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May Quotes

Browse 29779 quotes about May.

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May Quotes

“We cannot judge either of the feelings or of the characters of men with perfect accuracy from their actions or their appearance in public; it is from their careless conversations, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real characters.”

MenMayRealCharacterFeelingsActionPerfectHalfJudgingConversationAppearanceSentencesFinishedProbabilityCarelessAccuracyReal CharacterCharacter Of A Man
Book:Castle Rackrent
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“No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.”

KnowsMenNeedsGivingMayActionPainLyingSleepSpaceKnownKnow HowChangedGreatnessReturnSimplicityDrivenParticlesExaltedBlacknessFieryOuter SpaceWithout Pain
Book:Sweet Thursday
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“What good men most biologists are, the tenors of the scientific world - temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing, and healthy. Your true biologist will sing you a song as loud and off-key as will a blacksmith, for he knows that morals are too often diagnostic of prostatitis and stomach ulcers. Sometimes he may proliferate a little too much in all directions, but he is as easy to kill as any other organism, and meanwhile he is very good company, and at least he does not confuse a low hormone productivity with moral ethics.”

KnowsMenWorldMayLittlesDoeSometimesSongEasyCompanyMoralLaughingToo MuchKeysHealthyLowsEthicsVery GoodProductivityLoudGood ManStomachOrganismsHormonesAnd OffBiologistGood CompanyMoodyTenorsMoral EthicsUlcersBlacksmiths
Author:John Steinbeck
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“There are various methods by which you may achieve ignominy and shame. By murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterward depositing their bodies in the water companies' reservoir, you will gain much unpopularity in the neighborhood of your crime, and even robbing a church will get you cordially disliked, especially by the vicar. But if you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby "it.”

IfsHumansMayBodyYoungMotherDesireWaterChurchCompanyBloodAchieveCrimeBabyColdCreaturesGainsHatredShameMethodFellowsDearVariousCupsNeighborhoodScornDrainsReservoirsRobbingDregsVicarsYoung MotherIgnominy
Book:Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
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“It seemed clear to me that life and the world somehow depended upon me now. I may almost say that the world now seemed created for me alone: if I shot myself the world would cease to be at least for me. I say nothing of its being likely that nothing will exist for anyone when I am gone, and that as soon as my consciousness is extinguished the whole world will vanish too and become void like a phantom , as a mere appurtenance of my consciousness, for possibly all this world and all these people are only me myself.”

PeopleIfsWorldMayWholeConsciousnessGoneClearThis WorldShotsMereCeaseWhole WorldVoidMe AlonePhantoms
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“Tempests, and bright lightnings, are to be sung; their nature is to be told, and from what cause they pursue their course; lest, having foolishly divided the heaven into parts, you should be anxious as to the quarter from which the flying flame may come, or to what region it may betake itself; and tremble to think how it penetrates through walled enclosures, and how, having exercised its power, it extricates itself from them. Of which phenomena the multitude can by no means see the causes, and think that they are accomplished by supernatural power.”

ThinkingShouldMayMeanCoursesHeavenCausesFlyingPursueFlamesAccomplishedRegionsDividedAnxiousQuartersLightningMultitudesPenetrateTempestSupernatural PowersEnclosure
Book:On the Nature of Things
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“There is a further advantage [to hydrogen bombs]: the supply of uranium in the planet is very limited, and it might be feared that it would be used up before the human race was exterminated, but now that the practically unlimited supply of hydrogen can be utilized, there is considerable reason to hope that homo sapiens may put an end to himself, to the great advantage of such less ferocious animals as may survive. But it is time to return to less cheerful topics.”

HumansMayEndsReasonMightWould BeUsedAnimalRacePlanetsReturnAdvantageHuman RaceBombsTopicsUnlimitedCheerfulHomo SapiensHydrogenUraniumHydrogen Bomb
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“In obedience to the feeling of reality, we shall insist that, in the analysis of propositions, nothing "unreal" is to be admitted. But, after all, if there is nothing unreal, how, it may be asked, could we admit anything unreal? The reply is that, in dealing with propositions, we are dealing in the first instance with symbols, and if we attribute significance to groups of symbols which have no significance, we shall fall into the error of admitting unrealities, in the only sense in which this is possible, namely, as objects described.”

IfsFirstsMayFeelingsRealityFallGroupsObjectsErrorsInstanceSymbolsObedienceAnalysisSignificanceAttributesPropositionsUnrealAdmittingUnreality
Book:Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
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“The first thing I remember about the world and I pray that it may be the last is that I was a stranger in it. This feeling, which everyone has in some degree, and which is, at once, the glory and desolation of homo sapiens , provides the only thread of consistency that I can detect in my life.”

