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Opposites Quotes

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Opposites Quotes

“God will never disappoint us… If deep in our hearts we suspect that God does not love us and cannot manage our affairs as well as we can, we certainly will not submit to His discipline. …To the unbeliever the fact of suffering only convinces him that God is not to be trusted, does not love us. To the believer, the opposite is true.”

IfsWellsHeartDoeFactsSufferingDisciplineOppositesAffairBelieverGods WillManageConvinceSuspectsSubmitTrustedDisappointUnbelievers
Author:Elisabeth Elliot
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“There was a saying that the strength of a man’s steel was only known under the hammer of circumstance. If anyone had asked me a few hours ago, I would have said that nearly five years of boyhood had hammered me into constant fear and excessive caution. But now I realised it had done the opposite. It had shaped me into someone who stepped forwards and reached for what she wanted. It was too late for me to tuck my hands behind my back and wait like a good woman.”

IfsMenYearsSaidDoneHandsWantedWaitingHoursBehindsKnownFiveCircumstancesLateOppositesConstantFive YearsToo LateSteelCautionHammersRealisedBoyhoodGood WomanHammeredBehind My Back
Book:Eona
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“I'm always amazed at friends who say they try to read at night in bed but always end up falling asleep. I have the opposite problem. If a book is good I can't go to sleep, and stay up way past my bedtime, hooked on the writing. Is anything better than waking up after a late-night read and diving right back into the plot before you even get out of bed to brush your teeth?”

IfsWayWritingTryingI CanBookEndsProblemPastNightFallSleepBedLateOppositesWake UpTeethPlotWakingAmazedBrushesGoing To SleepHookedBedtimeDivingLate NightFalling Asleep
Book:Role Models
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“'When you have a lemon, make a lemonade.' That is what a great educator does. But the fool does the exact opposite. If he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says, 'I 'm beaten. It is fate. I haven't got a chance.' Then he proceeds to rail against the world and indulge in an orgy of self-pity .”

IfsMenWorldGivingDoeTurnsChanceSituationWiseFateHavensFoolLessonsGiving UpOppositesMisfortunesBeatenIndulgeEducatorLemonsRailIndulge InLemonade
Author:Dale Carnegie
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“Uniting two halves of one soul is inevitable, but timing depends upon your level of spirituality. When the time is ripe, true soul mates find one another even if they are worlds apart— whether physically, on opposite sides of the globe, or spiritually, with contrasting lifestyles and backgrounds. Here’s wishing you the courage to keep growing so that you may know – or continue to know – the blessing of oneness.”

IfsKnowsWorldMayTwoSoulSpiritualityWishSidesLevelsHalfGrowingDependsBlessingOppositesLifestyleBackgroundsOnenessInevitableMatesTimingGlobesRipeSoul MateUnitingWorlds Apart
Author:Yehuda Berg
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“Everyone knew that if you divided reality by expectation, you got a happiness quotient. But when you invert the equation - expectation divided by reality - you didn't get the opposite of happiness. What you got, Lewis realized, was hope.”

IfsRealityExpectationsOppositesDividedEquationsInvert
Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes
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“You would think, wouldn’t you, that if you were the child of a happy marriage, then you ought to have a better than average marriage yourself – either through some genetic inheritance or because you’d learnt from example? But it doesn’t seem to work like that. So perhaps you need the opposite example – to see mistakes in order not to make them yourself. Except this would mean that the best way for parents to ensure their children have happy marriages would be to have unhappy ones themselves. So what’s the answer?”

IfsThinkingWayNeedsMeanChildrenSeemsWould BeOrderParentAnswersMistakeExampleOughtOppositesAverageUnhappyBest WayInheritanceHappy Marriage
Author:Julian Barnes
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“In face of this modern nihilism, Christians are often lacking in courage. We tend to give the impression that we will hold on to the outward forms whatever happens, even if God really is not there. But the opposite ought to be true of us, so that people can see that we demand the truth of what is there and that we are not dealing merely with platitudes. In other words, it should be understood that we take this question of truth and personality so seriously that if God were not there we would be among the first of those who had the courage to step out of the queue.”

PeopleIfsGivingShouldFirstsHappensWould BeChristianFacesFormStepsModernPersonalityOughtDemandUnderstoodOppositesImpressionBeing TrueLackingNihilismWhatever HappensPlatitudesQueues
Author:Francis Schaeffer
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“Rage is the opposite of thought, whoever has put you in this frame of mind has more control over you right now, than you have over yourself. If he is your opponent and you will face him today, you will be defeated.”

IfsMindTodayFacesRight NowOppositesRageOpponentsOver YouDefeatedFrame Of Mind
Book:The Sister Souljah Collection #1: The Coldest Winter Ever; Midnight, A Gangster Love Story; and Midnight and the Meaning of Love
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“The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites - day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.”

