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Half Quotes

“When you get down to the bottom of it, only about half of what we remember really happened. We tend to modify things to make ourselves look better in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. Then, if what we did wasn't really very admirable, we tend to forget that it ever happened. A normal human being's grasp on reality is very tenuous at best. Our imaginary lives are usually much nicer.”

IfsHumansLooksRealityEyeRememberHuman BeingsForgetHalfHappenedNormalBottomImaginaryAdmirableImaginary Life
Book:Polgara the Sorceress
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“Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly, a fit emblem for the human soul, for those whose cast of mind leads them to seek such emblems. No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay.”

MindHumansSoulProcessHalfCuttingFitCreaturesTransformationCastsButterflyDecayHuman SoulCaterpillarsRottingEmblemsDeteriorationMythical CreaturesChrysalis
Author:Pat Barker
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“We hardly know an instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison in one pocket and a quire of bad verses in the other.”

KnowsWorldHumansCharacterNatureHalfStrengthHuman NatureArmsWeaknessBlueInstancePoisonPocketsVersesGrotesqueVigilantResoluteStrength And WeaknessStockingsHaughty
Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
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“We cannot enter the realm of the heart where one gender, representing half of the human race, is subordinated, suppressed, or forgotten. In fact, such a system negatively affects both men and women, holding us all back from true integration, collaboration, and union.”

MenInspirationalHumansHeartFactsRaceHalfMen And WomenUnionsForgottenGenderHuman RaceRealmsCollaborationIntegrationRepresenting
Book:The Global Heart Awakens: Humanity's Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love
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“God pity us indeed, for we are human, And do not always see, The vision when it comes, the shining change, Or, if we see it, do not follow it, Because it is too hard, too strange, too new, Too unbelievable, too difficult, Warring too much with common, easy ways, And now I know this, standing in this light, Who have been half alive these many years, Brooding on my own sorrow, my own pain, Saying "I am a barren bough. Expect, Nor fruit nor blossom from a barren bough."”

IfsKnowsWayYearsHumansHas BeensHardLightPainEasyDifficultMy OwnCommonHalfVisionToo MuchAliveStrangeSorrowStandingShiningFruitPityUnbelievableBarrenEasy WayBrooding
Author:Stephen Vincent Benet
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“The machinery of destruction is complete, poised on a hair trigger, waiting for the 'button' to be 'pushed' by some misguided or deranged human being or for some faulty computer chip to send out the instruction to fire. That so much should be balanced on so fine a point--that the fruit of four and a half billion years can be undone in a careless moment--is a fact against which belief rebels.”

ShouldYearsHumansMomentsFactsBeliefWaitingHuman BeingsHalfFireFourHairFineComputerDestructionFruitBillionsRebelInstructionBalancedButtonsChipsMachineryTriggersCarelessUndoneMisguidedDeranged
Book:The Fate of the Earth: And, The Abolition
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“There are, indeed, few merrier spectacles than that of many windmills bickering together in a fresh breeze over a woody country; their halting alacrity of movement, their pleasant business, making bread all day with uncouth gesticulation; their air, gigantically human, as of a creature half alive, put a spirit of romance into the tamest landscape.”

HumansCountryTogetherRomanceSpiritHalfAliveAirMovementWindCreaturesBreadLandscapePleasantBreezeWoodySpectaclesBickeringWindmillsUncouthAlacrity
Book:Dreams of elsewhere: the selected travel writings of Robert Louis Stevenson
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“After Bruno's death, during the first half of the seventeenth century, Descartes seemed about to take the leadership of human thought... in promoting an evolution doctrine as regards the mechanical formation of the solar system... but his constant dread of persecution, both from Catholics and Protestants, led him steadily to veil his thoughts and even to suppress them. ...Since Roger Bacon, perhaps, no great thinker had been so completely abased and thwarted by theological oppression.”