WorldFirstsMayI CanFeelingsLastsRememberPrayingDegreesGloryStrangerThreadConsistencyI PrayHomo SapiensDesolation
Book:The Very Best of Malcolm Muggeridge
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“In other things the knowing artist may Judge better than the people; but a play, (Made for delight, and for no other use) If you approve it not, has no excuse.”

PeopleIfsMayMadePlayUseArtistActingKnowingJudgingDelightExcuseNo Excuses
Book:The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller. From Mr. Fenton's Quarto Edition, 1729. With the Life of the Author ... Embellished with Superb Engravings [including a Portrait.]
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“He that alone would wise and mighty be,Commands that others love as well as he.Love as he lov'd! - How can we soar so high?-He can add wings when he commands to fly.Nor should we be with this command dismay'd;He that examples gives will give his aid:For he took flesh, that where his precepts fall,His practice, as a pattern, may prevail.”

GivingShouldWellsMayFallPracticeWiseExampleWingsAddPatternsAidsFleshCommandSoarDismay
Book:The Works of Edmund Waller, Esq: In Verse and Prose
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“With vertical thinking one may look for different approaches until one finds a promising one. With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches as one can even after one has found a promising one. With vertical thinking one is trying to select the best approach but with lateral thinking one is generating different approaches for the sake of generating them.”

ThinkingTryingLooksMayDifferentFoundGoes OnApproachSakeSelectVerticalLateral ThinkingDifferent Approach
Author:Edward de Bono
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“In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language. I have expressed my opinion concerning a number of English writers; it is very possible that I may be mistaken, that my admiration and my censure may be equally misplaced, and that my conclusions may appear impertinent and ridiculous on the other side of the Channel.”

MayPersonsLiteratureLanguageSidesNumbersOpinionWrittenJudgingRidiculousConclusionAdmirationMistakenCompetentCensureMisplaced
Author:François-René de Chateaubriand
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“When I'm writing for a book, it's much more reflective process. I have certain things that may not translate well to the stage, but, when they're on the page, people can really get into them. My first two books were aiming to be funnier, but the third was more about deep exploration. Things about being a parent and growing older that I thought would be perfect for a book.”

PeopleWritingFirstsWellsMayTwoBookWould BeCertainProcessParentPerfectGrowingStagePagesThirdsExplorationTranslateGrowing OldBeing A ParentGrowing Older
Author:Paul Reiser
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“Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its being a powerful stream which carries a man to a harbor, though he himself must do his bit too; at all events, I think it such a great blessing when a man has found his work that I cannot count myself among the unfortunate. I mean, I may be in certain relatively great difficulties, and there may be gloomy days in my life, but I shouldn't like to be counted among the unfortunate, nor would it be correct if I were.”

IfsThinkingMenMayMeanArtCertainCoursesFoundBitsPowerfulEventsBlessingDifficultyAverageMoodFirmStreamsCarrieSerenityUnfortunateHarborsGloomyMood Changes
Book:Van Gogh's
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“Make no mistake about it: the labeling of someone's language as 'sexist' involves a political judgment and implies the desirability of a particular sociological doctrine. One may be in favor of that doctrine (as I believe I am) but it is quite another matter to force writers by edicts and censorship into accepting it.”

BelieveMayMatterPoliticalLanguageForceI BelieveMistakeAcceptingParticularSpeechJudgmentFavorsDoctrineCensorshipSexistLabelingSociologicalDesirability
Author:Neil Postman
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“I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.”

MayStoriesMy OwnInfluenceStrangeBalanceCreditTalesSkepticalSeductiveVintageNarratorsIncredulity
Book:TARZAN OF THE APES SERIES - Complete Collection: 25 Novels in One Volume (Illustrated): The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan, The Son of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Tarzan the Untamed, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, Tarzan the Terrible and many more
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“I pass for a hypersensitive, reclusive neurotic, which I may well be, but I hope the year won't come when my anxieties and fatigue will destroy my love of this life, of all the things that inspire me--a line of music, a face in a Vermeer portrait, a character in an opera, or a model born in Harlem.”

YearsWellsMayCharacterFacesBornLinesInspireAnxietyModelsThis LifeOperaPortraitsFatigueNeuroticHarlemVermeer
Book:Catalog of the Exhibition Held at the Costume
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“Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifestation of vanity. But one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.”

WantTryingMayRunningDesireExpressionTasteMachinesAimVanityManifestationDescriptionSpecificationsAdequacyTrying To Be Happy
Author:J. Robert Oppenheimer
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