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Obstruction Quotes

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Obstruction Quotes

“[Responding to the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce's question whether he traced his descent from an ape on his mother's or his father's side] A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man—a man of restless and versatile intellect—who … plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”

InspirationalSciencePurposeNatureEvolutionPrejudiceDiscussionRhetoricPreferenceRidiculeQuestionObstructionScientificAimlessReligious PrejudiceApe
Author:Thomas Huxley
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“For the gaming fishermen there was the Whatoosie River and its native cocka-snoek, the main game fish of the resident Skegg’s Valley Dynamite Fishing Club. Cocka-snoek were wily and tough and rather too bright for mere fish. You wouldn’t catch much with a rod around here. Many inexperienced visitors would find the bait stolen from their hooks, which punctuated the discovery that their lines had somehow got snagged and tangled irretrievably around some underwater obstruction – sometimes tied together with neat little bows. Often, several direct hits with hand grenades were needed to stun the creatures long enough just to catch them, gut them and fry them, but these former military types had become experts at it. For a modest fee, tours could be arranged via the booking office, which included an overnight stay on the banks of the river where one could drop off to a great night’s sleep after a satisfying meal of cocka-snoek done on an open fire, and the sound the bits of shrapnel made rattling in your stomach.”

LongDoneEnoughTogetherSoundLinesSleepFireStomachYouBowsTiedModestRiverTheFishFindTangledItBaitAndOfUnderwaterObstructionYourAroundNightsSomeTheirOftenHereWouldWhereAnWhichWereClubRatherHadTypesSeveralFeeOvernightResidentFryGrenadesHooksWhatoosieBooking OfficeCocka SnoekSkegg SThem AndWouldnt
Book:Loderunner
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“As long as I focus on what I feel and don't worry about where I'm going, it works out. Having no expectations but being open to everything is what makes wonderful things happen. If I don't worry, there's no obstruction and life flows easily. It sounds impractical, but 'Expect nothing; be open to everything' is really all it is.”

IfsFeelsLongHappensSoundWorryFocusWonderfulExpectationsFlowWork OutThings HappenWonderful ThingsObstructionExpect Nothing
Author:Marketa Irglova
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“In any problem where an opposing force exists and cannot be regulated, one must foresee and provide for alternative courses. Adaptability is the law which governs survival in war as in life ... To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it; the best chance of overcoming such obstruction is to have a plan that can be easily varied to fit the circumstances met.”

WarProblemLawCoursesForceChanceEnemyPlansMilitaryFitCircumstancesMetsSurvivalOvercomingAccountsPracticalsAlternativesOpposingAdaptabilityObstruction
Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
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“A common obstruction to a vital intimate relationship is what I call the assumption of clairvoyance. You imagine, perhaps unconsciously, that your partner or friend is somehow magically psychic when it comes to you -\-\ so much so that he or she should unfailingly intuit exactly what you need, even if you don't ask for it. This fantasy may seem romantic, but it can undermine the most promising alliances. To counteract any tendencies you might have to indulge in the assumption of clairvoyance, practice stating your desires aloud.”

IfsNeedsShouldMaySeemsMightDesireAsksCommonPracticeFantasyImaginePartnersTendenciesIntimateAssumptionPsychicsIndulgeAlliancesIndulge InObstructionIntimate RelationshipsClairvoyance
Author:Rob Brezsny
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“Resistance to improvement contradicts the noblest instincts of the race. It begets its opposite. The fanaticism of reform is only the raging of the accumulated waters caused by the obstructions which an ultra conservatism has thrown across the stream of progress; and revolution itself is but the sudden overwhelming and sweeping away of impediments that should have been seasonably removed.”

