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Improbable Quotes

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Improbable Quotes

“It has occurred to me that possibly the white corpuscles may have the office of picking up and digesting bacterial organisms when by any means they find their way into the blood. The propensity exhibited by the leukocytes for picking up inorganic granules is well known, and that they may be able not only to pick up but to assimilate, and so dispose of, the bacteria which come in their way does not seem to me very improbable in view of the fact that amoebae, which resemble them so closely, feed upon bacteria and similar organisms.”

WayWellsMayMeanDoeFactsSeemsAbleScienceWhiteViewsKnownBloodOfficePicksOrganismsWell KnownImprobablePropensityBacteria
Author:George Miller Sternberg
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“If the juices of the body were more chymically examined, especially by a naturalist, that knows the ways of making fixed bodies volatile, and volatile fixed, and knows the power of the open air in promoting the former of those operations; it is not improbable, that both many things relating to the nature of the humours, and to the ways of sweetening, actuating, and otherwise altering them, may be detected, and the importance of such discoveries may be discerned.”

IfsKnowsWayMayBodyScienceAirHumourResearchDiscoveryImportanceFormerOperationsFixedJuicePromotingImprobableNaturalistBiochemistry
Book:Some Considerations Touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, ... by the Honorable Robert Boyle Esq; ...
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“The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.”

PeopleMaySeemsGovernmentTodayLostMistakeSilenceRightsArmsCircumstancesWeaponsGunCourtRefuseLawyerProtestAmendmentsGun ControlLaw EnforcementProvisionOpposingSecond AmendmentImprobableDecreeRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsUnpreparedPro GunContingencyDoomsdayAnti GunReelection
Author:Alex Kozinski
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“If European symbols and traditions have grown tired, perfunctory and oppressively banal in Australia, or been drained of spirit and meaning by the dreary dictates of materialism and secularity, then the raw spirit truth of our native land is alive and radiant by comparison. For joy and meaning we might well turn to our natural country and witness miracles of vitality and new life, of inspiration and profound beauty; all in some humble, quiet and improbable place.”

IfsWellsCountryWisdomInspirationMightJoySpiritTurnsNatureNaturalAliveLandQuietTraditionMiracleTiredProfoundHumbleSymbolsWitnessNativeAustraliaComparisonMaterialismNew LifeVitalityRadiantImprobableDrearyDrainedNative Land
Author:Michael Leunig
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“And while you and the rest of your kind are battling together-year after year-for this special privilege of being 'bored to death,' the 'real girl' that you're asking about, the marvelous girl, the girl with the big, beautiful, unspoken thoughts in her head, the girl with the big, brave, undone deeds in her heart, the girl that stories are made of, the girl whom you call 'improbable'-is moping off alone in some dark, cold corner-or sitting forlornly partnerless against the bleak wall of the ballroom-or hiding shyly up in the dressing-room-waiting to be discovered!”

YearsHeartKindMadeRealStoriesBigsTogetherBeautifulGirlWaitingDarkRoomsSpecialWallColdSittingAskingBravePrivilegeDeedsCornersBoredHidingMarvelousDressingsUndoneUnspokenBleakImprobableBallroomDressing RoomsBeing BoredReal GirlBored To Death
Book:Little Eve Edgarton
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“Many people who have been around boxing all those years never had a champion, certainly a heavyweight champion....For that to happen in one's lifetime is so improbable. I got Floyd Patterson, then, here, at the age of 76, I was fortunate to come in contact with this young man who has, in my opinion, all the requirements to be a champion that I believe he's going to be, maybe the best that ever lived.”

PeopleMenYearsBelieveHas BeensHappensAgeYoungI BelieveOpinionLifetimeContactFortunateYoung ManChampionBoxingBeing The BestRequirementsImprobableHeavyweights
Author:Cus D'Amato
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“Asian Homo erectus died without issue and does not enter our immediate ancestry (for we evolved from African populations); Neanderthal people were collateral cousins, perhaps already living in Europe while we emerged in Africa... In other words, we are an improbable and fragile entity, fortunately successful after precarious beginnings as a small population in Africa, not the predictable end result of a global tendency. We are a thing, an item of history, not an embodiment of general principles.”

