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Destruction Quotes

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Destruction Quotes

“Air forces offered the possibility of striking a the enemy's economic and moral centres without having first to achieve 'the destruction of the enemy's main forces on the battlefield'. Air-power might attain a direct end by indirect means - hopping over opposition instead of overthrowing it.”

FirstsMeanEndsMightForceMoralEnemyAirEconomicAchieveMilitaryPossibilityDirectDestructionOppositionCentreBattlefieldsAir ForceIndirectAir PowerHopping
Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
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“I've learned to distinguish between the greatness of God and the inexcusable evil that has been done by those professing his name. And so I do not deduce [as Christopher Hitchens does] that God is not great, and that religion poisons everything. After all, if I failed to distinguish between the genius of Einstein and the abuse of his science to create weapons of mass destruction, I might be tempted to say science is not great, and technology poisons everything.”

IfsDoeHas BeensDoneMightEvilNamesTechnologyGreatnessGeniusWeaponsMassDestructionAbuseI've LearnedPoisonTemptedWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionGreatness Of GodGod Is Not Great
Author:John Lennox
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“The threat of mutually assured destruction worked for the United States during the Cold War because it had proved its willingness to drop nuclear bombs on enemy cities at the end of World War II. It might work less well for Israel, because the Israeli Air Force has never deliberately targeted a large civilian population center, and its leaders have said its morality would not permit it do so.”

WorldWellsSaidWarEndsStatesMightForceUnitedCitiesLeaderEnemyUnited StatesAirColdMoralityDestructionThreatPopulationIsraelNuclearWar Of The WorldsBombsWillingnessPermitWorld War IiWorld War ICold WarAssuredCiviliansIsraeliAir ForceNuclear BombMutually Assured Destruction
Author:Alan Dershowitz
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“Libertarians have always battled the age-old scourge of war. They understood that war brought death and destruction on a grand scale, disrupted family and economic life, and put more power in the hands of the ruling class - which might explain why the rulers did not always share the popular sentiment for peace. Free men and women, of course, have often had to defend their own societies against foreign threats; but throughout history, war has usually been the common enemy of peaceful, productive people on all sides of the conflict.”

PeopleMenWarHandsMightAgeCoursesSidesCommonEnemyClassShareEconomicConflictUnderstoodMen And WomenDestructionThreatLibertarianScalesPeacefulProductiveSentimentsRulersRulingFree ManScourgeCommon Enemy
Book:The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom
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“To accept the story of the Arab destruction of the library of Alexandria, one must explain how it is that so dramatic an event was unmentioned and unnoticed not only in the rich historical literature of medieval Islam, but even in the literatures of the Coptic and other Christian churches, of the Byzantines, of the Jews, or anyone else who might have thought the destruction of a great library worthy of comment. That the story still survives, and is repeated, despite all these objections, is testimony to the enduring power of a myth.”

StillsStoriesMightChristianLiteratureChurchAcceptingRichEventsDestructionHistoricalIslamEndureLibraryJewScaryWorthyMythDespiteDramaticCommentTestimonyMedievalObjectionsUnnoticedChristian ChurchAlexandriaByzantine
Author:Bernard Lewis
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“What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration by the length of your own days.”

WorldWholeMomentsShowsMightOrderSubjectsThis WorldRevolutionCapacityPerfectionDestructionPressesComplexesEndlessTendenciesLengthFleetingSuccessionDurationMeasuringSymmetryEstimating
Author:Denis Diderot
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“In the past, destruction of your neighbour might have been considered a victory, but today we are all interdependent. We live in a global economy; we face problems like climate change that affect us all. The 7 billion human beings alive today belong to one human family. In the context that others' interests are in our interest and our interest is in their interest, the use of force is self-destructive.”

HumansHas BeensSelfUseProblemMightTodayPastFacesForceInterestHuman BeingsEconomyAliveVictoryDestructionClimateClimate ChangeBillionsDestructiveBelongingGlobalizationMight Have BeenNeighbourWise Man Once SaidLive For TodaySelf DestructionInterdependenceGlobal EconomySelf DestructiveHuman FamilyUse Of Force
Author:Dalai Lama
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“I believe that we will see a lot of destruction, but I believe that if we can see the right patterns and draw the right lessons from that destruction, we might be able to rebuild before it's too late. And then I have that ultimate optimism that even if we can't, life will rebuild itself. In a way, the global economy might collapse, but Gaia won't, and people's ingenuity won't. We will rebuild society, we will rebuild local economies, we will rebuild human aspirations.”

