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Inscrutable Quotes

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Inscrutable Quotes

“I had a strong sudden instinct that I must be alone. I didn’t want to see any people at all. I had seen so many people all my life -- I was an average mixer, but more than average in a tendency to identify myself, my ideas, my destiny, with those of all classes that came in contact with. I was always saving or being saved -- in a single morning I would go through the emotions ascribable to Wellington at Waterloo. I lived in a world of inscrutable hostiles and inalienable friends and supporters.”

PeopleWorldWantIdeasStrongEmotionClassDestinyMorningInstinctAverageSavedContactTendenciesSavingSupporterHostileMy DestinyInscrutableWaterlooWellington
Book:The Jazz Age: Essays
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“And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her nose - that proved to be the correct solution. How can you build on such a quicksand? Their most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs.”

MayMeanReasonActionRememberDependsSolutionsHumorousExtraordinaryNosesMotiveSarcasmVolumePowderInscrutableQuicksand
Book:The Return of Sherlock Holmes
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“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!”

WorldBelieveHappinessJoySufferingTurnsUniverseBeliefBeautyStrangePureEncouragementJoy Of LifeJoy And HappinessAxesJoy HappinessJoy Of LivingInscrutableBeauty Of The WorldPure JoyJoy To The World
Book:What the woman lived: selected letters of Louise Bogan, 1920-1970
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“To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.”

MindMankindFamePerseverancePrivilegeTyrannyHeightFancyLabourPeculiarDeniedSubmitGlancesCarelessDiligenceMazesShacklesInaccessibleEminenceIntricacyInscrutable
Book:The Rambler
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“Without the suitable conditions life could not exist. But both life and its conditions set forth the operations of inscrutable Power. We know not its origin; we know not its end. And the presumption, if not the degradation, rests with those who place upon the throne of the universe a magnified image of themselves, and make its doings a mere colossal imitation of their own. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.”

PeopleIfsKnowsKindEndsPhilosophyDesireUniverseCausesWonderKnowledgeConditionsDiscoveryMereDelightOperationsMotiveCarrieImitationThronesSuitableDegradationPresumptionDoingsColossalInscrutable
Author:Thomas Aquinas
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“Ultimately, Leibniz argued, there are only two absolutely simple concepts, God and Nothingness. From these, all other concepts may be constructed, the world, and everything within it, arising from some primordial argument between the deity and nothing whatsoever. And then, by some inscrutable incandescent insight, Leibniz came to see that what is crucial in what he had written is the alternation between God and Nothingness. And for this, the numbers 0 and 1 suffice.”

WorldMayTwoSimpleNumbersWrittenConceptsArgumentInsightCrucialNothingnessDeitiesInscrutable
Book:The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World
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“When over long periods of human history I scrutinized the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable Destiny, perhaps for reasons unknown to us poor mortals, did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.”

PeopleHumansLittlesLongReasonDesireNationsPoorDestinyVictoryPeriodsActivityEternalFinalsMortalsResolveFearfulJudaismHuman HistoryInscrutable
Book:Mein Kampf
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“One ship is very much like another and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.”

PastFacesExistenceDestinyMysterySeaIgnoranceShipsMysteriousShoreSurroundingsMistressImmensityInscrutableSeamen
Book:Heart of Darkness and Other Tales
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“Because Christian morality leaves animals out of account, they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere 'things,' mere means to any ends whatsoever. They can therefore be used for vivisection, hunting, coursing, bullfights, and horse racing, and can be whipped to death as they struggle along with heavy carts of stone. Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun!”

MeanEndsEyeChristianUsedAnimalMoralStruggleSunFailingMoralityEternalStonesEssenceAccountsHorsePhilosophicalShameShiningMereHeavyWorthySignificanceRacingHuntingLiving ThingsCartsInscrutableVivisectionHorse RacingPariahsChristian MoralityEyes That See
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
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“The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God. [...] has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. [...] My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. [...] And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.”

MenHumansHas BeensTwoSoulJoySpiritChristPrinciplesMysteryYouthSourceSorrowMetsBattleArmyFleshMy SoulSubstanceYearningAnguishArenaSuperhumanIncessantJoys And SorrowsInscrutable
Author:Nikos Kazantzakis
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“Participation in the dance was entirely voluntary, a mental vow to worship the Mystery in this manner being expressed by a man ardently desiring the recovery of a sick relative; or surrounded by an enemy with escape apparently impossible; or, it might be, dying of hunger … since some inscrutable power had swept all game from forest and prairie. Others joined in the ceremony in the hope and firm belief that the Mystery …would grant them successes against the enemy and consequent eminence at home.”

MenHomeMightGamesBeliefEnemyImpossibleMysteryDyingWorshipSickHungerForestsRecoveryFirmGrantsRelativeParticipationCeremonyVowPrairieEminenceInscrutableFirm Beliefs
Book:The Teton Sioux, The Yanktonai, The Assiniboin
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“Nature is not something to be fought, conquered and changed according to any human whims. To some extent, of course, it has to be used. But what man should seek in regard to nature is not a complete domination but a modus vivendi - that is, a manner of living together, a coming to terms with something that was here before our time and will be here after it. The important corollary of this doctrine, it seems to me, is that man is not the lord of creation, with an omnipotent will, but a part of creation, with limitations, who ought to observe a decent humility in the face of the inscrutable.”

MenShouldHumansImportantSeemsTogetherFacesUsedCoursesTermLordCreationChangedHumilityOughtRegardConservativeDoctrineLimitationOur TimeDecentDominationWhimOmnipotentLiving TogetherInscrutable
Author:Richard M. Weaver
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“The carved images on the early Minoan sealstones are tantalising, inscrutable. The Nature Goddess is yanked from the soil like a snake or a sheaf of barley; the Mistress of the Animals suckles goats and gazelles. There are male Adorants certainly - up on tiptoe, their outstretched arms hoisted in a kind of heil, their bodies arched suggestively, pelvis forward, before the Goddess - but there are no masculine deities, not a single one in sight. No woman worth her salt, one might think, could fail to be intrigued.”

ThinkingKindBodyMightAnimalFailingArmsSightMalesSoilSaltGoddessSnakesMasculineDeitiesMistressGoatsIntriguedInscrutableTiptoesBarleyGazellesWoman Worth
Author:Alison Fell
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“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall -- which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”

PeopleHumansLittlesHas BeensInspirationSeemsFallBuildingDivineTheoryGeniusCriticismMysteriousAll TimeHeightLatterDeclineRhymeLoftyLiterary CriticismMasonryInscrutableBricklaying
Book:The Works of Thomas Carlyle
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