FirstsHumansHalfCenturyEvolutionRegardCatholicConstantDoctrineOppressionThinkerDreadPersecutionVeilsPromotingFormationTheologicalProtestantsRogerSolar SystemHuman ThoughtGreat Thinkers
Author:Andrew Dickson White
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“The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet, I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of a departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayHumansHas BeensIdeasDifferentOrderLanguageWaterHalfCasesRightsMereHuman RightsMeaningfulErasDifferent WaysFloatingSlogansDifferent PlaceWorld OrderRights And FreedomsDeparting
Author:Vaclav Havel
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“I knew the stars, the flowers, and the birds, The gray and wintry sides of many glens, And did but half remember human words, In converse with the mountains, moors, and fens.”

HumansRememberStarsSidesHalfFlowerMountainBirdGrayConversesMoors
Book:Synge: Complete Plays: In the Shadow of the Glen; Riders to the Sea; The Tinker's Wedding; The Well of the Saints; The Playboy of the Western World; Deirdre of the Sorrows
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“Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.”

PeopleThinkingBelieveHumansActionPastCausesStuffTermHuman BeingsHalfBecomingDemandConflictCapableSimplicityForgottenBeing TrueObsessedTemptedSneakRazorsInsistingOld StuffOccam's Razor
Author:Richard Russo
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“The Dutch at close proximity looked much like Americans, apart from their peculiar uniforms, and so it was their uniforms I fired at, half convinced that I was killing, not human beings, but enemy costumes, which had borne their contents here from a distant land; and if some living man suffered for his enslavement to the uniform, or was penetrated by the bullets aimed at it well, that was unavoidable, and the fault couldn't be placed at my feet. The private charade was not equivalent to Courage, but it enabled a Callousness that served a similar purpose.”

IfsMenHumansWellsPurposeHuman BeingsHalfEnemyFeetLandFaultsKillingConvincedPeculiarUniformsBulletsCostumesDutchEnslavementProximityCallousnessCharades
Author:Robert Charles Wilson
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“Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.”

KnowsMenHumansProblemLife IsDiesFightingEvilJusticePerfectHalfWillingSolutionsAbsolutesFinalsAffairToleranceCompromiseManifestationRejectionEtcGood LifeImperfectionInherentEquityNihilismNot PerfectFree ManLoatheInsistenceApproximationHuman ProblemsLesser EvilJustice EqualityHalf Measures
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished, and are unable to finish them, having prescribed to themselves such a degree of exactness as human diligence can scarcely ontain.”

WritingHumansChanceHalfDegreesLabourDiligenceUnfinishedExactnessExecutors
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
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“Avoiding any of the tenets of amateurism, after all, certainly does not make you a good professional. Perhaps it is better to see fearless flair and professional steeliness as two ideas which must always coexist. One half of sport may be about harnessing human talent, but the other half depends on setting it free.”

HumansMayDoeTwoIdeasSportsHalfTalentFootballDependsSettingSettingsFearlessSoccerAnalysisAvoidingOther HalfOne HalfCoexistFlair
Author:Edward Smith
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“Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.”

MenHumansMatterHuman BeingsHalfConsciousnessRegretOughtHabitConservativeEnormousAgentsMiserableHabitualIndecision
Author:William James
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“Destiny is another name for humanity's half-hearted yet persistent search for death. Again and again peoples have had the chance to live and show what would happen if human life were irrigated by continual happiness; and they have preferred to blow up the canals and perish of drought.”

IfsHumansShowsHappensHumanityNamesChanceHalfDestinyBlowHuman LifeLife And DeathAgain And AgainPersistentHeartedDroughtCanalsHalf Hearted
Book:Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia
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“But my belief is growing that our political and social evils are remediable, if only all of us who want a change for the better just get up and work for it, all the time, with as much knowledge and intelligence as we can muster for it. Half the wrongs of human life exist because of the inertia of people who simply will not use their energies in fighting for what they believe in. And finally the wrongs roll up into world catastrophes and millions of deaths and a terrible set-back for all mankind.”

