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Idiosyncrasies Quotes

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Idiosyncrasies Quotes

“We would never say to a man, "Be eccentric"; but if he cannot help being so, we would not have him be otherwise. The Leaning Tower of Pisa owes much of its fame to its leaning, and although it certainly is not a safe model for architects, we would by no means advise its demolition. Ten to one any builder who tried to erect another would create a huge ruin, and therefore it would not be a safe precedent; but there it is, and who wishes it was other than it is? Serve the Lord, brother, with your very best, and seek to do even better, and whatever your peculiarities, the grace of God will be glorified in you.”

UniqueOddGrace Of GodEccentricityIdiosyncrasiesTowerPisaLeaning
Book:Eccentric Preachers: Spiritual Lessons and Insights from God’s Peculiar People [Updated and Annotated]
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“...imagine that you hold in one hand an oddly shaped stone. You keep this hand closed into a fist, but still you can feel the stone’s curvature and the pointed edges, the roughness—of course, you know the relative size and weight and might even have a mental image of the color of this stone, even if you have not yet laid eyes upon it. Imagine that stone in your hand. Imagine what it is like to know everything about the way it feels, but nothing of how it looks. Hold that in mind for a moment. Now, imagine that there is a person standing next to you who tells you that she also holds a stone in her hand. You look down and see the clenched fist and she sees yours and you confess the same. Neither of you, it seems, has yet opened the hand and seen the stone. Still, you can only trust each other’s proclamations. Standing together with your stones in hand, the two of you theorize about whether or not your respective stones are similar to one another. You discuss mundane details about your stones (not the special ones—you hesitate to make mention of the sharp point in the northern hemisphere or the flat area on the bottom). Your neighbor finally notes similarities between her stone and yours and you nod with relief and acknowledge that your stones indeed share reasonable commonalities. Over the course of your discussion, you and your neighbor finally conclude, without bothering to open your hands, that the stones you hold must indeed be quite similar. Are they? It is only suitable to say that they are. At the same time, and in spite of your desire not to offend, there is no doubt in your mind that the stone you hold bespeaks a greater prominence than that of your neighbor. You are not sure how you know this to be true, but it must be so! And I do not mean that this stone simply holds a greater subjective prominence. It has something of the universal, for it is, indeed, an auspicious stone! Silently, you hypothesize in what ways it must be special. It is possibly different in shape, color, weight, size and texture from the other, but you cannot confirm this. Perhaps, it is special by substance? Still, you are unsure. The very fact of your uncertainty begins to bother you and unleashes within you a deep insecurity. What if you are wrong and your stone is actually inferior to the other…or inferior even to some third stone not yet encountered? Meanwhile, your neighbor is silently suffering in the same agony. Both of you tacitly understand that, without comparing the two visually, it is absurd to proclaim the two stones similar. Yet, your fist remains clenched, as does your neighbor’s and so you find yourselves unable to hold out the stones before you and compare them side-by-side. Of course, this is possible, but the mutual curiosity is outstripped by an inveterate pride, and so you both become afraid of showing (and even seeing) what you have, for fear that your respective stones will be different in appearance from the model that you have each conceptualized in mind. Meekly your eyes meet and you smile to one another at your new comradeship, but, all the while, remain paralyzed by a simultaneous shame and vanity.”

FormPrideShameVanitySubstanceInsecurityMetaphysicsUnseenIneffableQuirksIdiosyncrasiesIdealRough EdgesPurity Of Essence
Author:Ashim Shanker
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“Identical twins think and feel in such similar ways that they sometimes suspect they are linked by telepathy. When separated at birth and reunited as adults, they say they feel they have known each other all their lives. Testing confirms that identical twins, whether separated at birth or not, are eerily alike (though far from identical) in just about any trait one can measure. They are similar in verbal, mathematical, and general intelligence, in their degree of life satisfaction, and in personality traits such as introversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. They have similar attitudes toward controversial issues such as the death penalty, religion, and modern music. They resemble each other not just in paper-and-pencil tests but in consequential behavior such as gambling, divorcing, committing crimes, getting into accidents, and watching television. And they boast dozens of shared idiosyncrasies such as giggling incessantly, giving interminable answers to simple questions, dipping buttered toast in coffee,and-in the case of Abigail van Buren and Ann Landers-writing indistinguishable syndicated advice columns. The crags and valleysof their electroencephalograms (brainwaves) are as alike as those of a single person recorded on two occasions, and the wrinkles of their brains and distribution of gray matter across cortical areas are also similar.”

