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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“Under the old social philosophy which had governed the Middle Ages, temporal, and therefore all economic, activities were referred to an eternal standard. The production of wealth, it distribution and exchange were regulated with a view to securing the Christian life of Christian men. In two points especially was this felt: First in securing the independence of the family, which can only be done by the wide distribution of property, in others words the prevention of the growth of a proletariat; secondly, in the close connection between wealth and public function.”

MenFirstsTwoDonePhilosophyAgeChristianPoliticsSocialFeltGrowthWealthViewsEconomyEconomicMiddleActivityEternalStandardsConnectionsFunctionIndependencePropertyProductionsWideChristian LifeLiberalismDistributionMiddle AgesPreventionProletariat
Author:Hilaire Belloc
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“It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.”

MatterGovernmentPurposeIndividualLeftSidesReligiousPrayerTakenAtheismCitizensExerciseConscienceFunctionMerePositive AtheismInstanceSoleSecularAcknowledgment
Author:Barbara Brandriff Crabb
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“Orchids manufacture their intricate devices from the common components of ordinary flowers, parts usually fitted for very different functions. If God had designed a beautiful machine to reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not have used a collection of parts generally fashioned for other purposes. Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. Thus, they must have evolved from ordinary flowers.”

IfsMadeDifferentBeautifulUsedPurposeCommonAtheismFlowerOrdinaryIdealsMachinesFunctionAvailablePositive AtheismCollectionsDevicesEngineersComponentsJuryIntricateRiggedOrchids
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ability to learn. The judgmental precedents of law function that way, littering your path with dead ends. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary.”

WayEndsFormLawUnderstandingAbilityPathAtheismDangerousReadyFunctionResponsePositive AtheismScreensKneesOver YouTemporaryComprehensionJerkJudgmentalBlinkPrecedentDead EndsOpaqueLittering
Book:Chapterhouse: Dune
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“The one function that most gods seem to have in common is to give human existence some ultimate purpose - and, while it is not possible to disprove an ultimate purpose, there does not seem to be any evidence for it. This is not to say, of course, that there is no purpose in life at all: we all make our own purposes as we go through life. And life does not lose its value simply because it it not going to last forever.”

GivingHumansDoeSeemsLastsPurposeValuesCoursesLosesCommonExistenceForeverAtheismEvidenceUltimateFunctionPositive AtheismPurpose Of LifeHuman Existence
Author:Barbara Smoker
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“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.”

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Book:Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks this Meaning of Script
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“Feminism is really the right of women to be full human beings and to not be defined only by their childbearing function. Feminism is really the right of women to be human beings. That's it, yet that's so frightening to a lot of people. A full human being wants satisfying work and love. A full human being is entitled to both, and is not simply defined by only one aspect of her being.”

PeopleWantHumansHuman BeingsFeminismAspectAnd LoveFunctionDefinedSatisfyingFrighteningEntitledChildbearingWork And LoveSatisfying Work
Author:Erica Jong
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“Totalitarianism, however, does not so much promise an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia. A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable.”

LongDoeMatterFactsRunningAgePastLostForceExistenceClassPromiseSucceedDemandFunctionStructureObjectivesFraudArtificialStableLong RunsPersistRulingTotalitarianismDisbeliefClingingSchizophreniaAlterationsObjective Truth
Author:George Orwell
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“[T]he democratic principle of "one man, one vote," viewed against a background of voting masses numbering several millions, only serves to demonstrate the pitiful helplessness of the inarticulate individual, who functions at the polls as the smallest indivisible arithmetical (and not always algebraic) unit. He acts in total anonymity, secrecy and legal irresponsibility.”

MenIndividualPrinciplesMillionsMassVoteFunctionDemocraticBackgroundsVotingOne ManSmallestUnitsPollsSecrecyHelplessnessAnonymityPitifulIndivisibleIrresponsibilityInarticulate
Author:Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
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“When a republic's most venerable institutions no longer operate as they were intended, it becomes possible for small cabals to usurp power, and, while keeping the forms, corrupt the function of those institutions for their own ends. Looking at things that way, the George W. Bush presidency has been both result and symptom of the decadence of America's constitutional mechanisms.”

WayHas BeensEndsAmericaFormResultsFunctionInstitutionsRepublicMechanismPresidencySymptomsDecadenceCabal
Author:T. D. Allman
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“To wade in marshes and sea margins is the destiny of certain bird, and they are so accurately made for this that they are imprisoned in those places. Each animal out of its habitat would starve. To the physician, each man, each woman, is an amplification of one organ. A soldier, a locksmith, a bank-clerk, and a dancer could not exchange functions. And thus we are victims of adaptation.”

MenMadeCertainAnimalDestinySeaBirdFunctionVictimSoldierDancerOrgansPhysiciansAdaptationMarginsClerksHabitatWadeMarshesAmplification
Book:The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in one volume: including the poems, philosophic and inspirational essays, and biographical studies
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“You cannot keep up a nightlife and amount to anything in the day. You cannot indulge in those foods and liquors that destroy the physique and still hope to have a physique that functions with the minimum of destruction to itself. A candle burnt at both ends may shed a brighter light, but the darkness that follows is for a longer time.”

MayStillsEndsLightDarknessHealthAmountDestructionFunctionCandleShedMinimumIndulgeBrighterLiquorIndulge InTime HealsPhysiqueNightlife
Author:Coco Chanel
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“The soldier's business is to take life. For that he is paid by the State, eulogized by political charlatans and upheld by public hysteria. But woman's function is to give life, yet neither the State nor politicians nor public opinion have ever made the slightest provision in return for the life woman has given.”

GivingMadeStatesPoliticalGivenOpinionReturnPoliticianFunctionPaidSoldierPublic OpinionProvisionHysteriaCharlatans
Book:Anarchy and the Sex Question: Essays on Women and Emancipation, 1896–1926
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“There is no hope for the world unless and until we formulate, accept and state publicly a true moral code of individualism, based on man's inalienable right to live for himself. Neither to hurt nor to serve his brothers, but to be independent of them in his function and in his motive. Neither to sacrifice them for himself nor to sacrifice himself for them.”

MenWorldStatesHurtAcceptingMoralSacrificeBrotherFunctionIndependentIndividualityCodeMotiveIndividualismNo HopeMoral Code
Book:Letters of Ayn Rand
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“Marx was wrong: It is not only the 'means of production' that shape societies, but the means of destruction. In our own time, the costs of war, or just war readiness, are daunting. ... The resulting cost squeeze has led to a new type of society, perhaps best terms a 'depleted' state, in which the military has drained reources from all other social functions.”

MeanWarStatesSocialTermMilitaryTypeCostShapesDestructionFunctionProductionsReadinessDrainedJust WarCost Of War
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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