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Natural Quotes

“It's an odd thing but when you tell someone the true facts of a mythical tale they are indignant not with the teller but with you. They don't want to have their ideas upset. It rouses some vague uneasiness in them, I think, and they resent it. So they reject it and refuse to think about it. If they were merely indifferent it would be natural and understandable. But it is much stronger than that, much more positive. They are annoyed. Very odd, isn't it.”

IfsThinkingWantIdeasFactsWould BeNaturalStrongerRefuseTalesOddUpsetRejectsIndifferentVagueAnnoyedResentUneasinessOdd ThingsIndignantTrue Fact
Author:Josephine Tey
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“If I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child's natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn't possibly do as good a job as is currently being done-I simply wouldn't have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.”

IfsKindChildrenIdeasSoulDoneJobsPurposeImaginationNaturalDesignAnd LoveMathematicsCuriosityPatternsCome UpContemporaryCrushDestroyingMechanismBeing DoneNatural Curiosity
Author:Paul Lockhart
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“Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled.”

IfsThinkingPersonsIdeasStatesOrderLosesNaturalAnimalOughtLimitsPlantSizeNo IdeaConsumerismSpoiledOverconsumption
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“The idea is the least labor and capital and resources you put together and the more you accumulate the better capitalist you are. So the suggestion I will make to you is that the idea of constant accumulation, which is what America is about, what consumerism, NAFTA are about, means that you always take more than you need and you don't leave the rest. So I suggest that it is possible from an indigenous world view that capitalism is inherently out of order with natural law.”

WorldNeedsMeanIdeasTogetherAmericaLawOrderNaturalViewsCapitalismResourcesLaborConstantCapitalistConsumerismSuggestionsIndigenousAccumulationNatural LawOverconsumptionWorld ViewNaftaLabor And Capital
Author:Winona LaDuke
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“Our problem is that the climate crisis hatched in our laps at a moment in history when political and social conditions were uniquely hostile to a problem of this nature and magnitude-that moment being the tail end of the go-go '80s, the blastoff point for the crusade to spread deregulated capitalism around the world. Climate change is a collective problem demanding collective action the likes of which humanity has never actually accomplished. Yet it entered mainstream consciousness in the midst of an ideological war being waged on the very idea of the collective sphere.”

WorldIdeasWarEndsMomentsProblemActionSciencePoliticalHumanitySocialNatureNaturalConsciousnessConditionsCapitalismCrisisClimateClimate ChangeSpreadLikesAround The WorldAccomplishedCollectivesMidstThat MomentSpheresMainstreamTailsHostile80sLapIdeologicalMagnitudeCrusadesSocial ConditionsCollective Action
Author:Naomi Klein
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“On the country has gathered the idea of a natural way of life: of peace, innocence, and simple virtue. On the city has gathered the idea of an achieved centre of learning, communication, light. Powerful hostile associations have also developed: on the city as a place of noise, worldliness and ambition; on the country as a place of backwardness, ignorance, limitation. A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times.”

WayIdeasCountryLightNaturalSimplePowerfulCitiesVirtueIgnoranceCommunicationAmbitionFundamentalsNoiseLimitationInnocenceAssociationContrastCentreHostileWorldliness
Book:The Country and the City
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“The liberals of the eighteenth century, guided by the ideas of natural law and of the Enlightenment, demanded for everyone equality of political and civil rights... Nothing, however, is as ill-founded as the assertion of the alleged equality of all members of the human race.”

HumansIdeasLawPoliticalNaturalRaceRightsCenturyMembersEnlightenmentIllCivil RightsHuman RaceAssertionNatural Law
Book:Liberalism: The Classical Tradition: The Economist
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“Any group of people that has been subordinate absorbs the idea of our own subordination, and that it is natural, and comes to think that the only way to survive is to identify with the powerful. And I think that is not surprising, and it is what happens to a lot of right-wing women. I mean they think they better do what the powerful tell them do otherwise they'll be in even more trouble.”