IfsMenHas BeensRealEndsPainLife IsJoyNightEvilExistenceBirthTruth IsOppositesOvercomingMiseryComplexesDefeatReal LifeGood And EvilGood WillDay And NightBirth And DeathInexorableSad TruthBattleground
Book:Man and His Symbols
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“If cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves?”

IfsWayBelieveEndsSometimesLyingCertainOrderFallEnergyQualityOppositesAnd LoveFalling In LoveBelovedPessimismCynicismSpectrumExaggerationHabitualCoupsLove Lies
Book:On Love: A Novel
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“If the fall of man consists in the separation of god and the devil the serpent must have appeared out of the middle of the apple when Eve bit like the original worm in it, splitting it in half and sundering everything which was once one into a pair of opposites, so the world is Noah's ark on the sea of eternity containing all the endless pairs of things, irreconcilable and inseparable, and heat will always long for cold and the back for the front and smiles for tears and mutt for jeff and no for yes with the most unutterable nostalgia there is.”

IfsMenWorldLongFallBitsHalfSeaMiddleFrontsTearsColdDevilOppositesEternityOriginalsNostalgiaSeparationEndlessHeatApplesPairsWormsInseparableSerpentContainingSplittingArkMuttsFall Of ManNoah's Ark
Book:Diane Arbus: revelations
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“Raphael lifted a finger, tracing it over her cheekbone. She flinched. Not because he was hurting her. The opposite. The places he touched ... it was as if he had a direct line to the hottest, most feminine part of her. A single stroke and she was embarrassingly damp. But she refused to pull away, refused to give in." (page 33 , Gollancz edition)”

IfsGivingHurtLinesPagesDirectOppositesFingersTouchedFeminineStrokesDampHottestRaphaelTracingCheekbones
Book:Angels' Blood
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“I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change, but I am determined to understand what’s happening. Because I don’t choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me. Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly something I’m resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it. And then you know where to turn off the buttons.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWaySeemsTurnsCasesHappeningsOppositesInnovationDeterminedFavorsBest WayButtonsTurn OffI Am DeterminedJuggernaut
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“I'm not going to try and change you mind." "If you're here, you accept it's my choice. This is the first thing I've been in control of since the accident." "I know." And there it was. He knew it, and I knew it. There was nothing left for me to do. Do you know how hard it is to say nothing ? When every atom of you strains to do the opposite? I just tried to be, tried to absorb the man I loved through osmosis, tried to imprint what I had left of him on myself. I did not speak.”

IfsKnowsMenTryingMindFirstsHardChoicesLeftSpeakAcceptingKnow HowOppositesAccidentsDo You KnowAtomsStrainOsmosis
Author:Jojo Moyes
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“[T]hat state, love, is so utterly alien to that other idea without which we cannot live as human beings --- the idea of justice. It is only because love is so profoundly the enemy of justice that our minds, shrinking in horor from its true nature, try to tame it by uniting it with its opposite [...] in the hope that if we apply all the metaphors of normality, that if we heap them high enough, we shall, in the end, be able to approximate that state metaphorically.”

IfsTryingMindHumansIdeasEndsStatesEnoughAbleJusticeHuman BeingsLove IsEnemyOppositesMetaphorAliensHatsTrue NatureShrinkingNormalityUniting
Author:Amitav Ghosh
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“In Sliding Doors, the whole idea is that every choice you make, and every single thing that happens to you changes the trajectory of your life, and once you are put on that trajectory, there is no way back. But Groundhog Day - which, I tell him, also happens to be a much better movie - says the opposite. It says if you mess up or make the wrong choice, you just have to keep at it until you do it right.”

IfsWayIdeasWholeHappensChoicesDoorsOppositesMessTrajectoryChoices You MakeWrong ChoicesGroundhog DayGroundhogsSliding Doors
Book:Love Is the Higher Law
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“Bidding the wizard farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, “Daddy, look — one of the gnomes actually bit me!” “How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial!” said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna’s outstretched finger and examining the bleeding puncture marks. “Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today — perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaim in Mermish — do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!” Ron, passing them in the opposite direction, let out a loud snort.”

IfsFeelsShouldLooksMayHas BeensSaidTodayBitsWonderfulTalentDaughterOppositesMarkFingersPassingPassingsLoudUnexpectedUrgesOperaGiftedFarewellDaddyBeneficialWizardsBleedingExaminingGnomeBiddingSeizingPunctureSaliva
Author:J. K. Rowling
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“Let me just acknowlege that the function of grammar is to make language as efficent and clear and transparent as possible. But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.”

PeopleIfsLanguageTalkingClearCommunicationTerribleOppositesLet MeFunctionErrorsGrammarTransparentCorrectingFacilitateClear Communication
Author:John Green
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“The floor of ice cream parlor bothered me. It was black-and-white checkboard tile, bigger than supermarket checkboard. If I looked only at a white square, I would be all right, but it was hard to ignore the black squares that surrounded the white ones. The contrast got under my skin. The floor meant yes, no, this, that, up, down, day, night -all the indecisions and opposites that were bad enough in life without having them spelled out for you on the floor.”

