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Impossible Quotes

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Impossible Quotes

“From the ethical point of view, no one can escape responsibility with the excuse that he is only an individual, on whom the fate of the world does not depend. Not only can this not be known objectively for certain, because it is always possible that it will depend precisely on the individual, but this kind of thinking is also made impossible by the very essence of ethics, by conscience and the sense of responsibility.”

ThinkingWorldKindDoeMadeCertainIndividualViewsResponsibilityKnownFateImpossibleDependsEthicsConscienceEssenceExcusePoint Of ViewEthicalSense Of Responsibility
Author:Gyorgy Lukacs
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“The notion that a society could be regulated entirely by market forces is a utopian fantasy: an impossible dream generated by imagining what the world would be like if everyone's behavior was utterly consistent with some abstract moral ideal-in this case, economic theories that assume all human action is based on calculating, systematic, (but scrupulously law-abiding), greed.”

IfsWorldHumansDreamWould BeActionLawForceMoralCasesFantasyImpossibleEconomicTheoryBehaviorIdealsAssumingNotionGreedLibertarianAbstractConsistentAbidingSystematicUtopianCalculatingHuman ActionsEconomic TheoryImpossible Dream
Author:David Graeber
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“The improbability of a malicious story serves but to help forward the currency of it, because it increases the scandal. So that, in such instances, the world is like the pious St. Austin, who said he believed some things because they were absurd and impossible.”

WorldSaidHelpingStoriesImpossibleIncreaseAbsurdInstanceCurrencyScandalPiousMaliciousAustinImprobability
Book:The works of Laurence Sterne, with a life of the author, written by himself
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“I try to keep deep love out of my stories because, once that particular subject comes up, it is almost impossible to talk about anything else. Readers don't want to hear about anything else. They go gaga about love. If a lover in a story wins his true love, that's the end of the tale, even if World War III is about to begin, and the sky is black with flying saucers.”

IfsWorldWantLoveTryingWarEndsStoriesWinningBlackImpossibleSkySubjectsParticularReaderLoversCome UpFlyingTalesWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiWorld War IDeep LoveGagaFlying Saucers
Book:Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut
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“The uncommon man has done the impossible and there has been that much more light in the world because of it. Children respond to heroes by thinking creatively and sometimes in breaking beyond the bounds of the impossible in their turn, and so becoming heroes themselves.”

ThinkingMenWorldChildrenHas BeensSometimesDoneLightTurnsImpossibleBecomingHeroBoundsUncommonCommon Man
Book:The Crosswicks Journals: A Circle of Quiet, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, The Irrational Season, and Two-Part Invention
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“For any one who is pervaded with the sense of causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of a Being who interferes with the sequence of events in the world is absolutely impossible. Neither the religion of fear nor the social-moral religion can have any hold on him.”

WorldIdeasRealGodHappensLawSocialAcceptingMoralImpossibleEventsAssumptionInterfereEarnestSequenceCausalitySequence Of Events
Book:Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
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“The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can. Yet our society, with its intolerance of failure and poverty, traps millions of people in positions where any kind of success seems impossible to contemplate, and in which failure itself is a kind of passive rebellion against their own misery and the social system which created it in the first place. To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it.”

PeopleWorldFirstsBelieveKindSeemsOrderSocialAcceptingPovertyMillionsImpossiblePositionSucceedDemandMiseryOur SocietyRebellionContemplatingIntolerancePassiveTrapsRise AboveSocial SystemsOrder To SucceedRise Above It
Author:Michael Korda
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“Contemporary Christian proclamation is faced with the question whether, when it demands faith from men and women, it expects them to acknowledge this mythical world picture from the past. If this is impossible, it has to face the question whether the New Testament proclamation has a truth that is independent of the mythical world picture, in which case it would be the task of theology to demythologize the Christian proclamation.”

IfsMenWorldWould BeChristianPastFacesCasesImpossibleDemandMen And WomenTasksIndependentTheologyContemporaryAcknowledgeTestamentNew TestamentProclamationContemporary Christian
Author:Rudolf Bultmann
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“It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work.”

ThinkingWorldWould BePastImpossibleAcceptanceDemandBlindMythologyResolveSheerTestamentNew TestamentBlind Acceptance
Author:Rudolf Bultmann
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“I tremble for our world, where, in the smallest ways, we find it impossible, as Marshall Hodgson enjoined, to find room for the other in our minds. If we cannot accommodate a viewpoint in a friend without resorting to unkindness, how can we hope to heal the terrible problems of our planet? I no longer think that any principle or opinion is worth anything if it makes you unkind or intolerant.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayMindProblemRoomsOpinionPrinciplesImpossiblePlanetsTerribleHealOur WorldSmallestOur PlanetViewpointsAccommodateUnkindUnkindness
Book:The Spiral Staircase
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“It must appear impossible, that theism could, from reasoning, have been the primary religion of human race, and have afterwards, by its corruption, given birth to polytheism and to all the various superstitions of the heathen world. Reason, when obvious, prevents these corruptions: When abstruse, it keeps the principles entirely from the knowledge of the vulgar, who are alone liable to corrupt any principle or opinion.”

WorldHumansHas BeensReasonGivenRaceOpinionPrinciplesImpossibleBirthObviousVariousCorruptionPrimariesHuman RaceReasoningSuperstitionsVulgarLiableTheismHeathenPolytheism
Book:The Natural History of Religion: Revision of Great Book
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“Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed in certain ways, neutrality means accepting the way things are now. It is a world of clashing interests – war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism – and it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts.”