PeopleThinkingWayMeanHas BeensIdeasHappensNaturalPowerfulTroubleGroupsWingsSurprisingRight WingSubordinatesSubordination
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“In that year [1865] John Muir offered to buy from his brother ... a sanctuary for the wildflowers that had gladdened his youth. His brother declined to part with the land, but he could not suppress the idea: 1865 still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth-year of mercy for things natural, wild, and free.”

YearsStillsIdeasNaturalLandYouthBrotherBirthMercySanctuaryWisconsinWild And FreeWildflowers
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“The belief that happiness has to be deserved has led to centuries of pain, guilt, and deception. So firmly have we clung to this single, illusory belief that we've almost forgotten the real truth about happiness. So busy are we trying to deserve happiness that we no longer have much time for ideas such as: Happiness is natural, happiness is a birthright, happiness is free, happiness is a choice, happiness is within, and happiness is being. The moment you believe that happiness has to be deserved, you must toil forevermore.”

TryingBelieveIdeasRealMomentsPainChoicesBeliefNaturalCenturyDeserveGuiltBusyForgottenDeceptionToilBirthrightIllusoryHappiness Is A ChoiceReal Truth
Book:Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good Fast
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“Once the idea of a supernaturalistic creation is fully overcome, the idea returns that the universe must be self-organizing and therefore composed of self-moving parts. Also, insofar as dualistic assumptions are fully overcome and human experience is accepted as fully natural, it begins to seem probable that something analogous to our experience and self-movement is a feature of every level of nature.”

HumansIdeasSelfSeemsMovingUniverseNaturalLevelsMovementCreationReturnOvercomingAcceptedFeaturesAssumptionHuman ExperienceMoving Parts
Book:God and Religion in the Postmodern World: Essays in Postmodern Theology
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“If I were to give a prize for the single best idea anybody ever had, I'd give it to Darwin for the idea of natural selection - ahead of Newton, ahead of Einstein - because his idea unites the two most disparate features of our universe: the world of purposeless, meaningless matter and motion, particles jostling on the one side, and the world of meaning and purpose, design on the other.”

IfsWorldGivingTwoIdeasMatterPurposeUniverseSidesNaturalDesignFeaturesPrizeMeaninglessSelectionParticlesNewtonNatural Selection
Author:Daniel Dennett
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“The traditional view of purpose says it comes from on high, from God, from the Creator. Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition. Whereas people used to think of meaning coming from on high and being ordained from the top down, now we have Darwin saying, "No, all of this design can happen, all of this purpose can emerge from the bottom up without any direction at all."”

PeopleThinkingIdeasHappensUsedPurposeNaturalViewsDesignTraditionBottomCreatorTraditionalUncomfortableReverseSelectionSaying NoNatural SelectionThink Of MeTop Down
Author:Daniel Dennett
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“The century would seek to dominate nature as it had never been dominated, would attack the idea of war, poverty and natural catastrophe as never before. The century would create death, devastation and pollution as never before. Yet the century was now attached to the idea that man must take his conception of life out to the stars.”

MenIdeasWarStarsNaturalPovertyCenturyConceptionPollutionCatastropheExplorersDevastation
Book:Of A Fire On The Moon
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“Poetry interprets in two ways: it interprets by expressing, with magical felicity, the physiognomy and movements of the outward world; and it interprets by expressing, with inspired conviction, the ideas and laws of the inward world of man's moral and spiritual nature. In other words, poetry is interpretative both by having natural magic in it, and by having moral profundity.”

MenWorldWayTwoIdeasSpiritualLawPoetryNaturalMoralMagicMovementInspiredConvictionPoetry IsInwardTwo WaysFelicityProfunditySpiritual NaturePhysiognomy
Book:Essays in Criticism
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“Creationists argue that natural selection is only a negative process, and therefore cannot create anything. Chopra argues that skepticism is only a negative process, and therefore does not lead to knowledge. Both are wrong for the same reasons. They ignore the generation of diversity and new ideas upon which natural selection and skepticism acts. Weeding out the unfit is critical to both - natural selection allows evolution to proceed, and skepticism allows science to advance.”