ShouldHas BeensWaterRaceProgressRevolutionShould HaveOppositesInstinctRageImprovementResistanceReformStreamsThrownOverwhelmingConservatismFanaticismShould Have BeenBegetsSweepingImpedimentsObstructionUltras
Author:Horace Mann
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“If happiness is a state of the inward life, we have to look for its chief obstructions not in outward conditions but in deeper places. Happiness depends in the last issue, as we saw, on the essential view of life. It is not a matter of distractions, nor even of mere pleasurable sensations. There may be an appearance of great prosperity with incurable sadness hidden at the heart, as there is an outward peace which is only a well-masked despair. The way to happiness is indeed harder than the way to success; for its chief enemies entrench themselves within the soul.”

IfsWayWellsLooksHeartMaySoulMatterStatesLastsHappinessViewsEnemyIssuesSawsSadnessConditionsDependsEssentialsDespairHarderMereProsperityAppearanceDeeperChiefsSensationsDistractionInwardObstructionWay To Success
Book:Happiness
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“To love is for the Soul to choose a companion, and travel with it along the perilous defiles and winding ways of life; mutually sustaining, when it is rugged with obstructions, and mutually rejoicing, when rich broad plains and sunny slopes make journeying delight.”

WaySoulLove IsRichDelightCompanionBroadsRejoiceSunnySustainingSlopesRuggedObstruction
Book:The Life and Works of Goethe: With Sketches of His Age and Contemporaries from Published and Unpublished Sources
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“I don't believe that the American people want us to focus on our job security. They want us to focus on their job security. I don't think they want more gridlock. I don't think they want more partisanship. I don't think they want more obstruction. They didn't send us to Washington to fight each other in some sort of political steel-cage match to see who comes out alive. That's not what they want. They sent us to Washington to work together, to get things done, and to solve the problems that they're grappling with every single day.”

PeopleThinkingWantBelieveDoneProblemTogetherJobsPoliticalFightingFocusAliveSecurityDon't BelieveSolveWorking TogetherSteelCagesWant UThings DonePartisanshipObstructionGrapplingGridlock
Author:Barack Obama
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“The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they now are (for it is they who make them what they are), cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody; and what is more, spontaneity forms no part of the ideal of the majority of moral and social reformers, but is rather looked on with jealousy, as a troublesome and perhaps rebellious obstruction to the general acceptance of what these reformers, in their own judgment, think would be best for mankind.”

ThinkingWayShouldEnoughWould BeFormSocialMoralAtheismMankindAcceptanceJudgmentIdealsMajorityPositive AtheismBe GoodSatisfiedGood EnoughRebelliousSpontaneityTroublesomeReformersObstruction
Book:J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings
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“Every obstruction of the course of justice,--is a door opened to betray society, and bereave us of those blessings which it has inview.... It is a strange way of doing honour to God, to screen actions which are a disgrace to humanity.”

WayActionLawHumanityCoursesJusticeDoorsStrangeBlessingScreensPunishmentHonourBetrayDisgraceObstruction
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself
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“I know with certainty, that [an honest man] is not to put his hand into the fire, and hold it there, till it be consumed: And thisevent, I think I can foretell with the same assurance, as that, if he throw himself out at the window, and meet with no obstruction, he will not remain a moment suspended in the air.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMenI CanMomentsHandsFireAirHonestWindowExperienceCertaintyAssuranceConsumedHonest ManSuspendedObstruction
Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding: And An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
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“The semanticists are exactly wrong in regarding language as an obstruction or series of pitfalls. Language, on the contrary, appears as a great storehouse of universal memory, or it may be said to serve as a net, not imprisoning us but supporting us and aiding us to get at a meaning beyond present meaning through the very fact that it embodies others' experiences.”

MaySaidFactsLanguageMemoriesUniversalSeriesContraryPitfallsObstruction
Book:Ideas Have Consequences
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“Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will; if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind.”

IfsMenKindLongHas BeensAnimalSadnessSadConsciousFlowStreamsEncountersShockNature Of ManObstruction
Book:On the Suffering of the World
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“The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.”

HumansLawIndividualNaturalWealthPowerfulEffortLibertyConditionsCapableProsperityLibertarianOperationsFollyLibertarianismAssistanceIndividual LibertyCarrying OnObstruction
Author:Adam Smith
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