PeopleIfsWayBelieveHumansMightAbleI BelieveEconomyLessonsLateDrawsDestructionOptimismUltimatePatternsLocalsAspirationToo LateCollapseIngenuityGlobal EconomyGaiaBefore It's Too Late
Author:Vandana Shiva
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“We are confronted with the possibility of a war of such destruction that the whole existence of our nation and of the whole world is at stake. And yet, people know it - people read it in the newspapers, people read that at the first attack, a hundred million Americans might be killed. And yet, they talk about it as if they were talking about something being wrong with the carburetor of their car, perhaps.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWorldFirstsWarWholeMightNationsExistenceTalkingMillionsCarPossibilityHundredDestructionNewspapersWhole WorldStakesBeing Wrong
Author:Erich Fromm
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“We have to find ways in which, collectively, we agree there's some things that government needs to do to help protect us, that in this age of non-state actors who can amass great power, I want my government - and I think the German people should want their government - to be able to find out if a terrorist organization has access to a weapon of mass destruction that might go off in the middle of Berlin.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayWantNeedsShouldStatesHelpingGovernmentMightAgeAbleActorsMiddleProtectWeaponsMassDestructionOrganizationAgreeAccessTerroristBerlinWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionGreat Power
Author:Barack Obama
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“I was born a Zionist, because I didn't have a choice about that. It was the ether of my family life, but I certainly broke with it as I asked more questions about it. And that doesn't mean I want to see the destruction of a people, it means I want to see a state structure that might embody more substantially the basic principles of democracy.”

PeopleWantMeanStatesMightChoicesBornPrinciplesDemocracyMy FamilyDestructionStructureBrokeFamily LifeZionistBasic Principles
Author:Judith Butler
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“Abraham Zogoiby covered his face that night in August 1939 because he had been assailed by fear, [...] a sudden apprehension that the ugliness of life might defeat its beauty; that love did not make lovers invulnerable. Nevertheless, he thought, even if the world's beauty and love were on the edge of destruction, theirs would still be the only side to be on; defeated love would still be love, hate's victory would not make it other than it was.”

IfsWorldStillsMightFacesNightHateSidesLoversVictoryDestructionAnd LoveDefeatEdgesCoveredNeverthelessDefeatedUglinessAbrahamAugustLove HateApprehensionBeauty And Love
Author:Salman Rushdie
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“It wouldn't be my move," Jace agreed. " First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, THEN the ravenous demon hordes. In that order." "He might have sent her candy and flowers," Isabelle said. "We don't know." "Isabelle," said Hodge patiently, "this is the man who rained down destruction on Idris the like of which it had never seen,who set shadowhunter against Downworlder and made the streets of the Glass City run with blood." "That's sort of hot," Isabella argued, " that evil thing.”

KnowsMenFirstsMadeSaidMightRunningMovingOrderEvilCitiesBloodStreetsFlowerLettersDestructionHotGlassesDemonApologyJaceCandyShadowhuntersHordeEvil Things
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls
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“O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait.”

IfsMenWarEnoughMightEarthNightWaitingGraceCreaturesDevilDestructionHatredShameRationalFirmHeavenlyDisagreeStrifeFoeAccordDay And NightEnmityProclaimingParadise Lost Book 2
Book:Paradise Lost (Kastan Edition)
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“The Dark Ages may return-the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of Science; and what might now shower immeasureable material blessings upon mankind may even bring about its total destruction. Beware! I say. Time may be short. Referring to the discovery of atomic energy.”

MayMightAgeScienceEnergyDarkMankindMaterialsReturnBlessingDiscoveryStonesDestructionAccountsWingsShowersDark AgesReferringStone AgeAtomic EnergyIron Curtain
Book:The Sinews of Peace: Post-war Speeches
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“The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and awakened active antagonism. That the honorable term 'female physician' should be exclusively applied to those women who carried on this shocking trade seemed to me a horror. It was an utter degradation of what might and should become a noble position for women.”

ShouldMightTermPositionHorrorFemaleDestructionTradeFilledActiveMotherhoodNobleAbortionPhysiciansHonorableShockingGrossAwakenedDegradationIndignationPerversionAntagonism
Book:Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches
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“Humanity cannot afford to acknowledge all of the blood that it spills and the destruction it inflicts on the world in its effort to perpetuate itself. Desacralization is a process that allows us to sever any relationship we might feel to other living things. By draining the aliveness out of things, we can pretend that our control and manipulation are of little consequence. Man the trapper becomes man the taxidermist, disemboweling nature of its spontaneity and movement, and stuffing it with a leaden inanimateness.”

MenWorldFeelsLittlesMightHumanityProcessAnimalEffortBloodMovementIndustryConsequenceDestructionAcknowledgeManipulationLiving ThingsSpontaneitySpillsDraining
Author:Jeremy Rifkin
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“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”

WayHumansLongWarMightRunningUsedPiecesSeaMaterialsProductsEssentialsComfortableMassLaborDestructionIntelligentDepthHuman LifeLong RunsPouringSinkingShattering
Book:Animal Farm and 1984
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“He believed that all people existed behind varying layers of armor which, like the archaeological layers of earth itself, reflected the historical events and turbulence of a lifetime. An individual's armor that had been developed to resist pain and rejection might also block a capacity for pleasure and achievement, and feelings too deeply trapped might be released only by acts of self-destruction or harm to others. Reich was convinced that sexual deprivation and frustration motivated much of the world's chaos and warfare.”

PeopleWorldSelfFeelingsMightEarthPainIndividualPleasureBehindsEventsAchievementCapacityDestructionHistoricalLifetimeChaosHarmConvincedBlockRejectionFrustrationMotivatedLayersTrappedWarfareArmorSelf DestructionDeprivationTurbulenceHistorical Events
Author:Gay Talese
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