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Contrary Quotes

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Contrary Quotes

“In the ordinary, everyday understandings of the words involved, to say that someone survived death is to contradict yourself; while to assert that all of us live forever is to assert a manifest falsehood, the flat contrary of a universally known truth: namely, the truth that all human beings are mortal. For when, after some disaster, the 'dead' and the 'survivors' have both been listed, what logical space remains for a third category?”

HumansUnderstandingHuman BeingsSpaceKnownForeverAtheismInvolvedOrdinaryThirdsRemainsEverydayPositive AtheismContraryDisasterMortalsFlatsLogicalSurvivorCategoriesManifestFalsehoodSurvivedFlewLive Forever
Book:Merely Mortal?: Can You Survive Your Own Death?
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“Many men without morals have attacked religion because it was contrary to their inclinations. Many wise men have despised it because it seemed to them ridiculous. Many persons have regarded it with indifference, because they have never felt its true disadvantages. But it is as a citizen that I attack it, because it seems to me harmful to the happiness of the state, hostile to the march of the mind of man, and contrary to sound morality, from which the interests of state policy can never be separated.”

MenMindPersonsStatesSeemsFeltSoundInterestMoralWiseAtheismPolicyCitizensMoralityPositive AtheismContraryRidiculousIndifferenceMarchHostileInclinationDisadvantagesDespised
Author:Baron d'Holbach
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“It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. That which Agnostics deny and repudiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions.”

MenBelieveCertainOpinionAtheismProduceOughtEssentialsEvidenceDenyPositive AtheismProfessionContraryDoctrineObjectivesCertaintyJustifyPropositionsImmoralDisbeliefAgnosticismObjective Truth
Book:Lectures and Essays
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“There are those who feel an imperative need to believe, for whom the values of a belief are proportionate not to its truth, but to its definiteness. Incapable of either admitting the existence of contrary judgments or of suspending their own, they supply the place of knowledge by turning other men's conjectures into dogmas.”

MenNeedsFeelsBelieveValuesBeliefExistenceAtheismJudgmentPositive AtheismContraryDogmaIncapableImperativesAdmittingConjecture
Author:C. E. M. Joad
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“Because the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land in the United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle and a precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment."”

SaidStatesUseLawCertainChurchReligiousUnitedPrinciplesUnited StatesSupportAtheismLandConstitutionBillsCongressPositive AtheismContraryFundArticlesEstablishmentBaptistsPrecedentAppropriationParcel
Book:The Writings of James Madison: 1808-1819
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“After my engagement with Muslim friends, I pray more than I used to pray. My prayer life has been enriched by my encounter with some Muslims, encouraged by their devotion and also enriched by the ways in which they pray. Have I compromised in this way at all? No, to the contrary, I've gone deeper in my faith and I think my love for God has been deepened and made more intelligent in a sense, more rich by that very encounter.”

ThinkingWayHas BeensMadeUsedPrayerGoneRichPrayingIntelligentDeeperContraryDevotionGod LoveEncountersEngagementI PrayPrayer Life
Author:Miroslav Volf
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“We're into an age of excessive individuals, all right. We're into the age were independence, autonomy, convenience, sometimes selfishness. The new trinity of me, myself and I, seems to dominate. We know that's contrary to the very nature of the human person. The very nature of the human person needs God and needs other people.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsHumansPersonsSometimesSeemsAgeIndividualIndependenceContrarySelfishnessAutonomyConvenienceTrinityNeed God
Author:Timothy M. Dolan
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“I wish and will continue to wish, that the German people should learn that by reason of practical examples afforded by their ability and work, they are not a second-rate or inferior people in comparison with others. On the contrary they are their equals according to all true standards of values and therefore entitled to equal rights in all respects.”

PeopleShouldReasonValuesWishAbilityRightsExampleEqualStandardsRateContraryPracticalsComparisonInferiorsEntitledEqual RightsSecond Rate
Author:Adolf Hitler
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“Introspection is self-improvement and therefore introspection is self-centeredness. Awareness is not self-improvement. On the contrary, it is the ending of the self, of the “I,” with all its peculiar idiosyncrasies, memories, demands, and pursuits. In introspection there is identification and condemnation. In awareness there is no condemnation or identification; therefore, there is no self-improvement. There is a vast difference between the two.”

TwoSelfDifferencesMemoriesAwarenessDemandSelf ImprovementContraryImprovementPursuitPeculiarIntrospectionIdentificationCondemnationIdiosyncrasiesSelf CenterednessCenteredness
Author:Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“Contrary to popular stereotypes, seeking simplicity doesn't require that you become a monk, a subsistence forager, or a wild-eyed revolutionary. Nor does it mean that you must unconditionally avoid the role of consumer. Rather, simplicity merely requires a bit of personal sacrifice: an adjustment of your habits and routines within consumer society itself.”