PeopleDoeEndsScienceResultsPrinciplesIssuesSuccessfulEvolutionEuropeDiedPopulationTendenciesFragileEntityCousinItemsAsianPredictableAncestryEmbodimentImprobablePrecariousEnd ResultsCollateralNeanderthals
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man - that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense - has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”

MenWorldArtBookDoneArtistReadingWrittenTruth IsHearingVirtuousGreat ArtSymphonyRespectableGreat ArtistImprobablePuritanWorth ReadingVirtuous WomanYmca
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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“Maybe we’ll live to see sharks recover. Right now, that seems as improbable as seeing all these falcons. Hope is the ability to see how things could be better. The world of human affairs has long been a shadowy place, but always backlit by the light of hope. Each person can add hope to the world. A resigned person subtracts hope. The more people strive, the more change becomes likely.”

PeopleWorldHumansPersonsLongLightSeemsAbilitySeeingRight NowAddStriveAffairSharksImprobableResignedAbility To SeeFalcon
Book:The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World
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“Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.”

KnowsPersonsDoeMadeFactsActionLife IsEnergyLosesCasesStupidCreaturesGainsDifficultyHarmExplanationDaily LifeAppetiteEmbarrassmentGood HealthCheerfulnessNobody KnowsImprobable
Author:Carlo M. Cipolla
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“It must have appeared almost as improbable to the earlier geologists, that the laws of earthquakes should one day throw light on the origin of mountains, as it must to the first astronomers, that the fall of an apple should assist in explaining the motions of the moon.”

ShouldFirstsLightLawScienceFallOne DayMoonMountainApplesGravityExplainingEarthquakesImprobableAstronomersGeologist
Book:Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes Now in Operation
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“The problem is compounded by the fact that the connection between cause and effect seems so improbable. By turning on the lights, filling the kettle, taking the children to school, driving to the shops, we are condemning other people to death. We never chose to do this. We do not see ourselves as killers. We perform these acts without passion or intent.”

PeopleChildrenFactsProblemLightSeemsSchoolPassionCausesEffectsConnectionsDrivingShopsKillersFillingCause And EffectImprobableCondemningKettles
Book:Heat: how to stop the planet from burning
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“To love someone is to always see them as the miracle that they are; as the miracle that they exist, the miracle that makes your own simultaneous existence seem fortunately improbable and therefore defiantly miraculous; is to show them, in your eyes and through the way in which you look at them, the limitless beauty of their true miraculous selves; is to say to them in every glance: "I believe in miracles because i believe in you."”

WayLoveBelieveLooksSelfShowsSeemsEyeI BelieveExistenceMiracleI Believe InGlancesBelieve In YouMiraculousLimitlessLove SomeoneImprobableSimultaneousBelieve In MiraclesI Believe In YouI Believe In Miracles
Author:Philip K. Jason
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“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.”

SeemsMightUniverseSupportPlansAtheismModernConditionsEventsUniqueAccidentsAbsenceAstronomyObservationBalancedImprobableModern Science
Author:Arno Allan Penzias
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“There is beauty everywhere on earth, but there is greater beauty in those places where one feels that sense of ease which comes from no longer having to put off one’s dreams until some improbable future – a future inexorably shrinking away; where the fear that has pervaded one’s life suddenly vanishes because there is... nothing to be afraid of.”

FeelsDreamEarthGreaterEaseImprobableShrinkingBeauty Everywhere
Book:The engineer of human souls: an entertainment on the old themes of life, women, fate, dreams, the working class, secret agents, love and death
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“One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality. Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence. Sure, sometimes they'll elude you by hiding in improbable places... But at other times they'll confront you, and you'll literally stumble over some tomes you hadn't thought about in weeks or years. I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me. They may make me feel, but I can't feel them. They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight. They can get in your head but can't whack you upside it.”

FeelsYearsMindMayI CanBookSoulSometimesBodyWeekWeightSightBoundsFleshHidingSheerPrintedTextureImprobableThings I LovePhysicalityEludeElude YouPrinted Books
Book:The End of Your Life Book Club
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“An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.”

KnowsMayChristianExistencePracticeCasesImpossibleAtheismJudgmentAtheistDenialSufficientConsideringAffirmationAgnosticAgnosticismImprobableExistence Of God
Book:The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell
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