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Elements Quotes

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Elements Quotes

“It is a kind and wise arrangement of Providence that weaves our sorrows into the elements of character and that all the disappointments, and conflicts, and afflictions of life may, if rightly used, become the means of improvement, and create in us the sinews of strength.... the dross is left in the crucible, the baser metals are transmuted, and the character is enriched with gold.”

IfsKindMayMeanCharacterUsedLeftWiseSorrowConflictElementsGoldDisappointmentImprovementMetalsProvidenceArrangementsAfflictionCrucibleDross
Author:William Morley Punshon
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“We talk about spreading democracy and freedom all over the world, but they are to us words rather than conditions. We haven't even got them here in America, and the farther we get into this war the farther we get away from democracy and freedom. Where is it leading us to, and when will it end? The war might stop this winter, but that is improbable. It may go on for fifty years or more. That also is improbable. The elements are too conflicting and confused to form any accurate judgment of its length. There may be a series of wars, one after another, going on indefinitely.”

WorldYearsMayWarEndsMightAmericaFormDemocracyConditionsHavensGoes OnElementsJudgmentSeriesWinterConfusedFiftyGet AwayLengthAccurateImprobable
Author:Charles Lindbergh
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“Work almost always has a double aspect: it is a bondage, a wearisome drudgery; but it is also a source of interest, a steadying element, a factor that helps to integrate the worker with society. Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.”

MayHelpingInterestWorkSourceElementsAspectWorkersFactorsRejectionThrownHolidayRetirementBondageIntegratingScrapDrudgery
Book:La vieillesse
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“American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good will, complacency, thoughtlessness, and optimism.”

MaySeemsAmericaLife IsPowerfulElementsIntellectualToughOptimismAliensNativeGood WillComplacencyAmerican LifeFuseThoughtlessness
Book:Character & Opinion in the United States: With Reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and Academic Life in America
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“The reclusive man who marries the gregarious woman, the timid woman who marries the courageous man, the idealist who marries the realist we can all see these unions: the marriages in which tenderness meets loyalty, where generosity sweetens moroseness, where a sense of beauty eases some aridity of the spirit, are not so easy for outsiders to recognize; the parties themselves may not be fully aware of such elements in a good match.”

MenMaySpiritEasyPartyElementsUnionsLoyaltyGenerosityEaseCourageousTendernessOutsidersRealistIdealistGregariousCourageous Man
Author:Robertson Davies
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“There is little mysticism without an element of transcendence, and conversely, there is no transcendence without a certain degree of egocentrism. It may be that the genesis of these experiences is to be sought in the unique situation of the very young child in relation to adults. The theory of the filial origin of the religious sense seems to us singularly convincing in this connection.”

MayChildrenLittlesSeemsYoungCertainReligiousSituationTheoryDegreesElementsUniqueAdultsConnectionsRelationMysticismConvincingTranscendenceGenesisYoung ChildrenFilial
Book:The Moral Judgement of the Child
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“The corporeal element in man is a large screen and partition that prevents him from perfectly perceiving abstract ideals; this would be the case even if the corporeal element were as pure and superior as the substance of the spheres ; how much more must this be the case with our dark and opaque body. However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the ideals, we find a screen and partition between God and us.”

IfsMenMindMayBodyWould BeDarkCasesDivinePureElementsIdealsScreensSuperiorsSubstanceAbstractSpheresExertionPartitionOpaque
Book:The Guide for the Perplexed
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“I would like to please the reader, and I think that surprise has to be an element of this, and that may necessitate a certain amount of teasing. To shock the reader is something else again. That has to be handled with great care if you're not going to alienate and hurt him, and I'm firmly against that, just as I disapprove of people who dress with that in mind - dye their hair blue and stick safety pins through their noses and so on.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMindMayCareCertainHurtHairReaderAmountPleaseElementsDressesSafetyBlueSticksSurpriseNosesShockPinsTeaseSafety Pins
Author:John Ashbery
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“I often use detective elements in my books. I love detective novels. But I also think science fiction and detective stories are very close and friendly genres, which shows in the books by Isaac Asimov, John Brunner, and Glen Cook. However, whilst even a tiny drop of science fiction may harm a detective story, a little detective element benefits science fiction. Such a strange puzzle.”

ThinkingMayLittlesBookStoriesUseShowsFictionNovelStrangeElementsBenefitsScience FictionHarmTinyCooksGenreFriendlyPuzzlesDetectivesIsaacDetective Stories
Author:Sergei Lukyanenko
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“You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room - proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.”

