Home / Topics / Direct Quotes

Direct Quotes

Browse 2841 quotes about Direct.

Direct Quotes

“As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.”

Long Book Whole Universe Grows Bits Difficult Numbers Learning Study Century Direct Bounds Immense Volume Multitudes Convenient Concealed

Author:Denis Diderot

“If you put your hand into a fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No: When your hand starts to burn, it moves. You don’t have to direct it; the hand moves itself. In the same way, once you understand, through inquiry, that an untrue thought causes suffering, you move away from it.”

Ifs Way Doe Hands Moving Suffering Causes Fire Direct Inquiry Untrue Katie

Author:Byron Katie

“I was surprised to find out there was a direct line from my palm to my, my, hootchie.”

Lines Direct Palms

Book:From Dead to Worse: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Source: From Dead to Worse: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

“But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course? What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door? What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains? And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path? People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?”

People Ifs Men Earth Law Courses Walks Break Sun Path Doors Tears Wind Judgment Direct Prison Command Chains Iron Strings Garments Yoke Skylarks

Book:Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces

Source: Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces

“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. And an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable…it would have complete power to decide what we are to be given and on what terms. It would not only decide what commodities and services were to be available and in what quantities; it would be able to direct their distributions between persons to any degree it liked.”

“Ragamuffins are simple, direct and honest. Their speech is unaffected. They are slow to claim, "God told me..." As they make their way through the world, they bear wordless, prophetic witness.”

World Way Simple Honest Bears Speech Direct Claims Witness Prophetic

Author:Brennan Manning

“We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.”

Real Technology Learning Teacher Teaching Example Limits Direct Experience Instruction Blink Self Education Good Teacher Teaching And Learning Good Teaching Self Taught Adequacy Experience And Learning

Book:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“All thought of something is at the same time self-consciousness [...] At the root of all our experiences and all our reflections, we find [...] a being which immediately recognises itself, [...] and which knows its own existence, not by observation and as a given fact, nor by inference from any idea of itself, but through direct contact with that existence. Self-consciousness is the very being of mind in action.”

Knows Mind Ideas Self Facts Action Given Existence Consciousness Reflection Direct Roots Contact Observation Recognise Self Consciousness Inference

Book:Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings

Source: Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings

“Since desire always goes towards that which is our direct opposite, it forces us to love that which will make us suffer.”

Desire Suffering Force Direct Opposites

Author:Anais Nin

“The gossip will carry to Attolian spies, who will report to Relius, Attolia's master of spies, and he will carry the news to her." "Her secretary of the archives," murmured the magus. "Hmm?" asked the queen. "Secretary of the archives, Relius. Master of spies is so-" "Accurate?" "Overtly direct," said the magus. Eddis laughed.”

Said Masters News Direct Queens Reports Gossip Laughed Accurate Secretary Spy Archives Hmm Attolia

Author:Megan Whalen Turner

“The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.”

Principles Democracy Design Direct Neoliberalism Direct Democracy

Book:Hopes and Prospects

Source: Hopes and Prospects

“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”

Should Doe Character Government Form Attention Democracy Youth Citizens Direct Constitution Harm Suits Preserves Neglect Peculiar Forms Of Government Legislators Oligarchy

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“As she lifted the glittering strand of diamonds from the box, a small slip of paper fell out. She caught it as it wafted toward the floor. Four words in ancient script, an arrogantly slanted scrawl. Accept these, accept me. Well, she thought, blinking, that was certainly direct and to the point. -Adam's note to Gabrielle”

Wells Accepting Four Paper Direct Notes Ancient Scripts Caught Boxes Adam Slips Diamond Strands Accept Me

Book:The Highlander Series 7-Book Bundle

Source: The Highlander Series 7-Book Bundle

“She viewed ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide as direct threats to her furniture.”

Direct Threat Genocide Furniture Famine Cleansing Ethnic Cleansing

Book:The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

“Gideon laughed. "I like to be direct." "Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inserutable and generally send mixed messages." "I doubt it." "Human interaction is not my strong point," I told him. "Not seriously." "Seriously," I said. Thinking: There is so much about me he doesn't know. Gideon put his hand on my leg. "What's your strong point, then?" "Goats," I told him. "I am excellent with goats.”

Thinking Knows Humans Said Hands Strong Doubt Messages Direct Okay Legs Excellent Laughed Interaction Goats Gideon Your Strong

Author:E. Lockhart

“I like to be direct." "Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inserutable and generally send mixed messages." "I doubt it." "Human interaction is not my strong point," I told him.”

Humans Said Strong Doubt Messages Direct Okay Interaction

Author:E. Lockhart

“The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of your relationships.”

