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Divergence Quotes

Browse 40 quotes about Divergence.

Divergence Quotes

“Ever and again, our mind may become befuddled when we have to find out what is heads or tails. Ever and again, bewilderment may strike our brain when we have to interpret the contrasts between the dark and the bright sides of things when we have got to read complex cases and assess the divergences between the iridescent outward appearances and the grisly undercurrents of particular characters. (‘"Côté cour…Côté jardin" )”

MindBewildermentDivergenceIridescentContrastsHeads Or TailsUndercurrentOutward AppearancesBefuddledGrisly
Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take one step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off the path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn't led you better.”

WayLifeTruthTimeEvilChangeMistakePathProgressEvolutionGoodEvolveChoiceWrongRightLocationBadChooseProgressionNewOldRoadBecomeStepDivergenceSlowlyBranchDriftDiverge
Book:The Emperor's Soul
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“Consensus, while comforting and harmonious as well as efficient, often leads us to make bad decisions. Dissent, while often annoying, is precisely the challenge that we need to reassess our own views and make better choices. It helps us consider alternatives and generate creative solutions. Dissent is a liberator. So why do we punish dissent? Most of us believe that we are open to differing views. Some of us believe that we like challenges to our ideas. In practice, however, most of us dislike a person who believes the opposite of a position we hold, and we creatively look for reasons for his “error.” We tend to think of him in negative terms. He is a troublemaker who is wasting time and blocking our goals. We are quite willing to punish him, most often through ridicule or rejection. We are continually advised “to go along and to get along.” It is powerful advice for most of us who prefer to be “in” rather than “out.” We like being accepted and valued—and we know that if we stand up against the majority, we will be “on the outs.” We thus remain silent. Sometimes we even nod in agreement, not knowing why we are nodding—because we choose not to ask ourselves what we really believe. There is a price for this as well.”

ScienceJusticeProgressIntellectualEthicsPhilosopherRationalityAutonomyDissentDivergence
Book:In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business
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“...one exploiting sect, one people of leeches, one single devouring parasite closely and intimately bound together not only across national boundaries, but also across all divergences of political opinion ... [Jews have] that mercantile passion which constitutes one of the principle traits of their national character”

PeopleCharacterTogetherPoliticalPassionOpinionPrinciplesBoundsJewBoundariesTraitsSectsParasitesDevouringPolitical OpinionsLeechesDivergence
Author:Mikhail Bakunin
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“Either over neither, both over either/or, live-and-let-live over stand-or die, high spirits over low, energy over apathy, wit over dullness, jokes over homilies, good humor over jokes, good nature over bad, feeling over sentiment, truth over poetry, consciousness over explanations, tragedy over pathos, comedy over tragedy, entertainment over art, private over public, generosity over meanness, charity over murder, love over charity, irreplaceable over interchangeable, divergence over concurrence, principle over interest, people over principle.”

PeopleArtFeelingsSpiritDiesLiteratureEnergyInterestConsciousnessPrinciplesComedyLowsJokesTragedyMurderCharityEntertainmentWitGenerosityExplanationSentimentsApathyCriteriaMeannessDullnessPathosIrreplaceableGood HumorGood NatureEither OrLive And Let LiveDivergenceConcurrence
Book:Nobody Here But Us Chickens
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“The progress of the human race is effected by the operation of two forces which correspond in most respects to what in physics are often called, for want of better terms, the centripetal and centrifugal forces. These are the forces of convergence and divergence, the one tending to concentration of powers and properties, and the other to their separateness or the independence of parts. Socialism and Individualism are to appearance conflicting, though in reality complemental, in their relations to the societary movement.”

WantHumansTwoRealityForceTermRaceProgressMovementRelationIndependencePropertyAppearancePhysicsSocialismOperationsHuman RaceConcentrationIndividualismSeparatenessConvergenceDivergence
Author:Joshua K. Ingalls
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“The lower interest rates fueled housing and consumption booms in countries such as Spain and Ireland. At the same time, Germany, struggling with the burdens of reunification, tightened its belt and became more competitive. All this led to a wide divergence in economic performance. Europe became divided into creditor and debtor countries.”

