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May Quotes

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May Quotes

“There are two things that have to happen before an idea catches on. One is that the idea should be good. The other is that it should fit in with the temper of the age. If it does not, even a good idea may well be passed by.”

Ifs Should Wells May Doe Two Ideas Happens Age Fit Be Good Two Things Temper Good Ideas

Author:Jawaharlal Nehru

“If the creatures with fur/feathers/fins are our brothers in a lower stage of development then their very weakness and inability to protest, demands that man should refrain from torturing them for the mere possibility of obtaining some knowledge which he believes may be to his own interest.”

“We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?”

Love Should Heart May Compassion Opinion Childhood Acceptance Meetings Bars Disrespectful Moral Growth

Book:All Religions are True

Source: All Religions are True

“Jeb Bush may run for President. Bush presidencies are like 'Caddyshack' movies. They should have stopped with one.”

Should May Running President Should Have Presidency President Bush

Author:David Letterman

“To one who said, "I do not believe that there is an honest man in the world," another replied, "It is impossible that any one man should know all the world, but quite possible that one may know himself."”

Knows Men World Should Believe May Said Lying Impossible Honest Deceit One Man Dishonesty Honest Man

Author:William Shenstone

“God should be most where man is least: So, where is neither church nor priest, And never rag nor form of creed To clothe the nakedness of need,- Where farmer folk in silence meet,- I turn my bell-unsummoned feet; I lay the critic's glass aside, I tread upon my lettered pride, And, lowest-seated, testify To the oneness of humanity; Confess the universal want, And share whatever Heaven may grant. He findeth not who seeks his own, The soul is lost that's saved alone.”

Source: Among the Hills, and Other Poems

“So erst the Sage [Pythagoras] with scientific truth In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth; With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass From life to life, a transmigrating mass; How the same organs, which to-day compose The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose, May with to-morrow's sun new forms compile, Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile. Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan, That man should ever be the friend of man; Should eye with tenderness all living forms, His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms.”

Men Should May Eye Form Science Moral Sun Plans Youth Taught Brother Hero Mass Rose Temples Atoms Organs Tenderness Sage Worms Restless Enlightening Morrow Poisonous Scientific Truth

Author:Erasmus Darwin

“At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself.”

“Perhaps the profession of doing good may be full, but every body should be kind at least to himself. Take a course of good water and air, and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. Some have strange, morbid fears as soon as they find themselves with Nature, even in the kindest and wildest of her solitudes, like very sick children afraid of their mother-as if God were dead and the devil were king.”

Source: STEEP TRAILS: California - Utah - Nevada - Washington - Oregon - The Grand Canyon: Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Essays and Wilderness Studies from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf & Picturesque California

“The mediocre mind has no capacity for understanding. It is stuck somewhere near thirteen years in its mental age, or even below it. The person may be forty, fifty, seventy years old - that does not matter, that is the physical age. He has been growing old, but he has not been growing up. You should note the distinction. Growing old, every animal does. Growing up, only a few human beings manage.”

“That we should have an agriculture based as much on petroleum as the soil-that we need petroleum exactly as much as we need food and must have it before we can eat-may seem absurd. It is absurd. It is nevertheless true.”

Needs Should May Seems Land Should Have Absurd Soil Agriculture Nevertheless Petroleum

Book:The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

Source: The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

“We do not realize how deeply our starting assumptions affect the way we go about looking for and interpreting the data we collect. We should recognize that nonhuman organisms need not meet every new definition of human language, tool use, mind, or consciousness in order to have versions of their own that are worthy of serious study. We have set ourselves too much apart, grasping for definitions that will distinguish man from all other life on the planet. We must rejoin the great stream of life from whence we arose and strive to see within it the seeds of all we are and all we may become.”

Source: Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind

“The people may be put into the way they should go, though they may not be put into the way of understanding it.”

People Way Should May Understanding

Book:Delphi Collected Works of Confucius - Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Collected Works of Confucius - Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism (Illustrated)

“However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don’t mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords…I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams. And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together…and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood.”

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods)as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

“The houses of this country (Maharashtra) are exceedingly strong and built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Govt. in the course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e. time) TO DESTROY AND RAZE THE TEMPLES OF THE INFIDELS that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint an orthodox inspector (darogha) who may afterwards DESTROY THEM AT LEISURE AND DIG UP THEIR FOUNDATIONS”

Men Way Should May Country Eye Courses House Strong Built Stones Foundation Sufficient Temples Iron Orthodox Leisure Infidel Inspectors Hatchet Maharashtra

Author:Aurangzeb

“We repose too much upon the actual, when we should be seeking to develop the possibilities of our being. It is true of nearly all of us, that what we have done is little compared with what we might have accomplished, or may hereafter effect.”

Should May Littles Done Might Too Much Effects Possibility Seeking Accomplished Hereafter Repose

Book:Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

“Isn't it sad, that in a time when we face so many devastating problems - poverty, HIV/AIDS, war and conflict - that in our Communion we should be investing so much time and energy on disagreement about sexual orientation? [The Communion, which] used to be known for embodying the attribute of comprehensiveness, of inclusiveness, where we were meant to accommodate all and diverse views, saying we may differ in our theology but we belong together as sisters and brothers [now seems] hell-bent on excommunicating one another. God must look on and God must weep.”

“It may be from some moral obliquity in myself, or from some strange disease; but for me, and I should think too for every human being in whose breast a human heart is beating, to know that one single creature is in that dreadful place would make a hell of heaven itself. And they have hearts in heaven, for they love there.”

Thinking Knows Should Humans Heart May Heaven Human Beings Moral Hell Strange Creatures Disease Breasts Human Heart

Book:The Nemesis of Faith

Source: The Nemesis of Faith

“Genius, when employed in works whose tendency it is to demoralize and to degrade us, should be contemplated with abhorrence rather than with admiration; such a monument of its power, may indeed be stamped with immortality, but like the Coliseum at Rome, we deplore its magnificence because we detest the purposes for which it was designed.”

Should May Purpose Genius Tendencies Immortality Admiration Rome Employed Monument Degrade Detest Magnificence Abhorrence Coliseum

Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words

Source: Lacon: or, Many things in few words

“There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun.”

Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan

“Wit may do very well for a mistress, but [I] should prefer reason for a wife.”

Should Wells May Reason Wife Wit Mistress

Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

“Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the most outstanding characteristic of modern thinking ... Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by the consideration of immediacy of application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare, but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest, which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.”

“A common obstruction to a vital intimate relationship is what I call the assumption of clairvoyance. You imagine, perhaps unconsciously, that your partner or friend is somehow magically psychic when it comes to you -\-\ so much so that he or she should unfailingly intuit exactly what you need, even if you don't ask for it. This fantasy may seem romantic, but it can undermine the most promising alliances. To counteract any tendencies you might have to indulge in the assumption of clairvoyance, practice stating your desires aloud.”

“Architecture exhibits the greatest extent of the difference from nature which may exist in works of art. It involves all the powers of design, and is sculpture and painting inclusively. It shows the greatness of man, and should at the same time teach him humility.”

Men Should May Art Shows Differences Teach Design Greatness Humility Painting Architecture Works Of Art Sculpture Exhibits Greatness Of Man

Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions

Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions

“Hamlet 's character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but every incident sets him thinking; and it is curious, and at the same time strictly natural, that Hamlet, who all the play seems reason itself, should he impelled, at last, by mere accident to effect his object. I have a smack of Hamlet myself, if I may say so.”

Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions

“Artists should imprint their handwriting on the work, because if they give a piece to a fabrication studio, the craftsmen there may actually be too perfect; you don't see the quirks that the artist would have developed.”

Ifs Giving Should May Artist Perfect Pieces Style Studios Craftsman Handwriting Quirks Fabrication

Author:Grayson Perry

“Modern man may assert that he can dispense with them, and he may bolster his opinion by insisting that there is no scientific evidence of their truth. But since we are dealing with invisible and unknowable things (for God is beyond human understanding, and there is no mean of proving immortality), why should we bother with evidence?”

Men Should Humans May Mean Understanding Opinion Modern Prove Evidence Invisible Bother Immortality Memories Dreams Reflections Modern Man Insisting Scientific Evidence

Book:Man and His Symbols

Source: Man and His Symbols

“Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.”

Ifs Giving Should May Stills Trouble Quiet University Chairs Conformity Makers Caves Quiet Life Trouble Maker Changes In History

Author:A. J. P. Taylor

“Received as I am by the members of a legislature the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of state through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage.”

Ifs Should May States Political Suffering Needed Members Agree Majority Ships Sentiments Pilots Assistance Peril Wrecks Voyages Legislature

Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)

Source: The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)

“Darwinian evolution may be the most truthful and powerful idea ever generated by Western Science, but if we continue to illustrate our conviction with an indefensible, unsupported, entirely speculative, and basically rather silly story, then we are clothing a thing of beauty in rags - and we should be ashamed, "for the apparel oft proclaims the man.”

Ifs Men Should May Ideas Stories Powerful He Man Evolution Western Conviction Silly Ashamed Clothings Truthful Rags Apparel

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

“You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peaceable minds. Tranquility is the old man's milk.”

“The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.”

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“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.”

Source: On the Nature of Things

“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.”

Giving Should Wells May Fall Practice Wise Example Wings Add Patterns Aids Flesh Command Soar Dismay

Book:The Works of Edmund Waller, Esq: In Verse and Prose

Source: The Works of Edmund Waller, Esq: In Verse and Prose

“We should desire neither the immortality nor the death of any human being, whoever he may be, with whom we have to do.”

Should Humans May Desire Human Beings Immortality

Book:Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“I have always had my doubts about any form of divine intervention in sports contests. The power of prayer may be remarkable in many other arenas, but why should God want my team to win instead of the other side? Isn't it insulting to request God to even take an interest in baseball?”

Source: Roger Ebert's video companion: 1996 edition

“I support the death penalty. I think that it has to be administered not only fairly, with attention to things like DNA evidence, which I think should be used in all capital cases, but also with very careful attention. If the wrong guy is put to death, then that's a double tragedy. Not only has an innocent person been executed but the real perpetrator of the crime has not been held accountable for it, and in some cases may be still at large. But I support the death penalty in the most heinous cases.”

Ifs Thinking Should May Persons Stills Real Used Guy Attention Cases Support Crime Evidence Tragedy Careful Innocent Penalties Dna Death Penalty Perpetrators Innocent Person Wrong Guy Dna Evidence

Author:Al Gore

“There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.”

Want Giving Should May Past Winning Lost Wealth Effort Virtue Habit Reflection Resources Advantage Should Have Fruit Plenty Labour Maintaining Hereditary

Book:The Peloponnesian War

Source: The Peloponnesian War

“I shall speak only of the part I have stayed in- the districts of Lakes Ochrida and Presba. Here there are Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, and Vlahs. Of Turks, except officials and such of the army as may be quartered on the spot, there are few. The Albanians, I believe, are all Moslem. Should there be any Christians they would be officially classed as Greeks. A large part of the land near Lake Presba is owned by Moslem Albanians as ' chiftliks '(farms).”

Should Believe May Would Be Christian Speak I Believe Land Army Spots Greek Officials Lakes Farms

Author:Edith Durham