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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“There are certain people in whom you can detect the seeds of madness - seeds that have remained dormant only because the people in question have lived relatively comfortable, middle class lives. They function perfectly well in the world, but you can imagine, given a nasty parent, or a prolonged bout of unemployment, how their potential for craziness might have been realized.”

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Author:Zoë Heller
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“Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”

PeopleLifeInspirationalGivingProblemSpiritualDiesLosesRolesFieldsGiving UpConsciousConcernedFunctionDefiningPower Of NowDefine YouNew EarthDefine YourselfLimiting Yourself
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.”

PeopleThinkingLoveProblemChallengesCompassionKnowingLove YouEmpathyAdvantageFunctionTrue LoveSolveIntellectFriendship LoveInsufficientCourage To LoveLove And CourageCompassion And Empathy
Author:Dean Koontz
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“People were so naive about plants, Ellie thought. They just chose plants for appearance, as they would choose a picture for the wall. It never occurred to them that plants were actually living things, busily performing all the living functions of respiration, ingestion, excretion, reproduction---and defense.”

PeopleWallFunctionPlantAppearanceDefensePerformingNaiveLiving ThingsReproductionRespirationActually Living
Book:Michael Crichton's Jurassic World
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“How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyze us? How is it we can survive them, at least for a little while? We drive a car, we teach a class. How is it no one sees how deeply afraid we were, last night, this morning? Is it something we all hide from each other, by mutual consent? Or do we share the same secret without knowing it? Wear the same disguise?”

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Book:White Noise: Text and Criticism
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“Funny thing, your brain, how it always functions on one level or another. How, even stuck in some sort of subconcious limbo, it works your lungs, your muscle twitches, your heart, in fact, in symphony with your heart, allowing it to feel love. Pain. Jealousy. Guilt. I wonder if it’s the same for people, lost in comas. Is there really such a thing”

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Book:Ellen Hopkins: Crank Trilogy
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“Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment...'dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love -- which is to transform us.' Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high. They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling.”

PeopleKnowsWantNeedsGivingRealStatesFeelingsProblemDreamSpaceLove IsFantasySecurityEmotionalDrugCommitmentFunctionSolveStuckGenuineBlissInsightfulSteadyGood FeelingUnderminingReal PowerGenuine Love
Author:Bell Hooks
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“How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”

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Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkof was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harboured and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer..."I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.”

PeopleIfsBelieveGodJobsAmericaI BelieveAnswersRoomsMilitaryForgivenessFunctionArmyMurderForgivingMeetingsKillingTerrorismTerroristInterviewsSeptember 11ArrangingAbet
Author:Norman Schwarzkopf
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“Wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in, say, tables. They know they're there, they know they're there for a purpose, they'd probably agree that they have a place in a well-organised universe, but they wouldn't see the point of believing, of going around saying "O great table, without whom we are as naught." Anyway, either the gods are there whether you believe in them or not, or exist only as a function of the belief, so either way you might as well ignore the whole business and, as it were, eat off your knees.”

PeopleKnowsWayBelieveWellsWholeMightPurposeUniverseBeliefFunctionAgreeTablesDon't BelieveKneesBelieve In GodWizardsOrganised
Book:Reaper Man: A Novel of Discworld
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“The thing I was beginning to figure out about Sam and Grace, the thing about Sam not being able to function without her, was that that sort of love only worked when you were sure both people would always be around for each other. If one half of the equation left, or died, or was slightly less perfect in their love, it became the most tragic, pathetic story invented, laughable in its absurdity. Without Grace, Sam was a joke without a punch line.”

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Author:Maggie Stiefvater
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“I like to receive money for my work. But I can pass that up this time. I like to have people know my work is done by me. But I can pass that up. I like to have tenants made happy by my work. But that doesn't matter too much. The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way. Peter, there's nothing in the world that you can offer me, except this. Offer me this and you can have anything I've got to give. My work done my way. A private, personal, selfish, egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayGivingMadeI CanEndsMatterDoneMotivationGoalToo MuchOffersFunctionRewardsSelfishMy WayPeterEgotisticalThings That MatterWork DoneTenantsOnly Thing That Matters
Book:The Fountainhead
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“Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in bathing suits fling themselves into the water, it is joy itself that shows in the gesture, notwithstanding any sadness the divers may actually feel. When someone jumps into the water fully clothed, it is another thing entirely: the only person who jumps into the water fully clothed is a person trying to drown; and a person trying to drown does not dive headfirst; he lets himself fall: thus speaks the immemorial language of gestures.”

PeopleFeelsTryingMayPersonsDoeShowsJoyFallSpeakLanguageWaterSadnessFunctionIntentionPracticalsSuitsGesturesExceedFlingBathingBathing Suits
Author:Milan Kundera
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“To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative — the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.”

PeopleWorldGivingTryingMeanReasonPlayStoriesHappensReadingGamesFictionHappenedAnxietyHappeningsFunctionNarrativeImmensityConsoling
Author:Umberto Eco
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“Who doesn't have a dark place somewhere inside him that comes out sometimes when he's looking in a mirror? Dark and light, we are all made out of shadows like the shapes on a motion-picture screen. A lot of people think that the function of the projector is to throw light on the screen, just as the function of the story-teller is to stop fooling around and simply tell what happened, but the dark places must be there too, because without the dark places there would be no image and the figure on the screen would not exist.”