MayBookEnoughWould BeReadingSoundRoomsPowerfulImagineProveElementsMusic IsSittingNotesFoolishMysteriousAgentsAtmospherePianoBelittle
Book:What to Listen For in Music
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“If, when we compare two versions of a story, the second known to be a retelling of the first, and find that the second has more of a miraculous element, we may reasonably conclude we have legendary (or midrashic or whatever) embellishment. The tale has grown in the telling. This sort of comparison is common in extrabiblical research and no one holds that it cannot properly indicate legend formation there.”

IfsFirstsMayTwoStoriesReligionCommonKnownAtheismElementsResearchPositive AtheismTalesVersionsCompareComparisonLegendsMiraculousFormationLegendaryRetellingEmbellishment
Book:Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity
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“There is no hate without fear. Hate is crystallized fear, fear's dividend, fear objectivized. We hate what we fear and so where hate is, fear is lurking. Thus we hate what threatens our person, our liberty, our privacy, our income, our popularity, our vanity and our dreams and plans for ourselves. If we can isolate this element in what we hate we may be able to cease from hating... Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate; a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them.”

IfsMenMayChildrenPersonsDreamHateLibertyPlansElementsConsequenceCeaseIncomeNoiseVanityPrivacyPopularityOur DreamsDividendsLurkingNo Hate
Author:Cyril Connolly
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“The word synergy comes from the Greek sin-ergo, meaning, to work together. It describes a mutually supportive atmosphere of trust, where each individual element works towards its own goals, and where the goals may be quite varied; nevertheless, because all elements of a synergetic system support one another, they also support the whole.”

MayWholeTogetherIndividualGoalSinSupportElementsAtmosphereGreekWorking TogetherNeverthelessSupportiveSynergy
Author:R. Buckminster Fuller
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“In part of Lord Kames' Elements of Criticism, he says that "music improves the relish of a banquet." That I deny,--any more than painting might do. They may both be additional pleasures, as well as conversation is, but are perfectly distinct notices; and cannot, with the least propriety, be said to mix or blend with the repast, as none of them serve to raise the flavor of the wine, the sauce, the meat, or help to quicken appetite. But music and painting both add a spirit to devotion, and elevate the ardor.”

WellsMaySaidHelpingMightSpiritPleasureMusicLordPaintingConversationElementsCriticismRaisesWineAddDenyDevotionMeatAppetiteFlavorSauceRelishProprietyBanquetsArdor
Author:Laurence Sterne
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“In the sacred fact of obligation you touch the immutable, and lay hold, as it were, on the eternities. At the very center of your being, there is a fixed element, and that of a kind or degree essentially sovereign. A standard is set up in your very thought, by which a great part of your questions are determined, and about which your otherwise random thoughts may settle into order and law.”

KindMayFactsLawOrderDutyDegreesElementsStandardsEternitySacredLaysDeterminedObligationSettlingFixedSovereignBeing ThereRandom Thoughts
Author:Horace Bushnell
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“Regardless of how often the appetite for entertainment violence becomes addictive, increased exposure does risk further desensitizing viewers. And the element of pleasure that they derive may lead them to regard violence as a more acceptable way of dealing with problems, and victimization as more tolerable so long as it befalls others, not themselves.”

WayMayLongDoeProblemPleasureViolenceRiskElementsRegardEntertainmentAppetiteAcceptableViewersExposureTolerableVictimizationDealing With Problems
Author:Sissela Bok
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“My idea of marriage, as of every other partnership, ... is that each member shall contribute to it his or her personality, unrepressed and uncoerced. Thus, and only thus, we obtain the most complex synthesis possible, which may well surpass in beauty, as it surely does in interest and human value, the separate elements of such an association.”

HumansWellsMayDoeIdeasValuesInterestMarriagePersonalityMembersElementsComplexesAssociationPartnershipHuman ValuesSynthesis
Book:Inheritance
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“In bad or corrupted natures the body will often appear to rule over the soul, because they are in an evil and unnatural condition. At all events we may firstly observe in living creatures both a despotical and a constitutional rule; for the soul rules the body with a despotical rule, whereas the intellect rules the appetites with a constitutional and royal rule. And it is clear that the rule of the soul over the body, and of the mind and the rational element over the passionate, is natural and expedient; whereas the equality of the two or the rule of the inferior is always hurtful.”

MindMayTwoSoulBodyEvilNaturalClearConditionsEventsCreaturesElementsPassionateIntellectRationalAppetiteInferiorsRoyalUnnaturalHurtfulLiving Creatures
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“Complexity is looking at interacting elements and asking how they form patterns and how the patterns unfold. It's important to point out that the patterns may never be finished. They're open-ended. In standard science this hit some things that most scientists have a negative reaction to. Science doesn't like perpetual novelty.”

