad terms, way beyond the imagination of Western politicians. For this reason Western politicians cannot grasp the fact that the Soviet intention is to win by 'democratic' means. Through transition to a new system, the Soviets are revitalising their own people and institutions, and they are succeeding. Contrary to Western belief, they are holding their ranks together.”

“I've certainly never taken the care of myself that I should have. On the contrary. I've done a lot of late nights without enough sleep and all that. But I've had fun. Whatever wrinkles are there, I've enjoyed getting them.”

Should Done Enough Care Night Fun Sleep Taken Late Should Have Contrary Enjoyed Wrinkles Late Night Had Fun Enough Sleep

Author:Ava Gardner

“When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”

Thinking Inspirational Should Persons Character Turns Learning Contrary Superior Man

Author:Confucius

“No, I don’t wear contacts, and contrary to what some people have said, I do not have a glass eye.”

People Said Eye Glasses Contrary Contact

Author:Jared Leto

“Contrary to what people may say, there's no upper limit to stupidity.”

People May Limits Stupidity Contrary

Author:Stephen Colbert

“The sadness of our existence should not leave us blunted, on the contrary--how to remain thin-skinned, vulnerable and stay alive?”

Should Existence Alive Sadness Contrary Vulnerable Staying Alive

Author:Montgomery Clift

“Ive never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didnt choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.”

Character Tragedy Contrary Being Sad

Author:Juliette Binoche

“I've actually never been taken on a date in my whole life. I have never had a one-night stand. I'm a real relationship person - contrary to public perception. I'm either in one or I'm not. I get kind of emotionally involved very quickly, and I'm not going to spend time with someone unless I love them. But it's not hard for me to fall in love.”

Kind Persons Real Hard Whole Night Fall Taken Involved Perception Falling In Love Contrary Whole Life End Times Spend Time One Night One Night Stand Real Relationship

Author:Sienna Miller

“Aspiring black leaders are often asked to transcend race, even though no one ever asked, say, Hillary Clinton to transcend gender. This is a precarious race straddle that most members of the breakthrough generation seem to reject. Even the most well meaning white Obama supporters seem to take deep satisfaction in this idea. Obama, they insisted, could be raceless, a reasurringly optimistic view of America's deepest burden that ignores countless peices of evidence to the contrary.”

Source: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama

“Contrary to the claims of the supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sponsors of H.Res. 676, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty.”

Individual Race Liberty Rights Claims Relation Contrary Civil Rights Tension Supporter Integration Race Relations Individual Liberty Sponsors Racial Tension Civil Rights Act Civil Rights Act Of 1964

Author:Ron Paul

“The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs.”

“Contrary to popular opinion, the most important characteristic of a godly mother is not her relationship with her children. It is her love for her husband. The love between husband and wife is the real key to a thriving family. A healthy home environment cannot be built exclusively on the parents' love for their children. The properly situated family has marriage at the center; families shouldn't revolve around the children.”

Source: Twelve Extraordinary Women Workbook

“Contrary to popular opinion, Christians are not nice polite people who never get angry with one another. Those are not the virtues of God's people. Our virtues are truth-telling, kindness, forgiveness and yes, even anger-as long as it is the anger that is part of true love-through which we move closer to one another and to the God who has shown us how it is done.”

People Long Done Christian Moving Opinion Kindness Virtue Nice Angry Contrary Telling The Truth Polite Popular Opinion

Author:Barbara Brown Taylor

“We tend to think of dangers and uncertainties as anomalies in the continuum of life, or irruptions of unpredictable forces into a largely predictable world. I suggest the contrary: that dangers and uncertainties are an inescapable dimension of life. In fact, as we shall come to understand, they make life matter. They define what it means to be human.”

Thinking World Humans Mean Matter Facts Force Danger Contrary Uncertainty Dimensions Unpredictable Predictable Continuum Anomalies What It Means To Be Human

Book:What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life Amidst Uncertainty and Danger

Source: What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life Amidst Uncertainty and Danger

“I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge you to speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply question authority—you've got to speak with it too.”

