Best Defining Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“Marriage is also a social statement, preeminently describing and defining a person's relationship and place in society. Marital status, along with what we do for a living, is often one of the first pieces of information we give to others about ourselves. It's so important, in fact, that most married people wear a symbol of their marriage on their hand.”

People Giving Firsts Persons Important Facts Hands Social Pieces Information Married Statements Symbols Defining Describing

Book:Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry

Source: Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry

“While liberals appeared to be safely in power, feminists could perhaps afford the luxury of defining Larry Flynt or Roman Polanski as Enemy Number One. Now that we have to cope with Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms, a rethinking of priorities seems in order.”

Seems Order Numbers Enemy Feminist Priorities Luxury Defining Larry Jerry Helm Rethinking

Author:Ellen Willis

“Now, to take that which has caused us to create the world, and include it within the world we have created, is clearly impossible. This is why Quality cannot be defined. If we do define it, we are defining something less than Quality itself.”

Ifs World Quality Impossible Defined Defining Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

Author:Robert M. Pirsig

“The defining problem of contemporary television is trust: Can you believe what you see on television, does television treat people fairly, is it healthy for society?”

People Believe Doe Problem Television Healthy Treats Contemporary Defining

Author:Jeremy Paxman

“American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos.”

Different Literature Break Oneself Poetry Is Defining Taboo American Poetry

Author:Diane Wakoski

“A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically.”

Source: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks this Meaning of Script

“Football can stand parity better than any of the other sports, I think. Baseball, basketball and hockey need a defining team, in essence to frame the season. Football? Not so much.”

Thinking Needs Sports Team Football Basketball Essence Baseball Seasons Hockey Defining Parity

Author:Michael Wilbon

“I always keep moments that were defining for me in my past and challenged me in my past - from getting evicted out of my apartment when I was 14 years old, to being cut from the CFL [Canadian Football League] and only having 7 bucks in my pocket, to bouts with depression - I keep moments like that very close to me because it continues to be great motivators for me. It helps keep me grounded, and it's a good reminder of how things work, and I never want to go back to that.”

Want Years Moments Helping Past Cutting Football League Pockets Apartment Grounded Reminders Defining Bucks My Past

Author:Dwayne Johnson

“The sane understand that human beings are incapable of sustaining conspiracies on a grand scale, because some of our most defining qualities as a species are inattention to detail, a tendency to panic, and an inability to keep our mouths shut.”

Humans Human Beings Quality Mouths Species Details Scales Tendencies Conspiracy Panic Sane Incapable Inability Defining Sustaining Inattention

Book:Fear Nothing: A Novel

Source: Fear Nothing: A Novel

“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.”

Source: Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock

“Art is the signature of a generation; artists have a way of defining the times.”

Way Art Artist Generations Art Is Defining Signatures

Author:Barbra Streisand

“Now that we are recognizing more fully the value of the individual, now that management is defining more exactly the function of each, many are coming to regard the leader as the man who can energize his group, who knows how to encourage initiative, how to draw from all what each has to give.”

Knows Men Giving Values Individual Leadership Leader Know How Groups He Man Draws Function Regard Management Initiative Recognizing Defining

Author:Mary Parker Follett

“Defining child care primarily as women's sphere reinforces the devaluing of women and prevents their equal access to power.”

Children Care Equal Access Spheres Defining Child Care

Author:Mary Frances Berry

“All religions are not the same. All religions do not point to God. All religions do not say that all religions are the same. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life's purpose. Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.”

Way Heart Purpose Views Known Ignorance Particular Commitment Claims Core Betray Defining Exclusive Caricatures Sameness Uncompromising Who God Is

Author:Ravi Zacharias

“Lack of opportunity breeds dreams of escape. But professionals and managers who have invested in their careers do not leave the work force as frequently as discouraged workers in lower status occupations. Instead, they keep working, but they escape emotionally by defining achievement in professional, not company, terms. ... Thus, the potential for being stuck as career uncertainty grows takes its toll in weakening attachment to any particular employer.”

Source: Men and Women of the Corporation: New Edition

“Speaker John Boehner complained that Barack Obama ordered the U.S. military into combat in Libya without clearly defining the mission to the American people and Congress. See, apparently, you're only allowed to do that when invading Iraq.”

People Military Congress Iraq Missions Barack Combat Speakers Defining Libya Invading Invading Iraq

Author:Jay Leno

“My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong.”

People Definitions Boxes Stuck Defined Beloved Defining Defining Myself

Author:Wentworth Miller

“[the virtues] cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is [i.e. moral virtue] and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.”

Moral Principles Virtue Concerned Add Determined Proof Disposition Prudence Defining Present Day Moral Virtues

Author:Aristotle

“Where defining foreign policy as 'ethical' went wrong was that it implied that all decisions would be exclusive in every respect of any dealings with unethical regimes.”

Would Be Decision Policy Ethical Regimes Foreign Policy Defining Exclusive Dealings Implied Unethical

Author:William Hague

“Whenever you have a proclamation of being chosen, it's always a self-defining process. It's always the people who are chosen who say they are chosen. They never say that about the other. If you're going to say, "I'm chosen," it loads you with a very heavy burden.”