MeanDoeBitsRolesSacrificeHabitSimplicitySeekingContraryConsumersRevolutionaryStereotypeMonkAdjustmentSubsistencePersonal Sacrifice
Author:Rolf Potts
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“You think because you face situations not of your making that you exercise no choice? That you are helpless? To the contrary, child. Your whole life has been full of choices. Hiding from a hard truth is a choice. Surrender - even to the inevitable - is a choice. Even in death there is a choice. You may have no control over the time or manner of your death, but you can choose how you face it.”

ThinkingMayChildrenHas BeensHardWholeFacesChoicesSituationExerciseTruth IsContraryWhole LifeSurrenderInevitableHidingHelplessHard Truths
Author:C. L. Wilson
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“If we set out with... a scrupulous regard to the Constitution, the government will acquire a spirit and a tone productive of permanent blessings to the community. If on the contrary,... the Constitution is slighted, or explained away, upon every frivolous pretext, the future of government will be feeble, distracted and arbitrary. The rights of the subjects will be the sport of every party vicissitude. There will be no settled rule of conduct, but everything will fluctuate with the alternate prevalency of contending factions.”

IfsGovernmentSpiritSportsCommunityPartyRightsSubjectsBlessingConstitutionRegardContraryPermanentToneAcquireProductiveArbitraryDistractedFactionsFrivolousPretextVicissitudesContendingSlighted
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“Popular privileges are consistent with a state of society in which there is great inequality of position. Democratic rights, on the contrary, demand that there should be equality of condition as the fundamental basis of the society they regulate.”

ShouldStatesRightsSocietyConditionsPositionDemandBasesFundamentalsDemocraticPrivilegeContraryInequalityConsistentDemocratic Rights
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Collected from His Writings and Speeches
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“As a general rule, those who are dissatisfied with themselves will seek to go out of themselves into an ideal world. Persons in strong health and spirits, who take plenty of air and exercise, who are "in favor with, their stars," and have a thorough relish of the good things of this life, seldom devote themselves in despair to religion or the muses. Sedentary, nervous, hypochondriacal people, on the contrary, are forced, for want of an appetite for the real and substantial, to look out for a more airy food and speculative comforts.”

PeopleWorldWantLooksPersonsRealSpiritStrongStarsAirExerciseComfortDespairIdealsGood ThingsContraryFavorsNervousPlentyThis LifeAppetiteMuseThoroughRelishDissatisfiedAiryIdeal WorldSedentary
Author:William Hazlitt
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“Meditation is not the pursuit of pleasure and the search for happiness. Meditation, on the contrary, is a state of mind in which there is no concept or formula, and therefore total freedom. It is only to such a mind that this bliss comes unsought and uninvited. Once it is there, though you may live in the world with all its noise, pleasure and brutality, they will not touch that mind.”

WorldMindMayStatesHappinessFreedomPleasureMeditationConceptsContraryPursuitNoiseBlissFormulasState Of MindBrutalitySearching For HappinessUninvited
Book:Freedom, Love, and Action
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“Suggestion is generally better than Definition. There is a seeming dogmatism about Definition that is often repellent, while Suggestion, on the contrary, disarms suspicion and summons to co-operation and experiment. Definition provokes discussion. Suggestion provokes to love and good works. Defining is limiting. Suggestion is enlarging. Defining calls a halt; Suggestion calls for an advance. Defining involves the peril of contentment: "I am here, I rest." "Thus far," says Definition, and draws a map. "Westward," cries Suggestion, and builds a boat.”

CryDrawsDefinitionsContraryExperimentsBoatDiscussionOperationsContentmentMapsSuspicionGood WorkProvokingSuggestionsDefiningPerilSeemingHaltDogmatism
Book:Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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“The truest definition of evil is that which represents it as something contrary to nature; evil is evil because it is unnatural; a vine which should bear olive-berries, an eye to which blue seems yellow, would be diseased; an unnatural mother, an unnatural son, an unnatural act, are the strongest terms of condemnation.”

ShouldSeemsWould BeEyeMotherEvilTermSonBearsBlueDefinitionsContraryStrongestYellowUnnaturalTruestCondemnationVinesBerriesOlivesDiseased
Book:Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton: Third Series
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“It is certain that there is no other passion which does produce such contrary effects in so great a degree. But this may be said for love, that if you strike it out of the soul, life would be insipid, and our being but half animated.”

IfsLoveMayDoeSaidSoulWould BeCertainPassionHalfEffectsProduceDegreesStrikesContraryAnimatedInsipidSoul Life
Book:Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste
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“In the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character.”

