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Mean Quotes

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Mean Quotes

“Many risks fail because they were not taken in time. Too many risks are postponed until unnecessarily elaborate preparations are made. This does not mean that one should say, Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! That is foolish and self-destructive. . . . But don't sit back waiting for the perfect moment. It almost never comes.”

InspirationalShouldMeanDoeMadeSelfMomentsMotivationalWaitingPerfectTakenFailingRiskSpeedFoolishPreparationDamnDestructiveSelf DestructivePerfect MomentsTorpedoes
Author:David Viscott
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“There must be a union between the spirit in wood and the spirit in man. The grain of the wood must relate closely to its function. The abutment of the edge of one board to an adjoining board can mean the success or failure of a piece. () Gradually a form evolves, much as nature produces the tree in the first place. The object created can live forever. The tree lives on in its new form. The object cannot follow a transitory “style”, here for a moment, discarded the next. Its appeal must be universal. Cordial and receptive, it should invite a meeting with man”

MenShouldFirstsMeanMomentsFormSpiritNextForeverPiecesTreeStyleDesignObjectsProduceUniversalFunctionUnionsMeetingsEdgesWoodsRelateAppealsEvolveBoardsInvitesGrainFurnitureLive ForeverReceptiveDiscardedTransitoryCraftsmanSuccess Or FailureTree Of LifeArtisansWoodworking
Author:George Nakashima
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“It is essential that the revelation we receive, the conception of an image which embraces a certain thing, which has no sense in itself, which has no subject, which means 'absolutely nothing' from the logical point of view.. ..should speak so strongly in us, evoke such agony or joy, that we feel compelled to paint.”

FeelsShouldMeanDesireCertainSpeakViewsSubjectsEssentialsEmbracePaintPoint Of ViewRevelationsLogicalConceptionCompelledAbsolutely Nothing
Author:Giorgio de Chirico
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“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.”

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Author:Cressida Cowell
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“Nobody is fit to rule anybody else. It is not alleged that Mankind is perfect, or that merely through his/her natural goodness (or lack of same) he/she should (or should not) be permitted to rule. Rule as such causes abuse. There are no superpeople nor privileged classes who are above 'imperfect Mankind' and are capable or entitled to rule the rest of us. Submission to slavery means surrender of life.”

ShouldMeanCausesNaturalPerfectClassMankindFitGoodnessCapableAbuseSlaverySurrenderImperfectEntitledPrivilegedSubmissionPerfect ManVery Mean
Author:Albert Meltzer
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“The education of our people should be a lifelong process by which we continue to feed new vigor into the lifestream of the Nation through intelligent, reasoned decisions. Let us not think of education only in terms of its costs, but rather in terms of the infinite potential of the human mind that can be realized through education. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our Nation.”

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Author:John F. Kennedy
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“A perfect practice of Christianity would, of course, consist in a perfect imitation of the life of Christ -- I mean, in so far as it was applicable in one's own particular circumstance. Not in an idiotic sense -- it doesn't mean that every Christian should grow a beard, or be a bachelor, or become a travelling preacher. It means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God.”

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Author:C. S. Lewis
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“I have nothing but myself to write about, no facts, no theories, no opinions, no adventures, no sentiments, nothing but my own poor barren individualism, of considerable interest to me, but I do not know why I should presume it will be so to you. Egotism is not tiresome, or it ought not to be, if one is sincere about oneself; but it is so hard to be sincere. Well, never mind, I mean to be, and you know me well enough to see through me when I am humbugging.”

IfsKnowsShouldWritingMindWellsMeanHardEnoughFactsInterestMy OwnPoorOpinionAdventureTheoryOughtOneselfSincereSentimentsIndividualismKnow MeEgotismBarrenTiresome
Book:The Nemesis of Faith
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“[The career a young man should choose should be] one that is most consonant with our dignity, one that is based on ideas of whose truth we are wholly convinced, one that offers us largest scope in working for humanity and approaching that general goal towards which each profession offers only one of the means: the goal of perfection ... If he works only for himself he can become a famous scholar, a great sage, an excellent imaginative writer [ Dichter ], but never a perfected, a truly great man.”

