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Ordinariness Quotes

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Ordinariness Quotes

“Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point ... Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she denounced Julia and sent her to her death because she resented her, and because Julia is a Jew. I thought in this simple contrast between the civilized and the barbaric, but I was wrong. It is the civilized who are the truly barbaric, and the [Nazi] Germans are merely the supreme expression of it.”

WarEvilCivilizationGoodResentmentWwiiBarbarismJewsNazisPettinessOrdinarinessDenunciation
Book:The Dream of Scipio
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“I ain't ever felt special my whole life." "What did you feel?" "Hard to explain. Felt like the opposite of special. Like a big black void moving through the world. Empty, if not for all the people trying to fill it with their own judgments on me." "The thing about voids, Charlie Brunton, is ain't nothing inside of them but light they can't figure out how to free.”

JudgmentEmptinessVoidOrdinarinessSpecialnessFeeling Special
Book:Sky Full of Elephants
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“For a moment I felt a vicious hatred for him and his quiet ways, his mundane stroll through the summer, his ordinariness, the banality of everything he had become. He should have been a hero or a seer. He should have told me some incredible story that I could carry with me forever. After all, he had been the one who had run along the beach parallel to a porpoise, who filled his pockets full of pebbles, who could lift the stray orange cat in his fingers.”

StoriesLossMemoryOrdinariness
Book:Fishing the Sloe-Black River
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“The pretty ones are usually unhappy. They expect everyone to be enamored of their beauty. How can a person be content when their happiness lies in someone else's hands, ready to be crushed at any moment? Ordinary-looking people are far superior, because they are forced to actually work hard to achieve their goals, instead of expecting people to fall all over themselves to help them.”

HelpingBeautifulHappinessGoalBeautyAchieveHard WorkDepressionAchievementOrdinaryExpectationsHappyGoalsHelping OthersUnhappyCrushControlUnhappinessHelpDepressingSuperiorityApocalypseOrdinary PeopleZombieCrushedWork HardZombiesDepressedApocalypticExpectPrettyZombie ApocalypseEnamoredOrdinarinessSuperiorPretty PeoplePretty GirlsOrdinary LookingOrdinary Looks
Book:Jordan's Brains: A Zombie Evolution
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“Just stick to the ordinary circumstances without labeling them ordinary. Be open to them with no desire to change them in any way. They are, in fact, already magical and miraculous. They are the revelation of the Absolute. The mountains, for instance, are already miracles. We don’t need a little angel on top of the mountain to make it more miraculous, so don’t make one up.”

MindfulnessNondualityDharmaGospelRevelationOrdinarinessSacrament Of The Present Moment
Book:The Perfume of Silence
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“Each woman's story, Edith's especially but Rose's too, is a kind of English story told over and over in fiction and film but rarely in works of history; the tragicomedy of someone who could not perform the ordinariness expected of them.”

OrdinarinessTragicomedyLibels
Book:The Littlehampton Libels: A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England
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“She was just ordinary. From her horse's-mane hair to her sturdy, practical feet, she'd never turned men's heads. Oh, she wasn't ill-favored- her features were regular enough- but she knew, too, that she wasn't the sort of woman whom men flirted with. Whom men stared at. She'd had a few admirers in the past, but they hadn't been a multitude. She was unremarkable. The Duke of Montgomery was anything but. Perhaps, then, that was what drew him to her- her very normality. Val was just quixotic enough to become fascinated- for a short time- by the prosaic. That was quite a depressing thought, but Bridget faced it practically. She knew that whatever else happened they were not meant to be together for any length of time.”

OrdinarinessVal NapierBridget Crumb
Book:Duke of Sin
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“There is nothing to compare with the courage of ordinary people whose names are unknown and whose sacrifices pass unnoticed. The courage that dares without recognition, without the protection of media attention, is a courage that humbles and inspires and reaffirms our faith in humanity.”

PeopleHumanityNamesAttentionCourageSacrificeMediaInspireOrdinaryDareProtectionRecognitionCompareOrdinary PeopleUnnoticedOrdinarinessFaith In Humanity
Book:Letters From Burma
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“In the turbulence of this anxious and active world many people are leading uneventful, lonely lives. To them dreariness, not disaster, is the enemy. They seldom realize that on their steadfastness, on their ability to withstand the fatigue of dull repetitive work, and on their courage in meeting constant small adversities depend in great measure the happiness and prosperity of the community as a whole. ... The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.”