WorldWayMeanWarSeemsMovingCertainInterestWealthAcceptingDemocracyImpossibleConflictGreedNationalismNeutralityMoving InElitismUndesirableInternationalism
Book:Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice
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“Possibly worst of all, from the standpoint of the dedicated enemies of freedom, the Internet is a world that libertarians - having been marginalized for three decades by the establishment media - have made their own, almost without effort. It's an alternative reality (unlike 'meat-space' we live in) in which - exactly like intelligence, bravery, or virtue - the human capacity for violence is not additive, and in which it's impossible to initiate force against anybody.”

WorldHumansMadeRealityThreeForceSpaceEffortEnemyVirtueViolenceImpossibleWorstMediaInternetCapacityBraveryLibertarianDecadesAlternativesMeatDedicatedEstablishmentStandpointInitiateMarginalizedHuman CapacityAdditives
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“[T]he individual in whom the will for the light is strong and clear finds his heart inextricably bound up with the struggle of the forces of light in his native place and time. Much as he may long for the opportunity of fuller self- expression in a happier world, he knows that for him self-expression is impossible save in the world in which his mind is rooted. The individual in whom the will for the light is weak soon persuades himself that his opportunity lies elsewhere.”

KnowsWorldMindHeartMayLongSelfLightLyingOpportunityIndividualStrongForceStruggleClearImpossibleExpressionWeakBoundsNativeElsewhereRootedSelf ExpressionPlace And TimeNative Place
Book:Darkness and the light
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“Physiologically adult humans are not meant to spend an additional 10 years in a school system; their brains map that onto "I have been assigned low tribal status". And so, of course, they plot rebellion - accuse the existing tribal overlords of corruption plot, perhaps to split off their own little tribe in the savanna, not realizing that this is impossible in the Modern World.”

WorldYearsHumansLittlesHas BeensSchoolCoursesRealizingBrainImpossibleModernLowsAdultsCorruptionPlotMapsRebellionSplitsTribesModern WorldSchool SystemSavanna
Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
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“You can begin to see an amalgamation of cultures, the real beginning of one world. Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine a Cockney singing group with a Southern Negro style and Indian and electronic music. I wonder if people have even noticed what a tremendous cultural signal the Beatles are.”

PeopleIfsWorldYearsHas BeensRealCultureWonderImagineImpossibleGroupsStyleTenSingingYears AgoIndianSouthernSignalsElectronic MusicCockneysAmalgamation
Author:Alan Arkin
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“It's impossible to say that live art enjoys any single status in the information age--there are versions of live art that are still primarily art-world phenomena, others that appeal to much broader audiences. The Burning Man festival is a case in point--an event featuring performance that is itself a performance, which partakes simultaneously of frontier mythology, a counter-cultural impulse, and popular cultural visibility.”

MenWorldArtStillsAgeEnjoyCasesAudienceImpossibleEventsInformationPerformancesMythologyVersionsBurningAppealsImpulseFestivalsFrontiersArt WorldInformation AgeVisibilitySingle StatusBurning Man
Author:Philip Auslander
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“Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions. It sanctified, quite like Mohammedism, extermination and tyranny. All this would have been impossible if, like Buddhism, it had looked only for peace and the liberation of souls. It looked beyond; it dreamt of infinite blisses and crowns it should be crowned with before an electrified universe and an applauding God... Buddhism had tried to quiet a sick world with anesthetics; Christianity sought to purge it with fire.”

IfsWorldShouldHas BeensWarSoulReligionUniverseChristianityFireImpossibleBuddhismMoralityQuietAmbitionHatredSickInfiniteTyrannyLiberationBlissCrownsBurnedScentHeresyFuriousPersecutedHoundsExterminationAnestheticsSick World
Author:George Santayana
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“Michael Jackson did something that no one else in history has managed - he connected with people on every level imaginable, all over the world. He seemed to speak to people at their very core and achieved the impossible. He reached people on a deep emotional level. And that is what any great artist or showman dreams of doing. That is why Michael Jackson was so special to me.”

PeopleWorldDreamArtistSpeakLevelsImpossibleSpecialEmotionalConnectedCoreGreat ArtGreat ArtistSpecial To MeDeep Emotional
Author:David Blaine
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“And so, at least symbolically, the blood of Eve courses through each one of her daughters' veins. We are each associated with life; each subject to the impossible expectations and cruel projections of men; each fallen, blamed, and misunderstood; and each stubbornly vital to the process of bringing something new--perhaps something better--into this world...We are each an Eve.”

MenWorldCoursesProcessImpossibleBloodSubjectsThis WorldExpectationsDaughterFallenSomething NewVeinsMisunderstoodProjectionSomething Better
Book:A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband 'Master'
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“There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of the censure of the world,--to despise it, to return the like, or to endeavor to live so as to avoid it; the first of these is usually pretended, the last is almost impossible, the universal practice is for the second.”

MenWorldWayFirstsLastsThreePracticeImpossibleReturnUniversalRevengeEndeavorDespiseCensureThree Ways
Book:The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions
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“My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible.”

WorldTryingBelieveDoneDesireOrderChangePowerImpossibleSucceedThirdsFortuneConquerOur ThoughtsMaxims
Author:Rene Descartes
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“The world of counterterrorism is like that old jigsaw puzzle in the back of the closet: Its many missing pieces and extra parts jumbled in from other puzzles make it almost impossible to assemble. But in Ghost, Fred Burton manages to join together enough pieces to give us a discerning look at that world. This is a story, told in human terms, that will help make sense of the great puzzle of our times.”

WorldGivingHumansLooksEnoughHelpingStoriesTogetherTermPiecesImpossibleMissingGhostManageMake SenseOur TimeExtrasClosetsPuzzlesDiscerningJigsawJigsaw PuzzlesMissing Piece
Author:Eric L. Haney
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