IfsHardEnoughWould BeNightBlackWhiteSkinsOppositesBiggerIceSquaresContrastBlack And WhiteCreamIce CreamBotheredSupermarketsIndecisionParlorTilesDay Night
Author:Susanna Kaysen
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“There is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He is stopped by neither snow, nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks, glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. He never makes a false step, never shies. If there is a river or fjord to cross (and we shall meet with many) you will see him plunge in at once, just as if he were amphibious, and gain the opposite bank.”

IfsAnimalStepsRocksGainsRiversCrossesOppositesHorseStormSnowCourageousSoberPlungeGlaciersFjords
Book:EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEYS
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“Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as they. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and the filings with the card. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed, the path may be modified indefinitely.”

IfsWayWantLifeMayEndsFacesMovingSidesLinesPathWallDependsLoversBuiltOppositesLipsObstaclesAccidentsCardsFixedTouchingMagnetJulietFiling
Book:The Principles of Psychology
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“When I was younger, I thought that the key to success was just hard work. But the real foundation is faith. Faith - the idea that 'I can do it' - is the opposite of fear ('What if I fail?'). And faith creates motivation which in turn leads to commitment, hard work, preparation ... and eventually success.”

IfsI CanIdeasRealHardSuccessMotivationFaithTurnsCan DoEffortSuccessfulFailingHard WorkKeysCommitmentOppositesFoundationPreparationWhat IfKey To SuccessI Can Do ItSports Psychology
Author:Howard Twilley
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“Death is not the opposite of life, it is a part of life. A part we've not yet explored and thus do not understand and it if only natural to fear what we do not understand. But with the right attitude we can make life beautiful. With this same attitude, can death not be the same? We almost always see only what's wrong with other people and not what's wrong with us.”

PeopleIfsBeautifulNaturalAttitudeOppositesHappy LifeBeautiful LifeParts Of Life
Author:Joyce Meyer
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“Gardening is not trivial. If you believe that it is, closely examine why you feel that way. You may discover that this attitude has been forced upon you by mass media and the crass culture it creates and maintains. The fact is, gardening is just the opposite - it is, or should be, a central, basic expression of human life.”

IfsWayFeelsShouldBelieveHumansMayHas BeensFactsCultureAttitudeMediaExpressionMassGardenOppositesHuman LifeGardeningIf You BelieveMass MediaCrass
Author:Andrew Weil
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“You shout and the valleys shout, or you sing and the valleys sing. Each heart is a valley. If you pour love into it, it will respond. The first lesson of love is not to ask for love, but just to give. Become a giver. And people are doing just the opposite. Even when they give, they give only with the idea that love should come back. It is a bargain. They don't share, they don't share freely. They share with a condition. They go on watching out of the corner of their eye whether it is coming back or not. Very poor people... they don't know the natural functioning of love.”

PeopleIfsKnowsLoveGivingShouldFirstsHeartIdeasEyeAsksNaturalLove IsPoorShareConditionsGoes OnLessonsOppositesCornersValleysPoor PeopleComing BackGiverBargains
Author:Rajneesh
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“The reality is just the opposite: the master does nothing. It is in your becoming a disciple that the whole mystery lies. It is in your surrender of the ego that the whole search comes to an authentic point. It is in putting your mind aside. That is what sannyas is: an authentic discipleship. It means putting your mind aside. You have lived according to your mind up to now. If that is fulfilling, then there is no need for anybody to become a sannyasin.”

IfsNeedsMindMeanDoeWholeRealityLyingMysteryMastersBecomingEgoOppositesSurrenderDiscipleFulfillingDiscipleship
Author:Rajneesh
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“Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.”

IfsFirstsLooksSufferingGrowsLordVirtueSuccessfulParticularPromiseOppositesVicesTemptationGrievingLook UpBeing SuccessfulPermitTemptedInvitations
Author:Philip Neri
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“The inventor and the research man are confused because they both examine results of physical or chemical operations. But they are exact opposites, mirror images of one another. The research man does something and does not care [exactly] what it is that happens, he measures whatever it is. The inventor wants something to happen, but does not care how it happens or what it is that happens if it is not what he wants.”

IfsMenWantDoeHappensCareResultsResearchOppositesMirrorsOperationsConfusedChemicalsWant SomethingExaminationInventorMeasurementMirror Image
Author:Reginald Fessenden
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“It's been my experience that people who make proclamations about themselves are usually the opposite of what they claim to be. If someone is truly a loyal friend, then they wouldn't need to broadcast it; eventually, people will figure it out. I have a lot of good friends and not one of them has ever introduced themselves by saying, 'I'm a very good friend.'”

PeopleIfsNeedsFiguresFemaleOppositesClaimsVery GoodLoyalGood FriendProclamationFemale FriendshipLoyal FriendVery Good Friends
Book:Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
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