People Ifs Self Process Burden Heavy Chosen Load Defining Proclamation Heavy Burdens

Author:Anne Provoost

“I knew going in that being a single parent would be one of the toughest jobs I'd ever have. I'd been a talk-show host, actor, comic, and on and on, but this gig was going to be my defining moment.”

Moments Shows Would Be Jobs Actors Parent Comic Host Defining Gigs Talk Shows Single Parent Defining Moments Being A Single Parent

Author:Arsenio Hall

“In a culture where the possibility of wealth and the acquisition of things is so defining of success, we end up pursuing things that, even if we are successful, can never deliver what we envisioned they would. The reason riches become such a snare is because we end up evaluating life in mercenary terms and being seen by others in such terms, and life is just not so.”

Ifs Ends Reason Life Is Culture Term Wealth Successful Possibility Riches Defining Acquisition Snares Mercenary

Author:Ravi Zacharias

“All political parties, organizations, and all people should abide by the constitution and laws without any exception. They must all act in accordance with the constitution and laws. I see that as a defining feature of modern political system development.”

People Should Law Political Party Modern Development Organization Constitution Features Exception Political Parties Defining Political Systems

Author:Wen Jiabao

“Santa Monica was a big song, and I always knew it would be radio friendly. But its not a defining song for me, though for a lot of people it is.”

People Bigs Would Be Song Radio Friendly Defining Santa Monica Santa Monica

Author:Art Alexakis

“Once in a while - perhaps every 10 years, or even every generation - a novel appears that profoundly questions the way we look at the world, and at ourselves. Beijing Coma is a poetic examination not just of a country at a defining moment in its history, but of the universal right to remember and to hope. It is, in every sense, a landmark work of fiction”

World Way Years Looks Country Moments Remember Fiction Novel Generations Universal Poetic Defining Examination Landmarks Coma Beijing Defining Moments

Author:Tash Aw

“In a story, you have to have a theme and an angle, you have to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to have a defining moment and kick it to death. You gotta be able to recognize that, by the way. It probably takes experience.”

Way Ends Moments Stories Able Middle Kicks Theme Angle Defining Defining Moments

Author:Dan Jenkins

“There is no sadder tale in the annals of architecture than the virtual disappearance of the defining architectural form of the Modern Movement - publicly sponsored housing.”

Form Modern Movement Architecture Tales Housing Defining Disappearance

Author:Martin Filler

“Defining yourself by your taste is easier than defining yourself by any genuine stance on something.”

Easier Taste Genuine Defining Stance Define Yourself

Author:Noah Baumbach

“For me parks are good when first of all, they're not impeccable, and when solitude has appropriated them in such a way that solitude itself becomes an emblem, a defining trait for walkers, sporadic at best, who in my opinion should be irrevocably lost or absorbed in thought, and a bit confused, too, as when one walks through a space that's at once alien and familiar.”

Way Should Firsts Lost Bits Space Walks Opinion Solitude Familiar Aliens Confused Parks Traits Defining Walkers Emblems Impeccable Sporadic

Author:Sergio Chejfec

“The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a category-defining product. Powered by Tegra 3, it launches us into a new era of mobile computing, in which quad-core performance and super energy-efficiency provide capabilities never available before. With Transformer Prime, ASUS has once again led the industry into the next generation.”

“By its very looseness, by its way of evoking rather than defining, suggesting rather than saying, English is a magnificent vehicle for emotional poetry.”

Way Writing Emotional Vehicle Magnificent Defining Suggesting Looseness

Book:And Even Now

Source: And Even Now

“Girls face two major sexual issues in America in the 1990s: One is an old issue of coming to terms with their own sexuality, defining a sexual self, making sexual choices and learning to enjoy sex. The other issue concerns the dangers girls face of being sexually assaulted. By late adolescence, most girls today either have been traumatized or know girls who have. They are fearful of males even as they are trying to develop intimate relations with them.”

Knows Trying Has Beens Two Self Today America Faces Choices Girl Sex Enjoy Term Issues Danger Late Majors Concern Relation Males Sexuality Intimate Fearful Adolescence Defining Sexually

Author:Mary Pipher

“Autonomy means women defining themselves and the values by which they will live, and beginning to think of institutional arrangements which will order their environment in line with their needs.... Autonomy means moving out from a world in which one is born to marginality, to a past without meaning, and a future determined by others--into a world in which one acts and chooses, aware of a meaningful past and free to shape one's future.”

Thinking World Needs Mean Past Moving Values Order Born Lines Environment Shapes Independence Determined Meaningful Arrangements Autonomy Defining Moving Out

Author:Gerda Lerner

“You are doing something very sacred here, something very daring, during your life upon the earth. You are defining yourself, and then creating yourself anew, in each golden moment of now.”

Life Moments Earth Creating Sacred Golden Daring Defining Define Yourself Creating Yourself Golden Moments

Author:Neale Donald Walsch

“That's a defining moment, there, when someone plays an instrument that everyone relates to around the planet.”