CountryInterestStruggleEconomicEuropePerformancesRateBurdenWideGermanyDividedIrelandConsumptionSpainHousingBeltsInterest RateCreditorsDebtorsDivergenceReunification
Author:George Soros
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“Yet it would be unfair to the generality of our kind to ascribe to their intellectual and moral weakness the gradual divergence of Buddhism and Christianity from their primitive patterns. For it should not be forgotten that by their glorification of poverty and celibacy both these religions struck straight at the root not merely of civil society but of human existence. The blow was parried by the wisdom or the folly of the vast majority of mankind, who refused to purchase a chance of saving their souls with the certainty of extinguishing the species.”

ShouldHumansKindSoulWould BeChanceExistenceMoralChristianityPovertyMankindBuddhismIntellectualWeaknessRootsMajoritySpeciesForgottenPatternsBlowSavingCertaintyFollyPrimitiveUnfairHuman ExistenceCivil SocietyCelibacyGeneralitiesGlorificationDivergenceBuddhism And Christianity
Author:James G. Frazer
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“This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.”

CharacterFormCausesNaturalSubjectsFundamentalsTreatedLengthFourthChaptersSelectionExtinctionNatural SelectionDivergence
Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
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“In the nearer term, the likeliest source of risk is a conflict between China and the U.S. These are now the two largest economies in the world, and the combination of their economic interdependence, the sharp differences in their political and economic values, and the growing divergence in their interests makes this relationship potentially dangerous for everyone who might be affected by it - which means pretty much everyone.”

WorldMeanTwoMightPoliticalValuesTermInterestDifferencesEconomyGrowingRiskEconomicDangerousSourceConflictChinaCombinationAffectedInterdependenceDivergenceEconomic Value
Author:Ian Bremmer
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“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.”

KnowsMenWorldRealCommunityExistenceGroupsChosenVarietyGatesCompanionCivilizedReal WorldFierceClansCivilized SocietyMonasteriesCliqueUncompromisingDivergenceSmall Communities
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“The proof given by Wright, that non-adaptive differentiation will occur in small populations owing to "drift," or the chance fixation of some new mutation or recombination, is one of the most important results of mathematical analysis applied to the facts of neo-mendelism. It gives accident as well as adaptation a place in evolution, and at one stroke explains many facts which puzzled earlier selectionists, notably the much greater degree of divergence shown by island than mainland forms, by forms in isolated lakes than in continuous river-systems.”

GivingWellsImportantFactsFormScienceGivenChanceResultsGreaterEvolutionDegreesRiversMathematicsPopulationAccidentsProofMathematicalAnalysisIslandsLakesIsolatedStrokesAdaptationOwingPuzzledMutationDifferentiationFixationAdaptiveDivergenceMathematical Analysis
Author:Julian Huxley
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“If it were possible to transfer the methods of physical or of biological science directly to the study of man, the transfer would long ago have been made ... We have failed not for lack of hypotheses which equate man with the rest of the universe, but for lack of a hypothesis (short of animism) which provides for the peculiar divergence of man ... Let me now state my belief that the peculiar factor in man which forbids our explaining his actions upon the ordinary plane of biology is a highly specialized and unstable biological complex, and that this factor is none other than language.”

IfsMenLongHas BeensMadeStatesActionUniverseBeliefLanguageStudyOrdinaryLet MeMethodComplexesFactorsPlanesBiologyPeculiarLong AgoHypothesisExplainingTransfersUnstableDivergenceAnimismBiological Science
Author:Leonard Bloomfield
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“The idea of polytheism is grounded in the view that reality (divine or otherwise) is multiple and diverse... Polytheism has allowed a multitude of distinct groups to exist more or less in harmony, despite great divergence in beliefs and practices.”

IdeasRealityBeliefViewsPracticeGroupsDivineHarmonyDespiteDiverseMultipleMultitudesGroundedDivergencePolytheism
Book:Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
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“In England, we have a curious institution called the Church of England. Its strength has always been in the fact that on any moral or political issue it can produce such a wide divergence of opinion that nobody -- from the Pope to Mao Tse-tung -- can say with any confidence that he is not an Anglican. Its weaknesses are that nobody pays much attention to it and very few people attend its functions.”

PeopleFactsPoliticalChurchPayAttentionMoralOpinionIssuesProduceWeaknessFunctionEnglandInstitutionsWideCuriousPopeMaoPolitical IssuesChurch Of EnglandDivergence
Author:Auberon Waugh
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