Life Is Quality Direct Uncertainty Proportion Awaken The Giant Within Uncertainty Of Life

Author:Tony Robbins

“Reading was not an escape for her, any more than it is for me. It was an aspect of direct experience. She distinguished, of course, between the fictional world and the real one, in which she had to prepare dinners and so on. Still, for us, the fictional world was an extension of the real, and in no way a substitute for it, or refuge from it. Any more than sleeping is a substitute for waking." (Jincy Willett)”

World Way Stills Real Courses Reading Sleep Aspect Direct Dinner Substitutes Waking Refuge Extensions Distinguished Real Ones Fictional Worlds

Book:Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather

Source: Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather

“...in our time art is encrusted with a noisy, opaque, logorrhea of theory that prevents a work from coming into direct, media free, non-interpreted contact with its viewer (its reader, its listener)”

Art Media Theory Reader Art Is Direct Contact Our Time Listeners Viewers Noisy Opaque

Author:Milan Kundera

“It seems, in fact, that the more advanced a society is, the greater will be its interest in ruined things, for it will see in them a redemptively sobering reminder of the fragility of its own achievements. Ruins pose a direct challenge to our concern with power and rank, with bustle and fame. They puncture the inflated folly of our exhaustive and frenetic pursuit of wealth.”

Facts Seems Interest Challenges Wealth Greater Fame Achievement Concern Direct Pursuit Ruins Folly Ruined Reminders Fragility Bustle Puncture Pursuit Of Wealth

Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

“I went about the job in a direct way. I took the hatchet in both my hands and vigorously beat the fish on the head with the hammerhead (I still didn’t have the stomach to use the sharp edge). The dorado did the most extraordinary thing as it died: it began to flash all kinds of colours in rapid succession. Blue, green, red, gold, and violet flickered and shimmered neon-like on its surface as it struggled. I felt I was beating a rainbow to death.”

Source: Life of Pi - CANCELED

“Why don't they just take him out?" I asked. I'm not politically minded, as I guess you can tell. Mr. Cataliades was smiling at me. "So direct, so classic," he said. "So American.”

Said Direct Classic

Book:Definitely Dead

Source: Definitely Dead

“And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may livethrough its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.”

May Reason Passion Direct Resurrection Ashes Rise Above Phoenix Rudders Ruling Passion

Book:Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces

Source: Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces

“We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.”

Men Feels Country States Government Support Direct Absolutes Conviction Proportion Contempt

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“I have observed that the prosperity or misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its prejudices and, accordingly, to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers. -Juan Crisostomo Ibarra”

People Liberty Sacrifice Direct Prejudice Misery Prosperity Selfishness Proportion Forefathers Juan Noli Me Tangere

Author:Jose Rizal

“Our faith is concentrated in the Son of God, and through him in the Father; and the Holy Ghost is their minister to bring truths to our remembrance, to reveal new truths to us, and teach, guide, and direct the course of every mind, until we become perfected and prepared to go home, where we can see and converse with our Father in Heaven.”

Mind Home Courses Father Heaven Teach Son Holy Direct Prepared Guides Ghost Ministers Remembrance Our Father Holy Ghost Converses Father In Heaven

Book:Journal of Discourses

Source: Journal of Discourses

“The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.”

Love Giving Feels Happiness Marriage Love You Direct Proportion

Book:What I Know For Sure

Source: What I Know For Sure

“We do see Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun Fat, but it's very rare to see the Chinese male actor in Hollywood movies, which is something I take great umbrage with. You know, my son is Asian. He may want to direct one day; he may want to be an actor like his father - and I want that to be open to him.”

Knows Want May Actors Father Son One Day Direct Hollywood Males Fats Chinese My Son Asian Hollywood Movies Gongs

Author:Nicolas Cage

“We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”

“Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the center, toward true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame of their fervor cannot always be seen.”

Soul Seems Desire Force Fire Example Arms Argument Perfection Direct Passionate Wave Burning Flames Nevertheless Maximum Fervor

Author:Hermann Hesse

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”

Source: Real Happiness - Enhanced Ebook Edition: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program

“The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body - to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and transform your life. The more consciousness you direct into the inner body, the higher its vibrational frequency becomes.”

Feels States Body Spiritual Spirituality Consciousness Meditation Keys Higher Direct All Time Permanent Frequency Connectedness

Author:Eckhart Tolle

“There is only one thing a writer can write about: what is in front of his senses at the moment of writing... I am a recording instrument... I do not presume to impose "story" "plot" "continuity"... Insofar as I succeed in Direct recording of certain areas of psychic process I may have limited function... I am not an entertainer.”

Writing May Moments Stories Certain Process One Thing Fronts Succeed Areas Direct Function Instruments Senses Plot Psychics Continuity Entertainers

Book:Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

Source: Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

“There is a direct relationship between our personal experience with the Lord and how we see ourselves. The closer we grow to him, the more clear and complete becomes our vision of who we are, who we have always been, and who we may become.”

May Grows Vision Lord Clear Direct Who We Are Personal Experiences

Book:No Doubt about it

Source: No Doubt about it

“Any direct experience that I have with indigenous peoples and their plights may feed into the nature of the story I choose to tell. In fact, it almost certainly will.”

