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Modification Quotes

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Modification Quotes

“I think one of the things we learned from the physicists and also the theoretical biologists is the idea that when you're dealing with very complex systems you're going to get a large variety of behavior which can be interpreted as hill climbing, but hill climbing with a lot of modifications, hill climbing with big jumps occasionally.”

ThinkingIdeasBigsBehaviorComplexesVarietyHillsClimbingPhysicistTheoreticalBiologistModificationComplex Systems
Author:Kenneth Arrow
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“Genetic modification has many different areas, for example in medicine, and Britain is at the leading edge of this new technology. I don't know, but people tell me, it could indeed by the leading science of the 21st century. All I say to people is: 'Just keep an open mind and let us proceed according to genuine scientific evidence.'”

PeopleKnowsMindDifferentTechnologyCenturyExampleEvidenceAreasMedicineEdgesGenuineBritain21st CenturyOpen MindNew TechnologyModificationKeep An Open MindScientific Evidence
Author:Tony Blair
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“Very much indeed of what we call moral education is such an artificial modification and perversion of instinct; pugnacity is trained into courageous self-sacrifice, and suppressed sexuality into religious emotion.”

SelfReligiousEmotionMoralSacrificeInstinctSexualityCourageousArtificialSelf SacrificePerversionModificationMoral Education
Book:H. G. WELLS Ultimate Collection: 120+ Science Fiction Classics, Novels & Stories; Including Scientific, Political and Historical Works: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, Modern Utopia, A Short History of the World, What Is Coming, The Story of the Last Trump…
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“I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”

ThinkingFormSufferingCoursesNaturalCompetitionSpeciesImprovementClosestSelectionNatural SelectionModificationOrigin Of Species
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
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“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.”

IfsHas BeensI CanBreakCasesTheoryEvolutionSpeciesComplexesOrgansBreaking DownNatural SelectionDarwinismCreationismModificationTheory Of EvolutionOrigin Of SpeciesCreation ScienceCreation And EvolutionEvolution Of ManOrigin Of Man
Book:On the Origin of Species
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“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling... When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are, delightful, as we every day experience.”

GivingMindMayIdeasFeelingsPainCertainEmotionDangerObjectsSourceTerribleCapablePressesTerrorDelightProductiveStrongestIncapableSublimeDelightfulModificationSublimity
Author:Edmund Burke
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“It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.”

ScienceProcessImagineConditionsDependsEvolutionPerfectionConstantErrorsTendenciesImagine ThatOrganismsAdaptationModificationRemodeling
Book:Evolution and Ethics
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“We are completely unaware of our true nature because we identify ourselves with our body, our emotions and our thoughts, thus losing sight of our unchanging centre, which is pure consciousness. When we return to our true nature, our thoughts and perceptions no longer appear as modifications of a single substance, they come into being and subside like waves of the ocean.”

BodySpiritualSpiritualityEmotionConsciousnessReturnPureOceanPerceptionLosingSightWaveSubstanceOur ThoughtsCentreTrue NatureUnchangingModification
Book:Be Who You Are
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“All the acquisitions or losses wrought by nature on individuals, through the influence of the environment in which their race has long been placed, and hence through the influence of the predominant use or permanent disuse of any organ; all these are preserved by reproduction to the new individuals which arise, provided that the acquired modifications are common to both sexes, or at least to the individuals which produce the young.”

LongUseYoungScienceIndividualSexLossCommonRaceEnvironmentInfluenceProduceEvolutionArisePermanentOrgansAcquisitionReproductionModification
Author:Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
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“The succession of individuals, connected by reproduction and belonging to a species, makes it possible for the specific form itself to last for ages. In the end, however, the species is temporary; it has no "eternal life." After existing for a certain period, it either dies or is converted by modification into other forms.”

LifeEndsAgeLastsFormScienceCertainDiesIndividualExistenceEvolutionPeriodsEternalSpeciesConnectedBelongingTemporaryEternal LifeSuccessionReproductionModification
Book:Wonders of life
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“"Pieces" almost always appear 'as parts' in whole processes. ... To sever a "'part" from the organized whole in which it occurs-whether it itself be a subsidiary whole or an "element"-is a very real process usually involving alterations in that "part". Modifications of a part frequently involve changes elsewhere in the whole itself. Nor is the nature of these alterations arbitrary, for they too are determined by whole-conditions.”