DoeIdeasReasonReligionProcessNaturalGenerationsAtheismEvolutionDiversityNegativeCriticalArguingWeedSkepticismNew IdeasSelectionNatural Selection
Author:Steven Novella
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“First there is the democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed, and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation.”

PeopleMenFirstsIdeasGovernmentCertainNaturalRightsDevelopmentEqualInstitutionsDemocraticCreatorExploitationOrganizeEqual RightsNatural Rights
Book:Additional Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons
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“Letterwriting is the natural outlet of the "odds." The busy-bodies, the idle, the perverted, the cranks, the feel-it-my-duties ... Also the plain depraved. They all write letters. It's their safe outlet, you see. They can be as interfering, as long-winded, as obscene, as pompous, as one-idea'd, as they like on paper, and no one can kick them for it. So they write. My God, how they write!”

FeelsWritingLongIdeasBodyNaturalDutySafePaperLettersBusyKicksOddsInterfereIdleOutletsObscenePompousDepravedCrank
Author:Josephine Tey
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“claims about what's 'natural' have long been used to reinforce traditional gender roles and values. ... Even the notion that women should have children at all is based on the idea that a woman's inherent and most important role is that of mother. Shockingly, men's 'innate' roles are a lot more fun than the ones bestowed on women.”

MenShouldChildrenLongImportantIdeasUsedMotherValuesFunNaturalRolesShould HaveClaimsNotionGenderTraditionalSexismInherentInnateGender Roles
Author:Jessica Valenti
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“Apart from selfish reasons, such as fear of punishments, fear of blame, of dishonour, etc, there remains only two motives that can stop (or prevent, "empâecher", Fr.) men from acting badly; the natural sense of commiseration (or "sympathy", - "commisération", Fr.) for one's fellow men - compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas ("par l'association d'idées", Fr.) - habit.”

MenTwoIdeasReasonNaturalActingCompassionInfluenceHabitFellowsBlameRemainsSelfishPunishmentMotiveEtcAssociationFellow ManRationsDishonourSelfish ReasonsActing Badly
Author:African Spir
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“Giving free advice is a sad waste of effort. In the first place, no man will act upon it unless he is already inclined to do so. Secondly, when a man lays his case before you, the idea that he is asking your advice is a polite fabrication. He merely is suggesting that he is doing so, while as a fact his real object is to acquaint you with his personal activity. He wants to talk to somebody, being a natural gossip or gadder, and he plays upon your propensity for "giving advice" in order to get an audience.”

MenWantGivingFirstsIdeasRealPlayFactsOrderNaturalEffortCasesAudienceAdviceObjectsActivityWasteAskingLaysGossipPoliteSuggestingPropensityGiving AdviceFabricationFree AdviceWaste Of Effort
Author:William H. McMaster
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“Our thesis is that the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness.”

MenHumansIdeasSelfNaturalInstitutionsDestroyedSubstanceWildernessLengthTransformedSurroundingsUtopiaStarksThesisAdjustingImplied
Book:The Great Transformation
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“Human rights are an aspect of natural law, a consequence of the way the universe works, as solid and as real as photons or the concept of pi. The idea of self- ownership is the equivalent of Pythagoras' theorem, of evolution by natural selection, of general relativity, and of quantum theory. Before humankind discovered any of these, it suffered, to varying degrees, in misery and ignorance.”