IfsMenShouldMeanIdeasYoungHumanityGoalCareersOffersDignityPerfectionConvincedProfessionExcellentYoung ManGreat MenScholarSageScopeImaginativeConsonants
Author:Karl Marx
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“When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.”

PeopleIfsShouldMeanSelfEnjoyPrayerEmotionalPrayingEnlightenmentSatisfactionObviousValuableVanityRitualBeneficialIndulgenceStimulusObservanceSelf IndulgenceFixation
Book:Seeker After Truth
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“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?”

MenShouldHumansMayMeanUnderstandingOpinionModernProveEvidenceInvisibleBotherImmortalityMemories Dreams ReflectionsModern ManInsistingScientific Evidence
Book:Man and His Symbols
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“I figure if I keep my health, I have no intention of retiring. I love to work. I want to be like Bob Hope. I want to keep on going out and doing what I love to do. Of course, I'm no Bob Hope, but I mean that feeling that you never are old and have things to offer and can be useful to somebody. I always want to be useful, I have no intentions of retiring unless I should get sick or something should happen to my husband. Other than that I'm going to work until I fall over.”

IfsWantShouldMeanFeelingsHappensAgeFallCoursesWorkFiguresHealthOffersHusbandSickIntentionMy HusbandRetiringBobGoing OutGoing To Work
Author:Dolly Parton
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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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“It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.”

ShouldMeanChildrenCountrySchoolCoursesProcessClearPopulationNationalismImmigrantsUnfortunateEndeavour
Book:In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays
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“I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, "We are all writing God's poem," I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore's and Norman's generation, particularly those male writers who served in the second world war, the prizefighter paradigm remains.”

WorldShouldWritingMeanWarHardHatePrayerCommonGenerationsInvolvedProjectsRemainsCompetitionMalesWar Of The WorldsParadigmGoreSecond World WarSelf Hate
Author:Erica Jong
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“I believe that we have to strive for a transition to a socialist society ... all the way to communism. I mean I think we should, uh, I think we should all study what the word means and I believe that if everyone knew what the word meant we would all be on our knees praying that we would, as soon as possible, be able to live under, uh, within a communist structure.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldBelieveMeanAbleI BelieveStudyPrayingStructureStriveCommunismKneesCommunistTransitionSocialist
Author:Jane Fonda
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“Nature does nothing in vain, and in the use of means to her goals she is not prodigal. Her giving to man reason and the freedom of the will which depends upon it is clear indication of her purpose. Man accordingly was not to be guided by instinct, not nurtured and instructed with ready-made knowledge; rather, he should bring forth everything out of his own resources.”

MenGivingShouldMeanDoeMadeReasonUsePurposeGoalClearReadyDependsResourcesInstinctVainIndicationProdigals
Author:Immanuel Kant
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“My books have done extremely well, I know. But I don't honestly feel much different from when I began to write. I still think we have a long way to go. I suppose my name means more in Nigeria today than it did five years ago. But I feel the job that literature should do in our community has not even started. It's not yet part of the life of the nation. We are still at the beginning. It's a big beginning, because now we are catching the next generation in the schools. When I was their age, I had nothing to read that had any relevance to my own environment.”

ThinkingKnowsWayFeelsShouldWritingYearsWellsMeanLongStillsBookDifferentDoneBigsAgeTodaySchoolJobsNextLiteratureNamesNationsCommunityMy OwnEnvironmentFiveGenerationsYears AgoHonestlyFive YearsLong WayNext GenerationCatchingRelevanceOur CommunityNigeriaLong Way To Go
Book:Conversations with Chinua Achebe
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“Being a journalist, I never feel bad talking to journalism students because it’s a grand, grand caper. You get to leave, go talk to strangers, ask them anything, come back, type up their stories, edit the tape. That’s not gonna retire your loans as quickly as it should, and it’s not going to turn you into a person who’s worried about what kind of car they should buy, but that’s kind of as it should be. I mean, it beats working.”