Country Play Moments Planets Instruments Relate Defining Defining Moments

Author:Neil Young

“The U.S. is becoming an increasingly fatherless society. A generation ago, an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his or her father. Today an American child can reasonably expect not to. Fatherlessness is now approaching a rough parity with fatherhood as a defining feature of American childhood.”

Children Today Father Grows Growing Up Generations Childhood Becoming Features Rough Fatherhood Defining Parity Fatherless Fatherlessness

Author:David Blankenhorn

“Defining and celebrating the New Father are by far the most popular ideas in our contemporary discourse on fatherhood. Father as close and nurturing, not distant and authoritarian. Fatherhood as more than bread winning. Fatherhood as new-and-improved masculinity. Fathers unafraid of feelings. Fathers without sexism. Fatherhood as fifty-fifty parenthood, undistorted by arbitrary gender divisions or stifling social roles.”

“The industrial world would be a more peaceful place if workers were called in as collaborators in the process of establishing standards and defining shop practices, matters which surely affect their interests and well-being fully as much as they affect those of employers and consumers.”

Ifs World Wells Matter Would Be Process Interest Practice Standards Workers Peaceful Well Being Consumers Shops Factories Defining Employers Collaborators Peaceful Places

Author:Mary Barnett Gilson

“Reading something for the first time and getting this feeling like the material provokes you on some level, and doing the movie is really just sort of defining and figuring out why exactly you felt certain things when you read it.”

Firsts Feelings Certain Reading Felt Levels Materials First Time Provoking Defining

Author:Kristen Stewart

“Multiculturalism is a campaign to lower America's moral status by defining the American experience is terms of myriad repressionsand their victims. By rewriting history, and by using name calling ("Racist! Sexist! Homophobe!") to inhibit debate, multiculturalists cultivate grievances, self pity and claims to entitlements arising from victimization.”

“Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.”

People Ifs Art Spiritual Artist Term Moral Creativity Creation Shapes Ideals Core Realms Broads Idealism Defining

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential Turgenev

“To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.”

World Mean Spiritual Work Social Justice Defining Reacting

Author:Christina Baldwin

“Can the existence of a mathematical entity be proved without defining it ?”

Existence Mathematical Entity Defining

Author:Jacques Hadamard

“What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has really succeeded in defining mathematics; it is always something else. Roughly speaking, people know that it deals with numbers, figures, with relations, operations, and that its formal procedures involving axioms, proofs, lemmas, theorems have not changed since the time of Archimedes.”

People Knows Deals Numbers Figures Changed Relation Mathematics Proof Operations Formal Defining Procedures Involving Axioms Theorems Exactly Is

Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“[Ella Baker]'s second defining characteristic was her dislike of top-down leadership... 'She felt leaders were not appointed but the rose up. Someone will rise. Someone will emerge'. It was an attitude Baker shared with some of the older women in the movement.”

Felt Attitude Leader Movement Rose Characteristics Dislike Defining Bakers Older Women Top Down

Author:Gail Collins

“Because the results are expressed in numbers, it is easy to make the mistake of thinking that the intelligence test is a measure like a foot ruler or a pair of scales. It is, of course, a quite different sort of measure. Intelligence is not an abstraction like length and weight; it is an exceedingly complicated notion - which nobody has yet succeeded in defining.”

Thinking Different Courses Easy Results Numbers Mistake Feet Tests Weight Notion Complicated Scales Pairs Length Rulers Abstraction Defining

Author:Walter Lippmann

“We can carry the burden of hurt throughout our lives. We can make the hurt that we have experienced the defining aspect of our stories of ourselves. That means that somebody else gets to say who we are, somebody else gets to decide how we feel, and somebody else gets to decide how we see the world. Forgiveness not only frees us from the burden of someone else's opinion of us, but it allows us the opportunity to really write a story of ourselves that we can love, enjoy, relish, and live into.”

World Feels Writing Mean Stories Opportunity Enjoy Hurt Opinion Our Lives Aspect Burden Who We Are Defining Relish

Author:Desmond Tutu

“Even in an intensely mediated world, in a world that offers at least the illusion of radical self-invention and radical freedom of choice, I as a novelist am drawn to the things you can't get away from. Because much of the promise of radical self-invention, of defining yourself through this marvelous freedom of choice, it's just a lie. It's a lie that we all buy into, because it helps the economy run.”

World Self Helping Running Lying Choices Economy Promise Offers Illusion Invention Radical Novelists Get Away Marvelous Defining Freedom Of Choice Define Yourself

Author:Jonathan Franzen

“As I have continued to make music and progress as an artist, I think I am steadily getting better at expanding my lyrical content and defining who I am as an artist.”

Thinking Artist Progress Who I Am Get Better Expanding Defining Lyrical

Author:Mike Stud

“More and more people are defining themselves not by what they are about, but by what they are against, what they are overcoming, the thing that is wrong with them.”

People Overcoming Defining

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

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Defining Quotes