MayImportantFormElementsStandardsNegativeScientistAskingPatternsFinishedReactionsComplexityPerpetualNoveltyInteractingNegative Reactions
Author:W. Brian Arthur
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“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others,thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”

IfsMayWholePurposeCultureThreeAsksBeliefLinesMoralShapesElementsStringsSolitaryConfiguration
Book:The Culture We Deserve
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“Out of the element of participation follows the certainty of faith; out of the element of separation follows the doubt in faith. And each is essential for the nature of faith. Sometimes certainty conquers doubt, but it cannot eliminate doubt. The conquered of today may become the conqueror of tomorrow. Sometimes doubt conquers faith, but it still contains faith. Otherwise it would be indifference.”

MayStillsSometimesWould BeTodayFaithDoubtTomorrowEssentialsElementsSeparationCertaintyConquerIndifferenceParticipationConqueror
Book:Dynamics of Faith
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“English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with elements of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.”

WayMayWholeLanguageTermNaturalSimpleIdentityElementsVariousTricksDataNativeBagsCompatibleNative Language
Book:Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine
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“Wonder is like grace, in that it's not a condition we grasp; it grasps us. Wonder is not an obligatory element in the search for truth. We can seek truth without wonder's assistance. But seek is all we'll do; there will be no finding. Unless wonder descends, unlocks us ... truth is unable to enter. Wonder may be the aura of truth, the halo of it. Or something even closer. Wonder may be the caress of truth, touching our very skin.”

MayWonderGraceConditionsTruth IsElementsFindingsSkinsTouchingAssistanceAurasCaressSearch For TruthHalos
Book:My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watchings, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, from Living Rivers, in the Age of the Industrial Dark
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“Resolutions expressing Parliamentary approval of every Treaty before ratification would be a very cumbersome form of procedure and would burden the House with a lot of unnecessary business. The absence of disapproval may be accepted as sanction, and publicity and opportunity for discussion and criticism are the really material and valuable elements which henceforth will be introduced.”

MayWould BeFormOpportunityHouseMaterialsElementsCriticismBurdenValuableAbsenceAcceptedDiscussionResolutionApprovalUnnecessaryProceduresPublicitySanctionsTreatiesDisapprovalParliamentary
Author:Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede
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“The whole question of pornography seems to me a question of secrecy. Without secrecy there would be no pornography. But secrecy and modesty are two utterly different things. Secrecy has always an element of fear in it, amounting very often to hate. Modesty is gentle and reserved. Today, modesty is thrown to the winds, even in the presence of the grey guardians. But secrecy is hugged, being a vice in itself. And the attitude of the grey ones is: Dear young ladies, you may abandon all modesty, so long as you hug your dirty little secret.”

MayLittlesLongTwoDifferentWholeSeemsWould BeTodayYoungHateSecretAttitudeWindElementsDearVicesDirtyGentleThrownDifferent ThingsAbandonModestyHugGreyPornographyGuardianSecrecyReservedYoung LadiesHug You
Book:Selected Poems of D.h. Lawrence
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“In adopting the form of the adventure novel, Wells deepened it, raised its intellectual value, and brought into it elements of social philosophy and science. In his own field - though, of course, on a proportionately lesser scale - Wells may be likened to Dostoyevsky, who took the form of the cheap detective novel and infused it with brilliant psychological analysis.”

InspirationalWellsMayArtPhilosophyFormValuesCoursesLiteratureSocialNovelFieldsAdventureElementsIntellectualRaisedBrilliantScalesPsychologicalAnalysisDetectivesAdoptingDostoyevsky
Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin
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“Sometimes you think, "Oh man, this is going to be a fantastic movie," and then when you see it put together, you're like, "Oh, huh. Well, that didn't turn out quite the way I thought." Sometimes you think you're part of a project and it isn't that great, and then it sort of becomes a pleasant surprise. But I think there's just too many elements that affect the tone of a movie, so I think even for a director, it may be hard to gauge that.”

ThinkingMenWayWellsMaySometimesHardTogetherTurnsDirectorsElementsProjectsSurpriseFantasticTonePleasantGaugesPleasant Surprises
Author:Anna Faris
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“And it's kind of my own fault too, in the sense that I've used my own life as a literary device so much. I think people feel very comfortable reviewing the idea of me, as opposed to what I've actually written. I find that most of the time, when people write about one of my books, they're really just writing about what they think I may or may not represent, as sort of this abstract entity. Is that unfair? Not really. If I put myself in this position where I'm going to kind of weave elements of memoir into almost everything, well, I suppose that's going to happen.”

PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsWritingWellsKindMayBookIdeasHappensUsedMy OwnWrittenPositionElementsComfortableFaultsMemoirAbstractDevicesEntityUnfairMy Own LifeLiterary Devices
Author:Chuck Klosterman
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