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Mere Quotes

“We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.”

Ifs Needs Humans Human Beings Wise Hero Mere Saint Refuge Sage Disbelief Statesmen

Author:Abraham Maslow

“Failure, then, failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! No easy fine, no mere apology or formal expiation, will satisfy the world's demands, but every pound of flesh exacted is soaked with all its blood. The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“New York was no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion, the mysterious nexus of all love and money and power, the shining and perishable dream itself. To think of 'living' there was to reduce the miraculous to the mundane; one does not 'live' at Xanadu.”

Thinking Doe Dream Cities New York Shining Mere Notion Mysterious Miraculous Mundane Money And Power Nexus Love And Money

Author:Joan Didion

“Technology is therefore no mere means. Technology is a way of revealing. If we give heed to this, then another whole realm for the essence of technology will open itself up to us. It is the realm of revealing, i.e., of truth”

Ifs Way Giving Mean Whole Technology Essence Mere Realms Revealing Heed

Author:Martin Heidegger

“By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man. A man who himself does not believe what he tells another ... has even less worth than if he were a mere thing. ... makes himself a mere deceptive appearance of man, not man himself.”

Ifs Men Believe Doe Lying Dignity Mere Appearance Deceptive

Author:Immanuel Kant

“Happiness, to some, elation; Is, to others, mere stagnation.”

Happiness Mere Stagnation Elation

Book:Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

Source: Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

“The Dance of the Future will have to become again a high religious art as it was with the Greeks. For art which is not religious is not art, it is mere merchandise”

Art Religious Mere Greek Merchandise Religious Art

Book:The Dance

Source: The Dance

“I reject her [Ayn Rand's] philosophy. It's an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand.”

Ifs Giving Trying Humans Persons Philosophy Views Give Me Mere Atheist Rejects Contracts Interaction Worldview Epistemology

Author:Paul Ryan

“Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.”

Writing Heart Turns Blood Cold Mere Fixed Dull Aphorism Ink Epigrams Cold Heart

Author:F. H. Bradley

“There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction. My concern is that in making life easier for ourselves we not appear to make it harder for the lower federal courts, imposing upon them the burden of regularly analyzing newly-discovered-evidence-of-innocence claims in capital cases (in which event such federal claims, it can confidently be predicted, will become routine and even repetitive).”

“There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity.”

Reason School Achieve Discipline Argument Logic Adversity Mere Endure Appeals Iron Academic Reason And Logic

Book:Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects

Source: Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects

“A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up - and succeed.”

Needs Mind Dream Vision Succeed India Mere Missions

Author:Abdul Kalam

“The very design of the gospel doth tend to self-abasing; and the work of grace is begun and carried on in humiliation. Humility is not a mere ornament of a Christian, but an essential part of the new creature: it is a contradiction to be a sanctified man, or a true Christian, and not humble.”

Men Self Christian Grace Design Humility Creatures Essentials Mere Humble Contradiction Humiliation Ornaments

Book:The Practical Works of Richard Baxter: With a Preface, Giving Some Account of the Author, and of this Edition of His Practical Works; an Essay on His Genius, Works and Times; and a Portrait : in Four Volumes

Source: The Practical Works of Richard Baxter: With a Preface, Giving Some Account of the Author, and of this Edition of His Practical Works; an Essay on His Genius, Works and Times; and a Portrait : in Four Volumes

“Perhaps the mere idea of receiving a nasty missive will allow animal researchers to empathize with their victims for the first time in their lousy careers. I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren't all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I'd light a match.”

Ifs Firsts Ideas Light Animal Wonder Careers First Time Victim Mere Burning Guts Animal Rights Receiving Nasty Laboratory Researchers Peta

Author:Ingrid Newkirk

“To be 'for animals' is not to be 'against humanity.' To require others to treat animals justly, as their rights require, is not to ask for anything more nor less in their case than in the case of any human to whom just treatment is due. The animal rights movement is a part of, not opposed to, the human rights movement. Attempts to dismiss it as anti human are mere rhetoric.”

Humans Humanity Asks Animal Cases Rights Movement Treats Mere Human Rights Dues Treatment Animal Rights Rhetoric

Book:The Case for Animal Rights

Source: The Case for Animal Rights

“Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it.”

Reading Study Labor Gold Mere Deeper Surface Secure Take Time It Takes Time Nuggets

Author:Mary McLeod Bethune

“If by the people you understand the multitude, the hoi polloi, 'tis no matter what they think; they are sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong; their judgment is a mere lottery.”

People Ifs Thinking Sometimes Matter Understanding Judgment No Matter What Mere Multitudes Lottery

Author:John Dryden

“Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle-a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy.”

Source: Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall-Street

“Let us be today's Christians. Let us not take fright at the boldness of today's church. With Christ's light let us illuminate even the most hideous caverns of the human person: torture, jail, plunder, want, chronic illness. The oppressed must be saved, not with a revolutionary salvation, in mere human fashion, but with the holy revolution of the Son of Man, who dies on the cross to cleanse God's image, which is soiled in today's humanity, a humanity so enslaved, so selfish, so sinful.”

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As mans ingratitude Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend rememberd not.”

Life Art Life Is Water Sky Wind Benefits Breaths Green Mere Winter Blow Stupidity Teeth Bitter This Life Folly Bites Rude Freeze Unkind Ingratitude Jolly Not Stupid Hollies Warp Feigning

Author:William Shakespeare

“There must appear a spiritual and moral leadership rising above economic and political situations. Governments in both their domestic and foreign policies appeal for popular support by promises of material gain. We cannot make peace by mere appeal to greed. We must give the peoples of the world something to live for as well as something to live on.”

“Creativity is more than mere imagination. It is imagination inseparably coupled with both intent and effort.”

Imagination Effort Creativity Intention Mere Inseparable Creativeness Inventiveness

Book:Applied imagination: principles and procedures of creative thinking

Source: Applied imagination: principles and procedures of creative thinking

“We may note in passing that He (Jesus) was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild admiration.”

People May Christian Three Jesus Moral Teacher Effects Produce Mets Hatred Notes Mere Terror Christian Inspirational Passing Passings Admiration Adoration

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Those dreams that on the silent night intrude, and with false flitting shapes our minds delude ... are mere productions of the brain. And fools consult interpreters in vain.”

Mind Dream Night Brain Fool Shapes Mere Silent Productions Vain Interpreter Silent Night

Author:Jonathan Swift

“Recently, I wrote that feminism was 'finding a way of being a girl that doesn't hurt' a way for girls and women to re-negotiate our understanding of the world so that we can become a full and equal part of it rather than just a means of decorating it; to move towards a place where the mere act of being a girl isn't used against us as both a threat and an obligation. Through feminism, I have found a peace of sorts from the sense that my femaleness required a constant apology so that I might be given permission to pass through these narrow corridors.”

World Way Mean Might Moving Used Girl Found Given Understanding Women Hurt Feminism Equal Findings Constant Threat Mere Obligation Apology Permission Corridors Decorating Being A Girl

Author:Clementine Ford

“To believe only possibilities is not faith, but mere Philosophy.”

Believe Philosophy Faith Belief Possibility Mere

Author:Thomas Browne

“Without total freedom, every perception, every objective regard, is twisted. It is only the man who is totally free that can look and understand immediately. Freedom implies really, doesn't it, the total emptying of the mind. To completely empty the whole content of the mind — that is real freedom.”

“Just, harmonious, temperate as is the spirit of liberty, there is in the name and mere notion of it a vagueness so opposite to the definite clearness of the moral law.”

Law Spirit Names Freedom Liberty Moral Opposites Mere Notion Definite Harmonious Moral Law Vagueness Clearness

Book:Guesses at Truth

Source: Guesses at Truth

“I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people - the worship of spirits is synonymous with barbarism - it is mere fetish. ... There is something philosophic in the worship of the heroes of the human race.”

People Humans Use Spirit Race Hero Worship Mere Rational Human Race Civilized Barbarism Fetish Philosophic Hero Worship

Book:Roving Adventures, Or Lavengro: The Scholar - the Gipsy - the Priest

Source: Roving Adventures, Or Lavengro: The Scholar - the Gipsy - the Priest

“Man is always something worse or something better than an animal; and a mere argument from animal perfection never touches him at all. Thus, in sex no animal is either chivalrous or obscene. And thus no animal invented anything so bad as drunkeness - or so good as drink.”

Men Sex Animal Drink Argument Perfection Mere Timeless Something Better Obscene

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“The mind can store an estimated ioo trillion bits of information compared with which a computer's mere billions are virtually amnesiac.”

Mind Bits Information Acceptance Computer Mere Stores Billions

Author:Sharon Begley

“Ages are mere reminders of the hours logged on this earth and the precious time remaining.”

Age Earth Hours Aging Mere Reminders Precious Time

Author:Casper Smart

“I reached in experience the nirvana which is unborn, unrivalled, secure from attachment, undecaying and unstained. This condition is indeed reached by me which is deep, difficult to see, difficult to understand, tranquil, excellent, beyond the reach of mere logic, subtle, and to be realized only by the wise.”

Inspiration Difficult Wise Conditions Logic Mere Secure Buddhist Excellent Subtle Attachment Unborn Tranquil

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Not by mere eloquence, nor by handsome appearance, does a man become good-natured, should he be jealous, selfish and deceitful.”

Men Should Doe Mere Appearance Selfish Buddhist Jealous Handsome Eloquence Deceitful Being Jealous

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Careful amidst the careless, amongst the sleeping wide-awake, the intelligent man leaves them all behind, like a race-horse does a mere hack.”

Men Doe Sleep Race Behinds Horse Intelligent Mere Careful Wide Buddhist Awake Careless Hacks Intelligent Man Wide Awake Race Horses

Author:Gautama Buddha

“We live at the threshold of a universal recognition that the human being is not mere matter, but a potent, energetic field of consciousness. Modalities of the past millennium are quickly giving way to breakthrough technologies wherein we heal ourselves at the level of all true healing, which is spirit.”

Way Giving Humans Matter Past Spirit Human Beings Levels Healing Consciousness Technology Fields Universal Mere Heal Recognition Breakthrough Energetic Threshold Millennium Giving Way

Author:Michael Beckwith

“The world is darkness; knowledge is light; but knowledge without truth is a mere shadow.”

World Wisdom Light Darkness Truth Is Shadow Mere Islamic

Author:Ali ibn Abi Talib

“A system of morality that is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception that has nothing sound in it and nothing true.”

Values Sound Emotional Morality Illusion Ethics Mere Conception Relative Vulgar Values And Morals

Author:Socrates

“I'd really rather leave it to others to say what they see in it and to see if I've put something into my photographs beyond a mere recording. Yes, I've chosen the camera position, how I'm going to print the negative, the angel of the lens, what I'm going to include and exclude in the composition, so on and so forth. But, I'm still photographing a work of art, and I would rather leave it to others to comment on my work, as I just left it to you.”

Ifs Art Stills Left Position Photography Angel Negative Cameras Mere Photographer Photograph Chosen Print Works Of Art Comment Composition Lenses

Author:Bruce Barnbaum

“Mountains inspire awe in any human person who has a soul. They remind us of our frailty, our unimportance, of the briefness of our span on this earth. They touch the heavens, and sail serenely at an altitude beyond even the imaginings of a mere mortal.”

Humans Persons Soul Earth Heaven Nature Inspire Mountain Mere Mortals Awe Sail Frailty Mere Mortals

Book:The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy: A Novel

Source: The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy: A Novel

“Optimism and pessimism are mere matters of optics, of how you look at things, and that can change from day to day, or with a new prescription for your glasses - or with a new set of ideological filters.”

Looks Matter Optimism Mere Glasses Pessimism Day To Day Ideological Prescriptions Filters Optimism And Pessimism Optics

Book:Letters to a Young Catholic

Source: Letters to a Young Catholic

“All that you ever need to know about genitals is that they are made up of flesh, blood, and millions of tiny, restless nerve endings - anything else that you read into them is mere hallucination, a product of your own overactive imagination.”

Knows Needs Made Imagination Millions Blood Products Mere Flesh Tiny Nerves Restless Hallucinations Overactive Imaginations

Book:Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

Source: Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

“Follow your passion, we’re often told. But how do you find your passion? Let me put it another way: what is it that breaks your heart about the world? It’s there that you begin to find what moves you. If you want to find your passion, surrender to your heartbreak. Your heartbreak points towards a truer north — and it’s the difficult journey towards it that is, in the truest sense, no mere passing idyllic infatuation, but enduring, tempestuous passion.”

“In the central cases of physical pain, then, it appears that at least part of what is bad about our condition is the way it makes us feel. Here there seem to be no problems with a purely mental state account, no counterpart to the experience machine that could bring us to think that we are being deceived by mere appearances. [...] If I am suffering physical pain then I can be quite wrong about the organic cause of my affliction, or even about whether it has one, without that error diminishing in the slightest either the reality of my pain or its impact on the quality of my life.”

“Perhaps that is the real surprise of love; it exists, but one may not attribute causes and effects to it. The existence may appear to be a mere fallacy to the minds of some, and by the time they realise what hit them, they would already be down and dead.”

Mind May Real Causes Existence Effects Down And Mere Surprise True Love Realising Attributes Cause And Effect Fallacy

Book:Truly, Madly, Deeply!: Memoirs of a Broken Heart's First Love!

Source: Truly, Madly, Deeply!: Memoirs of a Broken Heart's First Love!

“At a meta level, design connects the dots between mere survival and humanism.”

Levels Design Survival Mere Humanism Dots

Author:Erik Adigard

“Realism should only be the means of expression of religious genius... or, at the other extreme, the artistic expressions of monkeys which are quite satisfied with mere imitation. In fact, art is never realistic though sometimes it is tempted to be. To be really realistic a description would have to be endless.”

Source: The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt

“Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it!”

Hands Chance Fame Fellows Mere Pigs Tails

Author:Davy Crockett

“[A] mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.”

Hands Government Political Limits Mere Sufficient Department Concentration Encroachment

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“History shows that the mere existence of a mass surveillance apparatus, regardless of how it is used, is in itself sufficient to stifle dissent. A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one.”

Shows Political Used Existence Mass Mere Sufficient Fearful Dissent Surveillance Self Sufficient Citizenry

Book:No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State

Source: No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State