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Naivete Quotes

Browse 53 quotes about Naivete.

Naivete Quotes

“What happens is that people don’t know, and so they can’t help me,’ he was saying calmly. ‘But when they open their morning newspapers and see that thirty thousand elephants are being killed every year to make paper knives and billiard balls, and that there’s a man who's doing his damnedest to stop this mass murder, they’ll raise hell. When they hear that out of a hundred baby elephants captured for the zoos eighty die in the first days, you’ll see what public opinion will say. There's such a thing as popular feeling, you know. That’s the kind of thing that makes a government fall, I tell you. All that’s needed is for the people to know.’ ’It was intolerable. I listened gaping, absolutely struck dumb. The man had faith in us, totally and unshakably, and that was something, a faith in us that looked as strong, as natural, as irrational as the elements, as the sea or the wind — something, by God, that looked in the end like the force of truth itself. I had to make an effort to defend myself — not to succumb to that amazing naivete. He really believed that people still had the generosity, the heart, in the ugly times we live in, to worry not only about themselves, but about elephants as well. It was enough to make you weep. I stood there in silence, staring at him — admiring him, I should say — with that gloomy, obstinate expression of his, and that damned briefcase. Ridiculous, if you like, yet also disarming, because I felt he was completely convinced by all the beautiful things man has sung about himself in his moments of inspiration. And with it all, a pigheaded obstinacy — the revolting thoroughness of a schoolmaster who’s got it into his head that he’ll make humanity do its homework and would not hesitate to punish it if it misbehaved. You can see from what I say that he was a highly contagious man.”

Inspirational AttitudeFaith In HumanityNaiveteBelief In HumanityGenerosity Of HeartKindheartedness
Book:The Roots of Heaven
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“A lot of the situations that we put ourselves in are similar to a cat in a yard full of dogs. We rarely ask ourselves how we got here, (which doesn’t help with the question of how we get out of here), all of which rarely keeps us from finding ourselves in the next yard asking the same questions.”

WisdomWiseDogStupidIgnoranceFoolConsequenceCatStupidityFoolishIgnorantCommon SenseDumbCyclesRepetitionConsequencesNaiveDogsCatsRepeatNaiveteYard
Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough
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“The articles were extremely eye-opening. Not just in Teen Vogue but in Seventeen and CosmoGirl as well. They were all about being yourself, staying natural, loving your body as is, and going green! The messages were the exact opposite of Vik and Viv's. Hmmmmm. Frankie turned to face the full-length mirror that was up against the yellow wardrobe. She opened her robe and examined her body. Fit, muscular, and exquisitely proportioned, she agreed with the magazines. So what if her skin was mint? Or her limbs were attached with seams? According to the magazines, which were - no offense! - way more in touch with the times than her parents were, she was suppose to love her body just the way it was. And she did! Therefor if the normies read magazines (which obviously they did, because they were in them), then they would love her, too. Natural was in. Besides she was Daddy's perfect little girl. And who didn't love perfect?”

FashionSelf EsteemConfidenceMirrorsMagazinesBody ImageFrankensteinNaivete
Book:Monster High
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“Совет, что художникам лучше бы следовало не так много думать - а ведь всякая свобода безусловно приводит их к размышлению, - не более чем адаптированный и выпотрошенный массовой культурой траур по утраченной наивности.”

SocietyLiberalNaivete
Book:Philosophy of New Music
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“The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterized by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naivete.”

PeopleWorldWritingFeelingsNaturalPerfectGraceSecurityStyleFineTasteProfoundDepthDelicateDaringEngagingDistinguishedPolishCarelessVigorousNaivete
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“Chinese were bornwith an accumulated wisdom, a natural sophistication, an intelligent naivete, and unless they were transplanted too young, these qualities ripened in them.... If ever I am homesick for China, now that I am home in my own country, it is when I discover here no philosophy. Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy.”