May Facts Stories Direct Indigenous Plight

Author:James Cameron

“'This thing I feel, I can't name it straight out but it seems important, do you feel it too?' — this sort of direct question is not for the squeamish. For one thing, it's perilously close to 'Do you like me? Please like me,' which you know quite well that 99% of all the interhuman manipulation and bullshit gamesmanship that goes on goes on precisely because the idea of saying this sort of thing straight out is regarded as somehow obscene.”

Knows Feels Wells I Can Important Ideas Seems Names One Thing Goes On Please Direct Like Me Manipulation Bullshit Obscene Do You Like Me

Author:David Foster Wallace

“Tell me, is it possible to love someone who is not as smart as you are? ...But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? ...Why is that? Because we want to know things, how the pieces fit. Talkers seduce, words direct us into corners. We want more than anything to grow and change. Brave new world.”

Thinking Knows World Want Important Order Fall Grows Pieces Fit Smart Direct Brave Falling In Love Corners New World Smarter Love Someone Seducing Talkers Brave New World

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“The writer must be able to revel and roll in the abundance of words; he must know not only the direct but also the secret power of a word. There are overtones and undertones to a word, and lateral echoes, too.”

Knows Able Secret Direct Abundance Echoes

Author:Knut Hamsun

“We drove to the airport. On the way, Clay gave him "the lecture," including all the do's and don'ts of meeting the Alpha, which was only slightly more complicated than an audience with the queen. Don't sit until you're invited to. Don't talk unless he asks you a question. Don't eat before he does. Don't make direct eye contact. Jeremy demanded none of this, but that wasn't the point.”

Way Doe Eye Asks Audience Direct Meetings Including Complicated Contact Queens Invited Clay Airports Lectures Alphas Eye Contact

Author:Kelley Armstrong

“We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.”

May Attitude Wind Direct Positive Attitude Contentment Sail Maximum

Author:Thomas S. Monson

“So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment. We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.”

Way May Differences Attitude Wind Depends Circumstances Direct Positive Attitude Contentment Sail Maximum Do The Best Choose To Be Happy

Author:Thomas S. Monson

“Even the Quran, which Sufis respect as the direct speech of God, lacks the capacity to shed light upon God’s essence. As one Sufi master has argued, why spend time reading a love letter (by which he means the Quran) in the presence of the Beloved who wrote it?”

Mean Light Reading Masters Speech Capacity Direct Letters Essence Beloved Shed Sufi Spend Time Quran Love Letter

Book:No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam

Source: No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam

“Now the proposal is yet again another $150 billion before we start to think about a freeze. But $150 billion spent on more government programs; monies being created to direct and what kind of jobs that Washington thinks ought to be created. Come on. I mean there is a government that can help, and the government can also hurt.”

Thinking Kind Mean Helping Government Jobs Hurt Ought Program Direct Billions Proposal Freeze Government Programs

Author:Eric Cantor

“It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, it has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- free trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.”

Source: The Communist Manifesto & Selected Writings: & Selected Writings

“God's command to have dominion over every living thing is a call to service, a test of responsibility, a rule of love, a cooperation with nature, whereas Satan's use of force for the sake of getting gain renders the earth uninhabitable. Brigham Young's views on the environment direct attention to man's responsibility to beautify the earth, to eradicate the influences of harmful substances, and to use restraint, that the earth may return to its paradisiacal glory.”

Source: Brother Brigham challenges the Saints

“Satan frequently steals the will of God from us due to reasoning. The Lord may direct us to do a certain thing, but if it does not make sense - if it is not logical - we may be tempted to disregard it. What God leads a person to do does not always make logical sense to his mind. His spirit may affirm it and His mind reject it, especially if it would be out of the ordinary or unpleasant or if it would require personal sacrifice or discomfort.”

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle of Your Mind

“Raindrops blossom brilliantly in the rainbow, and change to flowers in the sod, but snow comes in full flower direct from the dark, frozen sky.”

Dark Sky Flower Direct Snow Rainbow Frozen Raindrops Sod

Book:JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays

Source: JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays

“Raphael lifted a finger, tracing it over her cheekbone. She flinched. Not because he was hurting her. The opposite. The places he touched ... it was as if he had a direct line to the hottest, most feminine part of her. A single stroke and she was embarrassingly damp. But she refused to pull away, refused to give in." (page 33 , Gollancz edition)”

Ifs Giving Hurt Lines Pages Direct Opposites Fingers Touched Feminine Strokes Damp Hottest Raphael Tracing Cheekbones

Book:Angels' Blood

Source: Angels' Blood

“There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God's commandment. Wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of almighty God. Not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross.”

“It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.”

World Children Grew Grew Up Direct Connections

Book:The Marriage Plot: A Novel

Source: The Marriage Plot: A Novel