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Improbable Quotes

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Improbable Quotes

“It [knowledge] is clearly related to information, which we can now measure; and an economist especially is tempted to regard knowledge as a kind of capital structure, corresponding to information as an income flow. Knowledge, that is to say, is some kind of improbable structure or stock made up essentially of patterns - that is, improbable arrangements, and the more improbable the arrangements, we might suppose, the more knowledge there is.”

KindMadeMightInformationFlowRegardStructurePatternsIncomeRelatedArrangementsEconomistTemptedImprobableCorrespondingMore Knowledge
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“The two basic maxims of the so-called historical criticism are the postulate of the common and the axiom of the ordinary. Postulate of the common: everything really great, good, and beautiful, is improbable, since it is extraordinary and therefore at least suspect. Axiom of the ordinary: our conditions and environment must have existed everywhere, for they are really so natural.”

TwoBeautifulNaturalCommonHistoryEnvironmentConditionsOrdinaryCriticismHistoricalExtraordinarySuspectsReally GreatMaximsAxiomsImprobable
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“Consumer sales depend on the habits and behaviors of consumers, and those who manipulate consumer markets cannot but address behavior and attitude. That is presumably the object of the multibillion-dollar global advertising industry. Tea drinkers are improbable prospects for Coke sales.”

AttitudeObjectsDependsIndustryHabitBehaviorDollarsAdvertisingTeaConsumersAddressesConsumerismManipulateCokeProspectsOverconsumptionImprobableDrinkersBehavior And AttitudeAdvertising Industry
Book:Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy
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“This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.”

WayHumansLittlesRunningHuman BeingsAbilityComfortHorseIsolationWarmthWorth LivingImprobableLife Worth LivingFinding StrengthStrength And Comfort
Book:Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
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“The part of you that is unhampered by illusion-the illusion of time, the illusion of powerlessness, the illusion of impossibility-i s waiting for you to slow down and open up so that it can speak to your consciousness. In some unguarded moment, you will hear its wildly improbable words and know that they are guiding you home.”

KnowsMomentsHomeSpeakWaitingConsciousnessIllusionDown AndSlow DownImpossibilityImprobableWaiting For YouPowerlessnessIllusion Of Time
Author:Martha Beck
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“Why all this insistence on the senses? Because in order to convince your reader that he is THERE, you must assault each of his senses, in turn, with color, sound, taste, and texture. If your reader feels the sun on his flesh, the wind fluttering his shirt sleeves, half your fight is won. The most improbable tales can be made believable, if your reader, through his senses, feels certain that he stands at the middle of events. He cannot refuse, then, to participate. The logic of events always gives way to the logic of the senses.”

IfsWayGivingFeelsMadeCertainOrderTurnsFightingSoundHalfSunMiddleEventsColorWindReaderTasteLogicRefuseFleshSensesTalesShirtsConvinceAssaultTextureSleevesImprobableBelievableInsistenceFluttering
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“Just supposing for the sake of the argument that there is a being of such a kind as that He may with any propriety be called "God", it does seem antecedently very improbable that weak and limited creatures of a day, such as we are, should discover Him by our own efforts.... who could be discovered in that way would hardly be worth discovering. I think we ought to stick to that principle rather firmly. I think we ought to be rather sure that we cannot know God unless God has been pleased to reveal Himself to us.”

ThinkingKnowsWayShouldKindMayDoeHas BeensSeemsEffortPrinciplesOughtCreaturesArgumentWeakSticksSakeDiscoveringKnowing GodImprobableProprietySupposing
Author:John Gresham Machen
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“...the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.”

ShouldMindFirstsStillsTwoIdeasPhilosophyAbleAbilitySawsImpossibleExamplePositive ThinkingAdultsTestsFunctionRateDeterminedPositive AttitudeHopelessHopelessnessImprobableKeep A Positive AttitudePositive Mind
Author:F. Scott Fitzgerald
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“Amphibians are dying out like crazy, and frogs and salamanders may be largely extinct by the end of the twenty-first century. Imagine an animal that begins its life in the water, but ends it on land - already, that's pretty weird. But, also, a lot of them are incredibly tiny and look wildly improbable. They have funny little toes, they stretch their throats into weird bubble shapes when they croak, and some of them are poisonous to the touch. I think kids from the twenty-second century might mythologize amphibians the way kids today mythologize dinosaurs.”

ThinkingWayFirstsLooksMayLittlesEndsMightKidsTodayWaterAnimalImagineCrazyLandCenturyDyingShapesTwentiesTinyHaving FunThroatBubblesToesFrogsDinosaursImprobablePoisonousAmphibiansSalamanders
Author:Annalee Newitz
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“Are we expected to live in a world where we can no longer send death threats to colleagues via email? Where we can no longer IM other people to suggest physically improbable and morally dodgy sexual practices? Where doctoring photos of people to place them in legally compromising positions is frowned upon? Who wants to live in that sort of world? Not this column, that's for sure.”

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Author:Ian O'Doherty
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“I thought of New York as a free city, like one of those prewar nests of intrigue and licentiousness where exiles and lamsters and refugees found shelter in a tangle of improbable juxtapositions. I had never gotten around to changing my nationality from the one assigned me at birth, but I would have declared myself a citizen of New York City had such a stateless state existed, its flag a solid black.”

StatesFoundBlackCitiesNew YorkBirthCitizensNew York CityFlagsShelterRefugeeIntrigueExileNationalityNestsImprobableJuxtaposition
Author:Luc Sante
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“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

FirstsDreamSeemsInspiringImpossiblePositiveBasketballPerseverancePositivityAccomplishInevitableYour DreamsInsightfulDreamerGraduatesGraduationOur DreamsImpossibilityDon't Give UpImprobableChase Your DreamsI Had A DreamJust A DreamDreams You HaveImpossible ThingsSmall DreamsDream WorldAchieving DreamsInspirational GraduationLife DreamPossible And ImpossibleInspirational DreamSummoningImpossible DreamAchieving The ImpossibleLife And DreamsDreaming And DoingExam MotivationalNever Stop DreamingMotivational GraduationImpossible Becomes Possible
Book:Still Me
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