PeopleIfsIdeasCountryPhilosophyHomeYoungNaturalMy OwnQualityOpinionPrejudiceIntelligentPhilosophicalChinaChineseCreedsSophisticationHomesickNaivete
Author:Pearl S. Buck
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“Dieter Dengler was an amazing man. Who knows what he would've been had he not ever been tested in this way? It's a question that I certainly have myself. What would I be able to do in certain situations? He came out, obviously, looking like a true hero, but he didn't go in looking like that. He was not your typical image of somebody that you would think would be the tough guy who was able to endure. His lighthearted attitude, this sort of dorkiness, and naivete; it ended up being the finest tool for his survival.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWayWould BeAbleGuyCertainAttitudeSituationHeroSurvivalToughToolsEndureTypicalFinestTestedTough GuyNaiveteTrue HeroAmazing Man
Author:Christian Bale
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“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”

LifeForgetWiseStupidLetting GoForgivenessForgivingSorryNever ForgetApologyApologizingI'm SorryForgivenNaiveStupid PeopleForgive MeI ApologizeForgive And ForgetI Forgive YouWhat Is ForgivenessNaivetyInspirational ForgivenessSelf ForgivenessNaiveteSaying I'm SorryLearn To ForgiveForgiveness LoveForgive And Move OnNot ForgivingNot SorryForgive ForgetFriendship ApologyForgiving PeopleForget The World
Author:Thomas Szasz
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“Emotional discomfort, when accepted, rises, crests and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes a part of us away and deposits treasures we never imagined. Out goes naivete, in comes wisdom; out goes anger, in comes discernment; out goes despair, in comes kindness. No one would call it easy, but the rhythm of emotional pain that we learn to tolerate is natural, constructive and expansive... The pain leaves you healthier than it found you.”

InspirationalPainFallFoundEasyNaturalKindnessEmotionalDespairSeriesWaveAcceptedTreasureRhythmTolerateConstructiveDiscomfortDiscernmentEmotional PainDepositsFound YouNaivete
Author:Martha Beck
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“It is hard to think of any work of art of which one can say 'this saved the life of one Jew, one Vietnamese, one Cambodian'. Specific books, perhaps; but as far as one can tell, no paintings or sculptures. The difference between us and the artists of the 1920's is that they they thought such a work of art could be made. Perhaps it was a certain naivete that made them think so. But it is certainly our loss that we cannot.”

ThinkingArtMadeBookHardArtistCertainDifferencesLossPaintingJewSavedWorks Of ArtSculptureVietnameseNaivete
Author:Robert Hughes
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“To speak of ‘limits to growth’ under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be ‘persuaded’ to limit growth than a human being can be ‘persuaded’ to stop breathing. Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.”

HumansWellsTodaySpeakGrowthNatureHuman BeingsMoralEconomySocietyLimitsCapitalismGreenEnvironmentalBreatheEndlessWarriorBreathingMeaninglessWarfareDoomedEcologyPersuasionNaiveAttemptingPietyEcologicalEnvironmentalistMarket EconomyManipulativeMultinationalsNaivetyNaivete
Author:Murray Bookchin
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“Rosemary bubbled with delight at the trunks. Her naivete responded whole-heartedly to the expensive simplicity of the Divers, unaware of its complexity and its lack of innocence, unaware that it was all a selection of quality rather than quantity from the run of the world's bazaar; and that the simplicity of behavior also, the nursery-like peace and good will, the emphasis on the simpler virtues, was part of a desperate bargain with the gods and had been attained through struggles she could not have guessed at.”

WorldWholeRunningQualityStruggleVirtueBehaviorSimplicityDelightInnocenceComplexityDesperateExpensiveNurseQuantityEmphasisSelectionGood WillBargainsNurseryTrunksNaiveteRosemaryBazaars
Book:Tender is the Night
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“Alfred Russel Wallace, the codiscoverer of the theory of natural selection. Following their twin announcements of the theory in 1858, both Darwin and Wallace struggled like Laocoöns with the serpentine problem of human evolution and its encoiling difficulty of consciousness. But where Darwin clouded the problem with his own naivete, seeing only continuity in evolution, Wallace could not do so.”

HumansProblemNaturalConsciousnessSeeingTheoryEvolutionDifficultyFollowingTwinsSelectionContinuityNatural SelectionAnnouncementsCloudedHuman EvolutionNaivete
Author:Julian Jaynes
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“The childlike, gum-chewing naivete, the glamour rooted in despair, the self-admiring carelessness, the perfected otherness, the wispiness, the shadowy, voyeuristic, vaguely sinister aura, the pale, soft-spoken magical presence, the skin and bones . . .”

SelfDespairSkinsBonesRootedPaleGlamourChildlikeSinisterAurasGumAdmiringChewingCarelessnessOthernessNaiveteSkin And Bones
Book:The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again
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