Believe Enough Speak Challenges Authority Determination Conviction Contrary These Days Bumper Sticker Bumper Sticker

Author:Taylor Mali

“Fear and I were old buddies, despite my best efforts to the contrary.”

Effort Contrary Despite Buddy Best Effort Best Buddies

Author:Peter Straub

“Media mystifications should not obfuscate a simple, perceivable fact; Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poor--because they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them ... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them.”

Source: Women, Culture & Politics

“A heart given to God loses none of its natural tenderness; on the contrary, the more pure and divine it becomes, the more such tenderness increases.”

Inspirational Heart Given Loses Natural Divine Pure Increase Contrary Tenderness

Author:Therese of Lisieux

“Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary.”

Men Believe Money Rich Smart Proof Contrary Fooled

Author:Julius Rosenwald

“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.”

Action Pain Remember Desire Evil Asks Speak Sides Share Demand Universal Victim Burden Contrary Appeals Engagement Tempting Perpetrators Bystanders Speak No Evil

Book:Trauma and recovery

Source: Trauma and recovery

“Real excellence and humility are not incompatible one with the other, on the contrary they are twin sisters.”

Life Real Humility Excellence Contrary Real Life Being Real Twins Sister Keeping It Real Twin Sister

Author:Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire

“If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.”

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State

“The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority. Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing.”

“There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.”

Principles Position Depends Authority Constitution Contrary Void

Book:The federalist papers

Source: The federalist papers

“There are some who maintain that trade will regulate itself, and it is not to be benefited by the encouragements or restraints of government. Such persons will imagine that there is no need of a common directing power. This is one of those wild speculative paradoxes, which have grown into credit among us, contrary to the uniform practice and sense of the most enlightened nations.”

Needs Persons Government Nations Common Practice Imagine Encouragement Trade Credit Contrary Enlightened Paradox Imagine That Uniforms Restraint

Book:The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States : a Collection of Essays

Source: The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States : a Collection of Essays

“The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice.”

Children Religion Father Justice Sin Moral Principles Contrary Declaration

Book:THE AGE OF REASON - Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (Including

Source: THE AGE OF REASON - Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (Including

“On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”

Problem Today Limits Contrary Urgent Discouraging Eugenics Fertility Defective Planned Parenthood Birth Rate

Book:The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic

Source: The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic

“As an advocate of birth control I wish ... to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes. In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation.... On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”

“Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them, but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization. On the contrary! Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings, as it were, as neurotic relics, and we may now argue that the time has probably come, as it does in an analytic treatment, for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellect.”

“In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could win by their brains.”

Men Needs Action Winning Loses Ability Brain Enemy Taken He Man Argument Moved Surprise Contrary Opponents Anticipate Shortcomings Contemptuous Quick Witted

Author:Thucydides

“If a man's aspirations towards a righteous life are serious.. .if he earnestly and sincerely seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food, because, not to mention the excitement of the passions produced by such food, it is plainly immoral, as it requires an act contrary to moral feeling, i. e., killing - and is called forth only by greed.”

Ifs Men Firsts Feelings Passion Animal Moral Serious Killing Greed Contrary Excitement Aspiration Righteous Immoral Sincerely Abstinence Animal Food

Author:Leo Tolstoy

“This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour.”

Should Ideas Form Natural Lines Expression Appearance Contrary Defined Primaries Colour Plastic Abstraction Straight Lines Natural Forms

Author:Piet Mondrian

“Self-confidence is not pride. Just the contrary: only a person or a nation that is self-confident, in the best sense of the word, is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving its enemies and regretting its own guilt.”

Persons Self Nations Accepting Enemy Regret Pride Listening Capable Forgiving Guilt Self Confidence Contrary Self Confident Listening To Others

Author:Vaclav Havel