RealWholeScienceProcessNatureChangePiecesConditionsElementsDeterminedOrganizedElsewhereArbitraryInvolvingAlterationsModification
Author:Max Wertheimer
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“If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”

PeopleIfsWayMayGovernmentOpinionParticularWeaponsGunConstitutionInstrumentsDestroyedInstanceAmendmentsGun ControlDistributionBearing ArmsFree GovernmentModificationFarewell AddressConstitutional GovernmentUsurpationConstitutional AmendmentsAmending The Constitution
Book:Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America
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“We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; an equal quantity of matter exists both before and after the experiment; the quality and quantity of the elements remain precisely the same; and nothing takes place beyond changes and modifications in the combination of these elements. Upon this principle the whole art of performing chemical experiments depends: We must always suppose an exact equality between the elements of the body examined and those of the products of its analysis.”

MayArtMatterWholeBodyScienceQualityPrinciplesProductsDependsEqualElementsLaysExperimentsCombinationOperationsAnalysisPerformingChemistryChemicalsQuantityExaminationAxiomsModificationBefore And After
Book:Elements of chemistry, tr. by R. Kerr
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“I welcome opposing viewpoints, but I should warn you that you'll be facing off against the 2nd-place finisher at the 1981 Charleston County High-School Debate Tournament. And whatever became of that county champ who argued in favor of tractor safety modifications? Last time I checked, she didn't have her own show.”

ShouldShowsSchoolLastsHigh SchoolCriticismSafetyFavorsDebateWelcomeLast TimeTournamentsCountyOpposingViewpointsModificationTractorsCharlestonFinishers
Author:Stephen Colbert
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“It is in this mutual dependence of the functions and the aid which they reciprocally lend one another that are founded the laws which determine the relations of their organs and which possess a necessity equal to that of metaphysical or mathematical laws, since it is evident that the seemly harmony between organs which interact is a necessary condition of existence of the creature to which they belong and that if one of these functions were modified in a manner incompatible with the modifications of the others the creature could no longer continue to exist.”

IfsLawExistenceConditionsCreaturesEqualFunctionRelationHarmonyDetermineAidsMathematicalMutualOrgansDependenceEvidentMetaphysicalModification
Author:Georges Cuvier
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“It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities.”

ImportantHelpingCommunityAnimalQualityEnvironmentHighestAbsolutesEnvironmentalConvictionLandscapeWelfareChemicalsArtificialAgricultureFarmingAnimal WelfareTastingModificationOrganic FarmingRural Communities
Author:Prince Charles
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“Layering and changeability: this is the key, the combination that is worked into most of my buildings. Occupying one of these buildings is like sailing a yacht; you modify and manipulate its form and skin according to seasonal conditions and natural elements, and work with these to maximize the performance of the building.”

FormNatureNaturalConditionsBuildingKeysElementsSkinsPerformancesSeasonsEnvironmentalArchitectureCombinationManipulationOccupationLayersSailingManipulateModificationYachtMaximizingModifyingNatural ElementsBuilt Environment
Author:Glenn Murcutt
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“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the original parable, the bland lead the bland.”

MenPoliticalSocialTakenInfluenceHe ManDisciplineComfortableEmpathyMarkOriginalsAcceptedApathyOriginalityMinorsControversyDisturbingInstabilityParablesBlandModification
Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
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“It would be well for those interested to reflect whether there now exists, or ever has existed, a wealthy and civilized community in which one portion did not live on the labor of another; and whether the form in which slavery exists in the South is not but one modification of this universal condition... Let those who are interested remember that labor is the only source of wealth, and how small a portion of it, in all old and civilized countries, even the best governed, is left to those by whose labor wealth is created.”

WellsCountryWould BeRememberFormLeftCommunityWealthConditionsSourceLaborUniversalSlaverySouthWealthyCivilizedPortionsModification
Author:John C. Calhoun
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“Every living thing is an elaboration of a single original plan. As humans we are mere increments - each of us a musty archive of adjustments, adaptations, modifications and providential tinkerings stretching back to 3,8 billion years. Remarkably we are even quite closely related to fruit and vegetables. About half the chemical functions that take place in a banana are fundamentally the same as the chemical functions that place in you. It cannot be said too often: all life is one. That is, and I suspect will ever prove to be, the most profound true statement there is.”

YearsHumansSaidLife IsHalfPlansProveFunctionOriginalsMereProfoundFruitBillionsStatementsRelatedSuspectsChemicalsVegetablesAdaptationLiving ThingsAdjustmentStretchingBananasArchivesModificationFruits And VegetablesTinkering
Author:Bill Bryson
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“And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy.”

HumansKindMayHas BeensPhilosophySeemsHuman NatureSourceWords Of WisdomProveSimplicityAffectionObviousAppearanceDeeperFormerReasoningLatterHypothesisModification
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
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