IdiosyncrasiesIdentical Twins
Book:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
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“This is to be observed of the Bishop of London, that, though apparently of a spirit somewhat austere, there is in his idiosyncrasy a strange fund of enthusiasm, a quality which ought never to be possessed by an Archbishop of Canterbury, or a Prime Minister of England. The Bishop of London sympathies with everything that is earnest; but what is earnest is not always true; on the contrary error is often more earnest than truth.”

SpiritQualityStrangeOughtEnglandErrorsLondonContraryEnthusiasmMinistersFundPrimePossessedPrime MinisterEarnestBishopsIdiosyncrasiesCanterbury
Author:Benjamin Disraeli
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“I watch a lot of different films. A lot of different performances and I find a lot of little things from the films or things that actors do or people in real life who have behaviors or idiosyncrasies that I like or find interesting and I try to remember that. And then I'll do a prayer. I'll do a prayer to ask the character or the spirit of the character to come and visit me. And let's work together.”

PeopleTryingLittlesDifferentRealCharacterTogetherRememberFilmSpiritActorsAsksPrayerInterestingWatchesBehaviorPerformancesReal LifeWorking TogetherLittle ThingsIdiosyncrasies
Author:Wesley Snipes
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“Introspection is self-improvement and therefore introspection is self-centeredness. Awareness is not self-improvement. On the contrary, it is the ending of the self, of the “I,” with all its peculiar idiosyncrasies, memories, demands, and pursuits. In introspection there is identification and condemnation. In awareness there is no condemnation or identification; therefore, there is no self-improvement. There is a vast difference between the two.”

TwoSelfDifferencesMemoriesAwarenessDemandSelf ImprovementContraryImprovementPursuitPeculiarIntrospectionIdentificationCondemnationIdiosyncrasiesSelf CenterednessCenteredness
Author:Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“There is indeed something deeply wrong with a person who lacks principles, who has no moral core. There are, likewise, certainly values that brook no compromise, and I would count among them integrity, fairness, and the avoidance of cruelty. But I have never accepted the argument that principle is compromised by judging each situation on its own merits, with due appreciation of the idiosyncrasy of human motivation and fallibility.”

HumansPersonsMotivationValuesSituationMoralPrinciplesJudgingIntegrityArgumentAppreciationDuesAcceptedCoreCrueltyCompromiseMeritFairnessAvoidanceBrooksFallibilityIdiosyncrasiesNo Compromise
Author:Sonia
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“Any attempt to speak without speaking any particular language is not more hopeless than the attempt to have a religion that shall be no religion in particular.... Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy. Its power consists in its special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life.”

GivingSpeakLanguageAtheismSpecialParticularHealthyMessagesPositive AtheismRevelationsHopelessSurprisingBiasIdiosyncrasies
Author:George Santayana
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“Individuality is vitally important. When people start to lose their individuality is when I believe they start to lose themselves. I think children are born with this message, and it shouldn't be taken away from them. I hope they walk away with it after seeing the film, and adults too. And I notice it also with myself, because the older I get, the more I embrace my own idiosyncrasies.”

PeopleThinkingBelieveChildrenImportantFilmI BelieveBornLosesMy OwnWalksTakenSeeingMessagesAdultsEmbraceIndividualityIdiosyncrasies
Author:Brittany Murphy
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“Regardless of whether the authors I've translated have been "dead and canonized," or "living and established," or even simply "emerging," I must put myself to the same, old test: "can I do their texts justice?" I've translated twenty-one books, and except for three commissions, I "hand-picked" all my authors on the basis of whether my own peculiar idiosyncrasies would complement their own.”

Has BeensBookHandsThreeJusticeMy OwnTestsBasesTwentiesPeculiarEmergingTwenty OneComplementIdiosyncrasies
Author:Andre Naffis-Sahely
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“Jews are no longer pressed and obliged to fight, hide or deny their Jewishness. What for? No one actually requires today to abandon the idiosyncrasy of some other culture or ethnic tradition. The great achievement of this last period is that we have been slowly, sometimes reluctantly, yet steadily, learning the art of living with differences.”

Has BeensArtSometimesTodayLastsCultureFightingDifferencesPeriodsAchievementTraditionJewDenyAbandonObligedArt Of LivingGreat AchievementOther CulturesIdiosyncrasies
Author:Zygmunt Bauman
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