WayHumansIdeasRealSelfLawUniverseNaturalRightsIgnoranceTheoryEvolutionDegreesConceptsConsequenceAspectMiseryHuman RightsHumankindQuantumOwnershipSelectionRelativityNatural SelectionNatural LawTheoremsQuantum TheoryPhotonsGeneral RelativitySelf Ownership
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“The new advocates of ID [Intelligent Design] ask that their ideas be judged by scientific, not religious, criteria. OK, let's see how well ID stacks up as a scientific alternative to Darwinism. To gauge how well ID is doing as a platform for scientific research, I logged into the best database of the biological literature. A search for keyword ''evolution'' yielded 24,000 hits in the last decade. A search for ''intelligent design'' yielded not a single piece of research. Evolution by natural selection remains the basis of every successful biological research program.”

WellsIdeasLastsAsksLiteratureNaturalReligiousSuccessfulPiecesAtheismDesignEvolutionResearchProgramBasesIntelligentRemainsPositive AtheismDecadesAlternativesJudgedPlatformsSelectionCriteriaNatural SelectionDarwinismScientific ResearchGaugesIntelligent DesignDatabasesKeywords
Author:Chet Raymo
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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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“The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The imageis in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and none of ours. We think we can lay hold of image and take it captive, but the docile captive is not the real image but only the idea, which is the image with its character beaten out of it.”

ThinkingIdeasRealStatesCharacterLawNaturalClaimsLaysBeatenCaptivesFreshnessObeyingDerivativesTamedDocile
Author:John Crowe Ransom
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“Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.”

WantHas BeensStillsIdeasSpiritualLawScienceFoundNaturalMoralityComfortFoundationLaysSeekingDrivenCraving
Book:Huxley's Autobiography and Essays
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“It is natural that a man should consider the work of his hands or his brain to be useful and important. Therefore nobody will object to an ardent experimentalist boasting of his measurements and rather looking down on the 'paper and ink' physics of his theoretical friend, who on his part is proud of his lofty ideas and despises the dirty fingers of the other. Experiment and Theory in Physics”

MenShouldImportantIdeasHandsNaturalBrainObjectsTheoryProudPaperFingersPhysicsExperimentsDirtyDespiseBoastInkTheoreticalMeasurementLoftyArdentLooking Down
Author:Max Born
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“Profound meditation in solitude and silence frequently exalts the mind above its natural tone, fires the imagination, produces the most refined and sublime conceptions. The soul then tastes the purest and most refined delight, and almost loses the idea of existence in the intellectual pleasure it receives. The mind on every motion darts through space into eternity; and raised, in its free enjoyment of its powers by its own enthusiasm, strengthens itself in the habitude of contemplating the noblest subjects, and of adopting the most heroic pursuits.”

MindIdeasSoulLosesImaginationNaturalSpacePleasureExistenceSilenceFireMeditationSubjectsProduceTasteSolitudeIntellectualEternityProfoundRaisedDelightPursuitEnthusiasmToneEnjoymentConceptionHeroicContemplatingSublimeRefinedAdoptingDarts
Author:Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann
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“in order to confer their lost Nationality upon exiled Jews , the British with the help of the League of Nations began to rehabilitate the old Hebrew country, Palestine, with its long lost children. The Jews had maintained their race, religion, culture and language; and all they wanted was their natural territory to complete their Nationality. The reconstruction of the Hebrew Nation on Palestine is just an affirmation of the fact that Country, Race, Religion, Culture and Language must exist unequivocally together to form the Nation idea.”

ChildrenLongIdeasCountryFactsHelpingWantedTogetherFormOrderCultureLostLanguageNationsNaturalRaceJewBritishLeagueTerritoryAffirmationPalestineNationalityHebrewReconstructionLeague Of NationsCulture And LanguageLost Child
Author:M. S. Golwalkar
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“The natural state of mankind ... and I know that this is a controversial idea... is freedom... And the proof is the lengths to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it once lost. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try again, against all odds, against all prejudices.”

KnowsMenTryingChildrenIdeasStatesLostNaturalFreedomEnemyBreakMankindPrejudiceProofChainsLengthOddsMen WomenControversialTry AgainAgainst All Odds
Author:John Quincy Adams
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