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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“The talker has found a hearer but not a listener; and though he may talk his very best for his own sake, you will find that his mental movements are erratic: they have no fixed centre and no definite object. His talk is like the water of a canal whose banks have given way, which rolls aimlessly hither and thither, without fulfilling any useful function, though it is the same water which was so helpful and serviceable, when it was confined within clearly marked limits by the restraining force of its earthy boundaries.”

Way May Found Given Force Water Movement Objects Listening Limits Function Sake Boundaries Fixed Helpful Listeners Fulfilling Definite Centre Confined Talkers Canals Restraining Erratic

Author:Charles Dickens

“The conception of education as a social process and function has no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind.”

Mind Kind Social Process Function Conception Definite

Book:The Political Writings

Source: The Political Writings

“Atheism ... in its philosophic aspect refuses allegiance not merely to a definite concept of God, but it refuses all servitude to the God idea, and opposes the theistic principle as such. Gods in their individual function are not half as pernicious as the principle of theism which represents the belief in a supernatural, or even omnipotent, power to rule the earth and man upon it. It is the absolutism of theism, its pernicious influence upon humanity, its paralyzing effect upon thought and action, which Atheism is fighting with all its power.”

Source: Mother Earth Bulletin

“A journalist's peculiar function is to read the mind of the country and to give definite and fearless expression to that mind.”

Giving Mind Country Expression Function Journalism Fearless Journalist Peculiar Definite

Book:Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

Source: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

“Precise adaptation, with each part finely honed to perform a definite function in an optimal way, can only lead to blind alleys, dead ends, and extinction.”

Way Ends Function Blind Definite Precise Adaptation Extinction Alleys Dead Ends Optimal

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Even though a definite article is supposed to bring something into focus, Donald Trump uses it in a very general way. It's seen by many observers as a kind of racial distancing. Often using that article seems unnecessary. [But] it is serving some function, which is to represent a group collectively rather than as individuals.”

Way Kind Use Seems Individual Focus Groups Trump Function Serving Articles Unnecessary Definite Observers

Author:Ben Zimmer

“Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.”

Doe Use Literature Social Ability Function Definite Vacuums Social Service

Author:Ezra Pound

“I like to put on hardcore when I have to clean my apartment, which I hate to do, but it's motivational. I like old heavy metal when I'm outside working on my car. Music has definite functions for me.”

Inspirational Hate Car Function I Hate Clean Heavy Metals Apartment Definite Softball Hardcore Heavy Metal Heavy Music

Author:Peter Steele

“How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.”

Ifs Giving Persons Art Important Feelings Religious Views Alive Function Notion Theology Cosmic Definite Art And Science Receptive

Book:The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It

Source: The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It

“The last clear definite function of men—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need—this is man.”

Men Needs Mind Lasts Clear Function Muscles Definite

Author:John Steinbeck

“Those emotive theorists who said that the function of moral utterance was to evince emotion would... have been correct if they had substituted the indefinite for the definite article.”

Ifs Has Beens Said Action Emotion Moral Psychology Ethics Function Articles Definite Utterance Theorists

Author:Alasdair MacIntyre