PeopleIfsWorldWantBelieveHumansUsePoliticalFightingEvilBeliefEnergySocialHalfMillionsGrowingMankindTerribleActivismGet UpHuman LifeCatastropheInactionInertiaChange For The BetterMusterSocial Evils
Book:Letters of Katherine Anne Porter
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“By about a week before the big day, you will have received less than half of your invitation response cards. Panic sets in when it occurs to you that everyone invited will actually show up. You couldn't have made it easier for your guests. You have included a card that had boxes for 'will attend' or 'will not attend.' You included a pre-addressed, stamped envelope. How inconvenient could it be for them simply to check it off and drop it in in a mailbox? Very inconvenient. You, evil bride-to-be, are confronting two basic human fears. A terror of correspondence and the dread of decision-making.”

HumansMadeTwoShowsBigsEvilDecisionHalfWeekEasierResponseTerrorBoxesChecksCardsMade ItDecision MakingGuestsDreadPanicInvitedInvitationsBridesConfrontingInconvenientEnvelopesCorrespondenceMailboxes
Book:A Groom of One's Own: And Other Bridal Accessories
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“tis woman's strongest vindication for speaking that the world needs to hear her voice. It would be subversive of every human interest that the cry of one-half the human family be stifled. ... The world has had to limp along with the wobbling gait and one-sided hesitancy of a man with one eye. Suddenly the bandage is removed from the other eye and the whole body is filled with light. It sees a circle where before it saw a segment. The darkened eye restored, every member rejoices with it.”

MenWorldNeedsHumansWholeBodyLightWould BeEyeWomenVoiceInterestHalfSawsCryMembersFilledCirclesDiscriminationStrongestRejoiceWomens RightsMen WomenSubversiveOne HalfOne SidedHuman FamilyVindicationBandagesGait
Author:Anna Julia Cooper
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“there are only two basic ways of structuring the relations between the female and male halves of humanity. All societies are patterned on either a dominator model - in which human hierarchies are ultimately backed up by force or the threat of force - or a partnership model, with variations in between.”

WayHumansTwoHumanityForceHalfModelsFemaleRelationThreatMalesPartnershipHierarchyVariationFemales And Males
Book:The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future
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“The Devil can so completely assume the human form, when he wants to deceive us, that we may well lie with what seems to be a woman, of real flesh and blood, and yet all the while 'tis only the Devil in the shape of a woman. 'Tis the same with women, who may think that a man is in bed with them, yet 'tis only the Devil; and...the result of this connection is oftentimes an imp of darkness, half mortal, half devil.”

ThinkingMenWantHumansWellsMayRealHumorSeemsFormLyingReligiousResultsHalfDarknessBloodShapesBedDevilConnectionsAssumingFleshMortalsDeceivingFlesh And BloodHuman Form
Author:Martin Luther
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“It seems that every life form on this planet strives toward its maximum potential... except human beings. A tree does not grow to half its potential size and then say, "l guess that will do." A tree will drive its roots as deep as possible. It will soak up as much nourishment as it can, stretch as high and as wide as nature will allow, and then look down as if to remind us of how much each of us could become if we would only do all that we can.”

IfsHumansLooksDoeSeemsFormGrowsHuman BeingsHalfTreePlanetsRootsStriveSizeWideStrifeMaximumNourishmentMaximum Potential
Author:Jim Rohn
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“The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists.”

HumansFeelingsLightTurnsEvilStarsHuman BeingsRaceHalfFictionSkyMoralityPureDisappearHuman RaceVoidParticlesEgotismVictorianIcyGood Evil
Author:H. P. Lovecraft
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“A half century from now, our grandchildren are likely to look back at the era of mass employment in the market with the same sense of utter disbelief as we look upon slavery and serfdom in former times. The very idea that a human being's worth was measured almost exclusively by his or her productive output of goods and services and material wealth will seem primitive, even barbaric, and be regarded as a terrible loss of human value to our progeny living in a highly automated world where much of life is lived on the Collaborative Commons.”

