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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“The difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic mind is of such controlling importance in regard to every intellectual function, and especially for the conduct of life, that it is out of the question to admit that both are normal, and the great majority of mankind are naturally optimistic.”

Mind Differences Mankind Normal Intellectual Function Importance Regard Majority Optimistic Pessimistic

Book:Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)

Source: Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)

“There's generally no good reason why others should care about most of any one artist's work. The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.”

Should Reason Care Artist Teach Function Majority Reason Why Overwhelming Soar Fractions Artwork

Book:Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Source: Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

“Because of a mass media more interested in gossip and sensationalism than real issues, I would say a vast majority of the American public doesn't have a clue about how the Congress functions and what goes on.”

Real Issues Media Goes On Mass Function Majority Congress Gossip Clue Mass Media Sensationalism

Author:Bernie Sanders

“The procedure we are pursuing is that of true democracy. Semi-democracy accepts the dictatorship of a majority in establishing its arbitrary, ergo, unnatural, laws. True democracy discovers by patient experiment and unanimous acknowledgement what the laws of nature or universe may be for the physical support and metaphysical satisfaction of the human intellect's function in universe.”

Source: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

“I believe that God has endowed men with certain inalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and that no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these; that the sole function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property, and anything more than this is usurpation and oppression.”

Source: The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson

“I believe it is the photographer's function to reveal that which is concealed, even if it be repugnant to the majority, not merely to record what we see around us.”

Ifs Believe I Believe Records Function Majority Photographer Concealed

Author:Arthur Tress

“Al-Hallaj has a special destiny. He came at a time when worldliness, the luxury, were inundating the Islamic world. His function was to act as kind of an antithesis to this, and he paid for it with his life, and he was very happy to do so. He smiled as he went to the executioner. That was done because it shook the conscience of the Islamic peoples of that time. But the vast majority, the vast, vast, vast majority of Sufis, they have not met the destiny of al-Hallaj. They have spoken about reaching "the Truth" and there is nothing dangerous about it.”

World Kind Done Destiny Special Dangerous Mets Conscience Function Paid Majority Luxury Islamic Reaching Als Very Happy Sufi Antithesis Executioners Worldliness

Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness

“This House cannot function without an open, accountable, and independent ethics process; and the molestation of that process by the majority is an abuse of power that cannot stand.”

House Process Ethics Abuse Function Independent Majority Abuse Of Power Molestation

Author:Louise Slaughter

“Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law--the supreme law--was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but on the federal government. The government, and those who ran it, were not placed outside the law, but expressly targeted by it. Indeed, the Bill of Rights is little more than a description of the lines that the most powerful political officials are barred from crossing, even if they have the power to do so and even when the majority of citizens might wish them to do so.”

“A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent.”

People Thinking Knows Way President Levels Powerful Kings Ideals Doctors Function Majority Humble Servant Officials Witch Tribes Poorest High Level Civil Servants Witch Doctors

Author:Jose Mujica

“The importance of our being free to do a particular thing has nothing to do with the question of whether we or the majority are ever likely to make use of that particular possibility. To grant no more freedom than all can exercise would be to misconceive its function completely. The freedom that will be used by only one man in a million may be more important to society and more beneficial to the majority than any freedom that we all use.”

Men May Important Use Would Be Used Freedom Millions Possibility Particular Exercise Function Importance Majority Grants One Man Beneficial Being Free

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek