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Mere Quotes

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Mere Quotes

“Generality is, indeed, an indispensable ingredient of reality; for mere individual existence or actuality without any regularity whatever is a nullity. Chaos is pure nothing.”

Reality Individual Existence Pure Mere Chaos Ingredients Indispensable Actuality Regularity Generalities

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

“Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”

Kind Two Reality Space Shadow Independent Unions Mere Preserves Fades Doomed Fade Away

Book:The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity

Source: The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity

“Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue.”

Art Reality Artist Approach Art Is Perfection Mere Definitions Imperfect Untrue Unfaithful

Book:Correspondence and Table-talk: With a Memoir

Source: Correspondence and Table-talk: With a Memoir

“I would not be the mere President of a Party. I feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes.”

Feels Government President Party Mere Bounds Presidential Schemes

Author:Zachary Taylor

“I then realized that I could never be satisfied again with the mere natural charm of my voice, that I had to constantly paint when singing, melting all the colors, expressing reds and blacks that had to be less primary but bursting with subtly colored combinations.”

Voice Natural Color Singing Mere Paint Satisfied Primaries Combination Charm Melting Bursting

Author:Placido Domingo

“Lady of the Mere, Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.”

Romance Sitting Mere Shore Sole Old Romance

Book:Lyrical Ballads and other Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth (Including Their Thoughts On Poetry Principles and Secrets): Collections of Poetry which marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature, including poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Dungeon, The Nightingale, Dejection: An Ode

Source: Lyrical Ballads and other Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth (Including Their Thoughts On Poetry Principles and Secrets): Collections of Poetry which marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature, including poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Dungeon, The Nightingale, Dejection: An Ode

“Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.”

Growth Mere Continuity Synthesis

Book:Selected Literary Essays

Source: Selected Literary Essays

“Not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes; tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice.”

Humans Opportunity Justice Common Principles Dignity Constant Mere Charity Tolerance Our Time Creeds Pro Life Human Dignity

Author:Barack Obama

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

Happiness Mere Stagnation Elation

Author:Amy Lowell

“... the community suffers nothing very terrible if its cobblers are bad and become degenerate and pretentious; but if the Guardians of its laws and constitution, who alone have the opportunity to bring it good government and prosperity, become a mere sham, then clearly it is completely ruined.”

Ifs Government Law Political Suffering Opportunity Community Terrible Constitution Mere Prosperity Ruined Guardian Pretentious Degenerates Cobblers

Author:Plato

“Their military training will ensure success in war, but they must maintain unity by not allowing the state to grow to large, and by ensuring that the measures for promotion and demotion from one class to another are carried out. Above all they must maintain the educational system unchanged; for on education everything else depends, and it is an illusion to imagine that mere legislation without it can effect anything of consequence.”

“History will never change because of politics or conquests or theories or wars; that's mere repitition, it's been going on since the beginning of time. History will only change when we are able to use the energy of love, just as we use energy of the wind, the seas, the atom.”

War Use Able Energy Sea Wind Theory Historical Mere Atoms Conquest Never Change

Author:Paulo Coelho

“It [the scientific revolution] outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes, mere internal displacements, within the system of medieval Christendom. . . . It looms so large as the real origin of the modern world and of the modern mentality that our customary periodization of European history has become an anachronism and an encumbrance.”

“Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you'll still be heading for a star. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort.”

Ifs Inspirational Stills Success Joy Lying Stars Effort Creative Moon Achievement Mere Possession Insightful Thrill Headings

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Whatever the lengths to which others may go, His Majesty's Government will never resort to the deliberate attack on women and children and other civilians for purposes of mere terrorism.”

May Children Government Purpose Mere Terrorism Aviation Length Deliberate Resorts Majesty Civilians Air Power Airpower

Author:Neville Chamberlain

“It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed...I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives, such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.”

“People who are so dreadfully "devoted" to their wives are so apt, from mere habit, to get devoted to other people's wives as well.”

People Wells Wife Habit Mere Devoted Infidelity

Book:Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle

Source: Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle

“There is a way in which the collective knowledge of mankind expresses itself, for the finite individual, through mere daily living . . . a way in which life itself is sheer knowing.”

Way Life Individual Knowing Mankind Mere Individuality Collectives Sheer Finite Daily Living Collective Knowledge

Book:Venture to the interior

Source: Venture to the interior

“The way life manages information involves a logical structure that differs fundamentally from mere complex chemistry. Therefore chemistry alone will not explain life's origin, any more than a study of silicon, copper and plastic will explain how a computer can execute a program.”

Way Study Information Computer Program Structure Mere Complexes Manage Logical Chemistry Plastic Silicon Copper

Author:Paul Davies

“In Western society, and particularly in American society, imagination is stulified from infancy. The imaginative child is discouraged and upbraided. He is told that the process is mere dreaming, that it wastes time and leads nowhere. It is said to be "impractical." As the child grows and its imagination inevitably leads it to express unconventional ideas and to try new behavior, it is chided and even viciously punished for such signs of unorthodoxy.”

“I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes—a justifier of the most appalling barbarity…a shelter under…which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection”

Crime Mere South Deeds Protection Strongest Shelter Covering Barbarity Slaveholders

Book:Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

“The mere word freedom is the only one that still excites me. I deem it capable of indefinitely sustaining the old human fanaticism. It doubtless satisfies my only legitimate aspiration. Among all the many misfortunes to which we are heir, it is only fair to admit that we are allowed the greatest degree of freedom of thought. It is up to us not to misuse it. To reduce the imagination to a state of slavery-even though it would mean the elimination of what is commonly called happiness-is to betray all sense of absolute justice within oneself.”

“Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art.”

Art Emotion Mere Plus Sentiments Translate Composition Pretext

Book:Georges Braque

Source: Georges Braque

“This thing is but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know, and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer or maker; yet you profess to believe that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without either designer or maker! Now tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such an incongruous conclusion?”

Knows Believe Able Law Taken Design Originals Mere Conclusion Designer Reasoning Convince Makers Toys Imitation

Author:Isaac Newton

“The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.”

Ifs Want Giving Wife Information Assuming Mere Consumers Insult Slogans Moron Adjectives Copywriting Vapid

Author:David Ogilvy

“Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.”

Humans Important Past Values Felt Process Human Beings Eternal Independent Mere Sake Treated Symptoms

Author:Lytton Strachey

“No matter the specific techniques involved, historically mass surveillance has had several constant attributes. Initially, it is always the country’s dissidents and marginalized who bear the brunt of the surveillance, leading those who support the government or are merely apathetic to mistakenly believe they are immune. And 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.”

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

“My other bodily ailments have become mere matters of history.”

Matter Mere Ailments

Book:Letter on Corpulence

Source: Letter on Corpulence

“I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me. That would be a pointless lie, a mere bit of artfulness.”

Would Be Lying Bits Fronts Mere Pointless

Book:Lucian Freud: naked portraits : Werke der 40er bis 90er Jahre

Source: Lucian Freud: naked portraits : Werke der 40er bis 90er Jahre

“Wealth, if not a mere flash in the pan, compels the wealthy to become wealthier.”

Ifs Wealth Mere Wealthy Flash

Author:Sylvia Townsend Warner

“Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the pretense that life is what we want it to be may conceivably bring about the desired condition. Hence religious parables, socialist realism, Nazi propaganda. And if this story likewise crawls with reactionary supernaturalism, that might be because its author longs to see letters scuttling across ceilings, cautiously beginning to reify themselves into angels. For if they could only do that, then why not us?”

Source: Europe Central

“Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don't know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids. In the light of these mass extinctions it really does seem unreasonable to suppose that Homo sapiens should be exempt. Our species will have been one of the shortest-lived of all, a mere blink, you may say, in the eye of time.”

Source: The Children of Men

“As the king governs by his executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the 'spirited element.'”

Men Mean Reason Kings Elements Mere Executives Appetite Spirited

Book:THE ABOLITION OF MAN

Source: THE ABOLITION OF MAN

“A child can go only so far in life without potty training. It is not mere coincidence that six of the last seven presidents were potty trained, not to mention nearly half of the nation's state legislators.”

Children States Lasts Political Nations President Half Six Training Mere Seven Coincidence Legislators Potty

Book:Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only 9 Months, with Tools You Probably Have Around the Home

Source: Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only 9 Months, with Tools You Probably Have Around the Home

“A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales.”

Children Natural Hair Scientist Mere Tales Fairy Fairy Tale Impress Laboratory Confronting Marie Technicians Natural Phenomena Fairy Stories

Author:Marie Curie

“The same authorities who insist upon beginnings, middles, and ends, declare that Great Literature (by which they mean the stories they have been taught to admire) is about love and death, while mere popular fiction like this is about sex and violence. One reader's sex, alas, is another's love; and one's violence, another's death.”

Mean Has Beens Ends Stories Literature Sex Fiction Violence Taught Reader Authority Mere Admire Alas Love And Death Great Literature

Author:Gene Wolfe

“The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves.”

Men Whole Passion Meditation He Man Activity Mere Appearance Introspection Surroundings Insensible

Book:Suicide

Source: Suicide

“The mere possibility provides no warrant for denying what I clearly grasp.”

Possibility Mere Warrants

Author:William Lane Craig

“The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler”

Character Parent Moral Conditions Slave Mere Rulers Employers Holding On Being A Parent Moral Character

Author:Samuel Morse

“We are whirling through endless space with an inconceivable speed, all around us everything is spinning, everything is moving, everywhere is energy. There mart be some way of availing ourselves of this energy more directly. Then; with the light obtained from the medium, with the power derived from it, with every form of energy obtained without effort, from the store forever inexhaustible, humanity will advance with giant strides. The mere contemplation of these magnificent possibilities expand our minds, strengthens our hopes and and fills our hearts with supreme delight.”

Way Mind Heart Light Moving Form Humanity Energy Space Effort Forever Possibility Mere Delight Speed Stores Supreme Endless Mediums Contemplation Giants Magnificent Spinning Stride

Author:Nikola Tesla

“Most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem-solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers and employees must also look inward. The need to reflect critically on their own behaviour, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organisation’s problems, and then change how they act.”

“Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.”

Leadership Ethics Management Mere Technique Divorced

Book:Leadership

Source: Leadership

“Friend, many and many a dream is mere confusion a cobweb of no consequence at all. Two gates for ghostly dreams there are: One gateway of honest horn, and one of ivory. Issuing by the ivory gate are dreams of glimmering illusion, fantasies, but those that come through solid polished horn may be borne out, if mortals only know them.”

Ifs Knows May Two Dream Fantasy Honest Illusion Consequence Mere Confusion Mortals Gates Horns Polished Ivory Gateways Cobwebs

Book:The odyssey

Source: The odyssey

“If then, said I, the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessing great means and influence and yet who employs those faculties for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion-I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.”

Ifs Men Mean Said Purpose Influence Mere Graves Miserable Discussion Faculty Introducing Grandfather Preference Ridicule Apes Possessing If Then

Author:Thomas Huxley

“For millions of Christians, nevertheless, God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle.”

Trying Real Christian Principles Millions Ideals Mere Loyal Nevertheless

Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer

“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”

Rights Citizens Constitution Independent Mere Bubbles Virtuous Secured Judiciary Independent Judiciary

Author:Andrew Jackson

“Mere human beings cant afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.”

People Ifs Humans Ends Law Justice Human Beings Space Millions Clear Planets Court Mere Loyalty Compromise Helpless Cant Fanatics Fanaticism Law Courts

Author:Storm Jameson

“By mere burial man arrives not at bliss; and in the future life, throughout its whole infinite range, they will seek for happiness as vainly as they sought it here, who seek it in aught else than that which so closely surrounds them here - the Infinite”

Men Whole Infinite Mere Range Bliss Surround Burial Future Life

Author:Johann Gottlieb Fichte

“Unlike a mere deception or a simple secret, which gives the impression that something's been taken away, a great magician makes you feel like something's been given to you.”

Giving Feels Given Simple Secret Taken Magic Mere Impression Deception Magician Like Something

Book:Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear

Source: Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear

“At first I hoped that such a technically unsound project would collapse but I soon realized it was doomed to success. Almost anything in software can be implemented, sold, and even used given enough determination. There is nothing a mere scientist can say that will stand against the flood of a hundred million dollars. But there is one quality that cannot be purchased in this way - and that is reliability. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay.”