WorldHumansLooksIdeasSeemsLife IsValuesWealthHuman BeingsLossHalfCenturyMaterialsTerribleMassSlaveryEmploymentFormerErasLook UpProductiveGoodsPrimitiveGrandchildrenDisbeliefOutputHuman ValuesBarbaricGoods And ServicesMaterial WealthProgeny
Book:The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism
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“I pledge to invest in women because I believe it offers one of the greatest returns on investment. I am committed to the belief that we would all be in a much better place if half the human race (women) were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses, run for office essentially be given the chance to soar.”

IfsBelieveHumansRunningBeliefGivenI BelieveChanceRaceHalfReturnOffersOfficeInvestmentCommittedEducatedHuman RaceSoarBetter PlaceEmpoweredPledgeOwn BusinessReturn On Investment
Author:Sara Blakely
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“That there is a continuous link from humans to gorillas, with the intermediate species merely long dead, is beyond the understanding of speciesists. Tie the label Homo sapiens even to a tiny piece of insensible embryonic tissue, and its life suddenly leaps to infinite, incomputable value.... Self-styled pro-lifers, and others that indulge in footling debates about exactly when in its development a foetus becomes human, exhibit the same discontinuous mentality. Human, to the discontinuous mind, is an absolutist concept. There can be no half measures. And from this flows much evil.”

MindHumansLongSelfValuesEvilUnderstandingHalfPiecesAtheismDevelopmentConceptsFlowInfiniteSpeciesPositive AtheismTinyDebateLabelsTiesLeapLinksMentalityIndulgeExhibitsHomo SapiensTissuesIndulge InGorillasInsensibleHalf Measures
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“One realizes that human relationships are the tragic necessity of human life; that they can never be wholly satisfactory, that every ego is half the time greedily seeking them, and half the time pulling away from them. In those simple relationships of loving husband and wife, affectionate sisters, children and grandmother, there are innumerable shades of sweetness and anguish which make up the pattern of our lives day by day, though they are not down in the list of subjects from which the conventional novelist works.”

HumansChildrenRealizingSimpleHalfOur LivesWifeSubjectsHusbandEgoPatternsSeekingListsHuman LifeNovelistsTragicGrandmotherShadeConventionalPullingSweetnessAnguishHusband And WifeHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsAffectionatePulling AwayLoving Husband
Book:Not Under Forty
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“Parasites are not only incredibly diverse; they are also incredibly successful. There are parasitic stretches of DNA in your own genes, some of which are called retrotransposons. Many of the parasitic stretches were originally viruses that entered our DNA. Most of them don't do us any harm. They just copy and insert themselves in other parts of our DNA, basically replicating themselves. Sometimes they hop into other species and replicate themselves in a new host. According to one estimate, roughly one-third to one-half of all human DNA is basically parasitic.”

HumansSometimesHalfSuccessfulThirdsSpeciesHarmHopsCopiesHostGenesDiverseDnaVirusesParasitesOne HalfInsertReplicate
Author:Carl Zimmer
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“Wrangham cites several studies indicating that in fact humans don't do well on raw food: they can't maintain their body weight, and half of the women on a raw-food regimen stop menstruating. Devotees of raw food rely heavily on juicers and blenders, because otherwise they would have to spend as much time chewing as the chimps do. It is difficult, if not impossible, to extract sufficient energy from unprocessed plant matter to power a body with such a big, hungry brain.”

IfsHumansWellsMatterFactsBodyBigsEnergyDifficultBrainHalfStudyImpossibleWeightPlantHungrySufficientRelyChewingDevoteeCitingRaw FoodBlendersBody Weight
Book:Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
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