FeelsShouldKindMeanPersonsStoriesTurnsAsksTalkingCarStudentsTypeBeatsStrangerJournalismWorriedJournalistRetiringTapeLoanEditsCapers
Author:David
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“Intervention in Syria is not an option. President Obama has already helped foment this civil war and supported the al-Qaeda jihadists. This is an explosive region, and more US intervention means more people will die. We should be choosing peace - not a new conflict. More so than anyone else, my supporters know that America cannot afford another unlawful, immoral war in the Middle East. Stand with me and tell President Obama to stay out of Syria.”

PeopleKnowsShouldMeanWarAmericaDiesPresidentMiddleConflictEastCivil WarRegionsAlsPresident ObamaMiddle EastSyriaSupporterImmoralInterventionAl QaedaExplosivesUnlawful
Author:Ron Paul
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“The only justifiable stopping place for for the expansion of altruism is the point at which all whose welfare can be affected by our actions are included within the circle of altruism. This means that all beings with the capacity to feel pleasure or pain should be included; we can improve their welfare by increasing their pleasures and diminishing their pains.”

FeelsShouldMeanActionPainPleasureCapacityCirclesWelfareAffectedExpansionAltruismStoppingOur Actions
Book:The expanding circle: ethics and sociobiology
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“We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary. We don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D.C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWantFeelsShouldMindMeanCountryWaitingPresidentJusticeLeaderRightsDegreesShould HaveDuesCivil RightsTexasSenatorsCongressmanFree World
Book:By any means necessary
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“Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind... I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group.”

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Author:Lauren Bacall
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“People ... become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end. Just as money, which is a means of satisfying wants, comes to be regarded by a miser as the sole thing to be worked for, leaving the wants unsatisfied; so the conduct men have found preferable because most conducive to happiness, has come to be thought of as intrinsically preferable: not only to be made a proximate end (which it should be), but to be made an ultimate end, to the exclusion of the true ultimate end.”

PeopleMenWantShouldMeanMadeEndsFoundMistakeUltimateLeavingSatisfyingSoleWant UExclusionMisersUnsatisfied
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“Economic man and the Calvinist Christian sing to each other like voices in a fugue. The Calvinist stands alone before an almost merciless God; no human agency can help him; his church is a means to political and social organization rather than a bridge to deity, for no priest can have greater knowledge of the divine way than he himself; no friend can console him - in fact, he should distrust all men; in the same fashion, Economic Man faces a merciless world alone and unaided, his hand against every other's.”

MenWorldWayShouldHumansMeanFactsHelpingHandsChristianFacesPoliticalSocialVoiceChurchGreaterEconomicFashionDivineOrganizationBridgesAgencyPriestsDistrustDeitiesConsoleStand AloneNo FriendsSocial OrganizationFugue
Author:Lionel Trilling
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“We are Wikipedians. This means that we should be: kind, thoughtful, passionate about getting it right, open, tolerant of different viewpoints, open to criticism, bold about changing our policies and also cautious about changing our policies. We are not vindictive, childish, and we don't stoop to the level of our worst critics, no matter how much we may find them to be annoying.”

ShouldKindMayMeanDifferentMatterLevelsWorstPolicyCriticismCriticsPassionateThoughtfulBe KindAnnoyingCautiousViewpointsStoopsVindictive
Author:Jimmy Wales
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“I used to stay up very late at night, much later than I probably should have for such a youngster, and I used to watch very old black-and-white movies with, you know, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, but I remember watching them thinking 'I could do that'... Even though I wasn't inclined at all to actually become an actress. I mean, that wasn't something that was... in the stars for me, no pun intended.”

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Author:Michelle Pfeiffer
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