PeopleMenWorldHeartLongWholeRunningCoursesNationsRealizingCommunityAbilityEnemyDependsMen And WomenLonelyAdversityConstantMeetingsAverageProsperityActiveDuesDisasterDullAnxiousLong RunsFatigueAverage ManRepetitiveTurbulenceSteadfastnessOrdinarinessSoundnessLonely Life
Author:Queen Elizabeth II
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“Expectations are usually predicated on the idea that the everyday things that happen to ordinary people shouldn't happen to you. People hold the idea of being ordinary in absolute contempt, so when they face an illness, poverty, or any kind of catastrophe, they say, 'I can't believe this happened to me.' And who did you think it was going to happen to - the woman across the street?”

PeopleThinkingBelieveKindI CanIdeasHappensFacesPovertyHappenedStreetsOrdinaryExpectationsAbsolutesEverydayIllnessContemptCatastropheOrdinary PeopleOrdinarinessEveryday Things
Author:Caroline Myss
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“What we grieve for is not the loss of a grand vision, but rather the loss of common things, events and gestures.... ordinariness is the most precious thing we struggle for, what the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto fought for. Not noble causes or abstract theories. But the right to go on living with a sense of purpose and a sense of self-worth--an ordinary life.”

SelfPurposeCausesLossCommonGriefVisionStruggleEventsTheoryGoes OnOrdinaryJewNobleSelf WorthGrievingAbstractHolocaustGesturesGhettoSense Of SelfOrdinary LifePrecious ThingsOrdinarinessCommon ThingsNoble CausesWarsaw
Author:Irena Klepfisz
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“Empower me to be a bold participant, rather than a timid saint in waiting, in the difficult ordinariness of now; to exercise the authority of honesty, rather than to defer to power, or deceive to get it; to influence someone for justice, rather than impress anyone for gain and, by grace, to find treasures of joy, of friendship, of peace hidden in the fields of the daily you give me to plow.”

GivingJoyWaitingDifficultJusticeGraceInfluenceHonestyFieldsExerciseAuthorityGainsGive MeSaintTreasureEmpoweringDeceivingImpressParticipantsOrdinariness
Author:Ted Loder
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“I wanted to do something different. Therefore, the first person I thought would have been too exclusionary. It would have said me, me, me, me, me. I, I, I, I, I. As if I were pushing away my experiences from the experiences of others. Because basically what I was trying to do was show our commonality. I mean to say, in the very ordinariness of what I recount I think perhaps the reader will find resonances with his or her own life.”

IfsThinkingTryingFirstsMeanPersonsHas BeensSaidDifferentShowsWantedReaderPushingFirst PersonResonanceCommonalityOrdinarinessPushing Away
Author:Paul Auster
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“Sometimes people go off in a slightly different direction of wanting to be different, of wanting to be special, of wanting to be more, and I think that those people are often - not always, but often - genuinely different in some way. Perhaps their gender orientation is not acceptable or popular, not the norm. Or, their physical design is literally, in some way, setting them apart. Or, in many cases, they feel the burden of their ordinariness so dreadfully that they strive to find some way of being unique. I think that can be a very positive thing, but it also can be negative, destructive.”

PeopleThinkingDifferentSometimesSpecialDesignUniqueNegativeStriveBurdenGenderNormVery PositiveOrdinariness
Author:Katherine Dunn
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“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

IfsInspirationalMotivationalSuccessChanceBusinessSuccessfulRiskGreatnessWillingOrdinaryEconomicsManagementEntrepreneurPersonal DevelopmentEntrepreneurshipSettlingSelf MotivationUnusualUsualSuccessful PeopleSuccess In LifeExceptionalLife Is ShortChances AreStay PositiveGreat SuccessSelf EducationTaking RisksRisk ItRisk-takingMotivational BusinessMotivational SuccessSuccesInspirational SuccessBest SuccessNetwork MarketingGreat RiskFormal EducationInspirational Success FailureWill To SucceedOrdinarinessMotivational ActionEntrepreneur MotivationalRisk And FailureFear Of SuccessCool MotivationalFormula For SuccessMlmChance And RiskReaching SuccessRisks And Taking ChancesNot SettlingTowards SuccessFeeling StuckMotivation And ChangeAll Time BestGreat RewardRisk And SuccessPersonal MotivationChasing SuccessPushing OnRisk And RewardAwesome MotivationalChance And Change
Author:Jim Rohn
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