CharacterWisdomRunningCommonWiseMankindTenContrary
Book:Works, including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition: withletters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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“I no longer believe the conservative message that children are naturally selfish and destructive creatures who need civilizing by hierarchies or painful controls. On the contrary, I believe that hierarchy and painful controls create destructive people. And I no longer believe the liberal message that children are blank slates on which society can write anything. On the contrary, I believe a unique core self is born into every human being; the result of millennia of environment and heredity combined in an unpredictable way that could never happen before or again.”

PeopleWayNeedsWritingBelieveHumansChildrenSelfHappensI BelieveBornHuman BeingsResultsFamilyEnvironmentCreaturesMessagesUniqueConservativePainfulContrarySelfishCoreDestructiveBlankUnpredictableHierarchySlateHeredityBlank Slates
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Commerce however we may please ourselves with the contrary opinion, is one of the daughters of fortune, inconstant and deceitful as her mother. She chooses her residence where she is least expected, and shifts her abode when her continuance is, in appearance, most firmly settled.”

MayMotherOpinionPleaseDaughterFortuneAppearanceExpectedContraryCommerceDeceitfulAbodeResidenceContinuance
Book:The works of Samuel Johnson, with Murphy's essay, ed. by R. Lynam
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“He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously, who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them.”

ThinkingMenTryingLittlesIdeasSeemsLanguageSoundStyleHe ManDirectCrowdsContraryMagazinesProportionExplicitFew Words
Author:Washington Irving
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“I have been formerly so silly as to hope that every servant I had might be made a friend; I am now convinced that the nature of servitude generally bears a contrary tendency. People's characters are to be chiefly collected from their education and place in life; birth itself does but little.”

PeopleLittlesDoeHas BeensMadeCharacterMightBearsBirthConvincedContrarySillyTendenciesServantServitudePlace In Life
Book:Essays on Men and Manners
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“There is no learned man but will confess be hath much profited by reading controversies,--his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds firmly established. If then it be profitable for him to read, why should it not at least be tolerable and free for his adversary to write? In logic they teach that contraries laid together, more evidently appear; it follows then, that all controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true; which must needs conduce much to the general confirmation of an implicit truth.”

IfsMenNeedsShouldWritingTogetherReadingTeachJudgmentLogicContrarySensesFalsehoodControversyProfitableAdversariesAwakenedConfirmationImplicitTolerableIf Then
Author:John Milton
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“I am a member of a small, nearly extinct minority group, a kind of urban lost tribe who insist, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, on the sanctity of being on time. Which is to say that we On-timers are compulsively, unfashionably prompt, that there are only handfuls of us in any given city and, unfortunately, we never seem to have appointments with each other.”

KindSeemsFacesLostGivenCitiesGroupsMembersEvidenceContraryMinoritiesUrbanTribesHandfulAppointmentsSanctityPromptsPunctualityTimerMinority Groups
Book:Close to Home
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“When you consider something like death, after which (there being no news flash to the contrary) we may well go out like a candle flame, then it probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, care for one another too deeply, are excessively curious about nature, are too open to experience, enjoy a nonstop expense of the senses in an effort to know life intimately and lovingly.”

IfsKnowsTryingWellsMaySometimesMatterHardCareEnjoyEffortNewsContrarySensesCuriousFlamesLife And DeathExpensesCandleAwkwardFlash
Author:Diane Ackerman
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“There are three means of believing--by inspiration, by reason, and by custom. Christianity, which is the only rational institution, does yet admit none for its sons who do not believe by inspiration. Nor does it injure reason or custom, or debar them of their proper force; on the contrary, it directs us to open our minds by the proofs of the former, and to confirm our minds by the authority of the latter.”

MindBelieveMeanDoeReasonInspirationFaithThreeForceChristianitySonAuthorityInstitutionsProofContraryRationalFormerLatterCustoms
Author:Blaise Pascal
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“In How to Be an American Housewife Margaret Dilloway creates an irresistible heroine. Shoko is stubborn, contrary, proud, a wonderful housewife and full of deeply conflicted feelings. I wanted to shake her, even as I was cheering her on, and this cunningly structured novel allowed me to do both. It also took me on two intricate journeys, from post-war Japan and the shadow of Nagasaki to contemporary California, and from motherhood to daughterhood and back again. A profound and suspenseful debut.”

TwoWarFeelingsWantedNovelWonderfulJourneyProudShadowProfoundMotherhoodContraryContemporaryPostsCaliforniaShakesJapanCheerStubbornIrresistibleHousewifeBack AgainHeroinesIntricateDebutPost War
Author:Margot Livesey
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“It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions; on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigor.”

ThinkingMenWantFirstsDesireMethodIllContraryTyrannyOppressionSufficientFrustrationAttributesModerationOppressorsRigor
Book:The Portable Edmund Burke
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“Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well.”

WellsMeanLittlesFriendshipCompanyNiceDangerousBirthEssentialsRegardContraryMannersGood ManVery NiceDangerous ThingsGood MannersGood Company
Book:Persuasion In Modern English
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