PeopleThinkingMadeSometimesStoriesLightWould BeDarkHappenedFiguresShapesShadowFunctionMirrorsScreensMotion PicturesDark PlacesFooling AroundProjectors
Author:MacDonald Harris
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“Let me just acknowlege that the function of grammar is to make language as efficent and clear and transparent as possible. But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.”

PeopleIfsLanguageTalkingClearCommunicationTerribleOppositesLet MeFunctionErrorsGrammarTransparentCorrectingFacilitateClear Communication
Author:John Green
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“You must purge yourself before finding faults in others. When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake. This is the way to take judgment and to turn it into improvement. Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority. All people are born with different constitutions. Never compare with others. Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength. Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayTryingLooksDifferentBodyTurnsBornMistakeFindingsJudgmentYogaCapacityFunctionConstitutionFaultsEnvyImprovementCompareInternalsSuperioritySame MistakesMaking The Same Mistakes
Author:B.K.S. Iyengar
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“You don't have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system - a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as "Commissars - for that is what their essential function is - to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies".”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“The sole function of education...[is] to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.”

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Book:Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
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“We believe we are hurt when we don't receive love. But that is not what hurts us. Our pain comes when we do not give love. We were born to love. You might say that we are divinely created love machines. We function most powerfully when we are giving love. The world has led us to believe that our wellbeing is dependent on other people loving us. But this is kind of upside down thinking that has caused so many of our problems. The truth is our well being is dependent on our giving love. It is not about what comes back; it is about what goes out!”

PeopleThinkingWorldLoveGivingBelieveWellsKindProblemMightTruthPainCausesBornHurtLove YouDivineDependsWise WordsWords Of WisdomTruth IsMachinesFunctionWell BeingDependentMost PowerfulReceivingDependenceDeep ThoughtWellbeingUpside DownHurt FeelingsLove HurtLove PainGiving LoveWise Love
Author:Alan Cohen
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“A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.”

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Author:William O. Douglas
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“My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.”

PeopleMenWorldCountryShowsTodayPoliticalOpportunityPoliticsFreedomLibertyDemocracySittingWeakFunctionTwentiesRegardWesternNotionStrongestVillageFascismWorld TodayPatronizingTrue Democracy
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“Most people who meet my wife quickly conclude that she is remarkable. They are right about this. She is smart, funny and thoroughly charming... Often, after hearing her speak at some function or working with her on a project, people will approach me and say something to the effect of "You know, I think the world of you, Barack, but your wife... wow!"”

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Author:Barack Obama
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“I wish that one would be persuaded that psychological experiments, especially those on the complex functions, are not improved [by large studies]; the statistical method gives only mediocre results; some recent examples demonstrate that. The American authors, who love to do things big, often publish experiments that have been conducted on hundreds and thousands of people; they instinctively obey the prejudice that the persuasiveness of a work is proportional to the number of observations. This is only an illusion.”

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Author:Alfred Binet
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“While the primary function of formal Buddhist meditation is to create the possibility of the experience of "being," my work as a therapist has shown me that the demands of intimate life can be just as useful as meditation in moving people toward this capacity. Just as in formal meditation, intimate relationships teach us that the more we relate to each other as objects, the greater our disappointment. The trick, as in meditation, is to use this disappointment to change the way we relate.”

PeopleWayUseMovingTeachGreaterMeditationPossibilityObjectsDemandCapacityFunctionDisappointmentTricksBuddhistPrimariesRelateIntimateFormalTherapistsIntimate RelationshipsBuddhist Meditation
Book:Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught
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“The adoption of the required attitude of mind towards ideas that seem to emerge "of their own free will" and the abandonment of the critical function that is normally in operation against them seem to be hard of achievement for some people. The "involuntary thoughts" are liable to release a most violent resistance, which seeks to prevent their emergence. If we may trust that great poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, however, poetic creation must demand an exactly similar attitude.”

PeopleIfsMindMayIdeasHardSeemsAttitudeCreationPoetDemandAchievementFunctionPhilosopherCriticalViolentResistanceCraftsReleaseOperationsFree WillPoeticAdoptionAbandonmentLiableEmergenceGreat PoetInvoluntary
Book:The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud
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“When the function of libraries is put in terms of their contributions to the community, people see their centrality. The challenge to us is to continue to help them see it in those terms to describe our larger purposes. We must assert that libraries are central to the quality of life in our society; that libraries have a direct role in preserving democratic freedoms. Free access to information and the opportunity of every individual to improve his or her mind, employment prospects, and lifestyle are fundamental rights in our society.”

PeopleMindHelpingPurposeOpportunityIndividualTermCommunityChallengesQualityRolesDemocracyRightsInformationDirectFunctionFundamentalsDemocraticLibraryAccessLifestyleEmploymentContributionOur SocietyQuality Of LifeProspectsAccess To InformationFundamental Rights
Author:Arthur Curley
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“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.”

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Author:Jose Mujica
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“My fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe; who presides in the councils of nations; and whose providential aid can supply every human defect; that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good.”

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Author:George Washington
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