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Ordinary Man Quotes

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Ordinary Man Quotes

“Ordinary men live in fear all the time. Didn't you know that? We're afraid of the weather, we're afraid of powerful men, we're afraid of the night and the monsters that lurk in the dark, we're afraid of growing old and of dying. Sometimes we're even afraid of living. Ordinary men are afraid almost every minute of their lives.”

KnowsMenSometimesNightDarkPowerfulGrowingMinutesDyingOrdinaryMonstersWeatherGrowing OldOrdinary ManPowerful Man
Book:Magician's Gambit: Book Three Of The Belgariad
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“The great artist when he comes, uses everything that has been discovered or known about his art up to that point, being able to accept or reject in a time so short it seems that the knowledge was born with him, rather than that he takes instantly what it takes the ordinary man a lifetime to know, and then the great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own.”

KnowsMenHas BeensArtDoneUseSeemsAbleArtistBornKnownAcceptingOrdinaryLifetimeRejectsAfternoonNow And ThenGreat ArtGreat ArtistOrdinary Man
Book:The Hemingway Collection
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“The psychical condition of men's minds may be compared with a set of bells close together, and so arranged that in the ordinary man a bell rings only when one beside it sounds, and the vibration lasts only a moment. In the genius, when a bell sounds it vibrates so strongly that it sets in action the whole series, and remains in action throughout life. The latter kind of movement often gives rise to extraordinary conditions and absurd impulses, that may last for weeks together and that form the basis of the supposed kinship of genius with insanity.”

MenGivingMindKindMayWholeMomentsActionTogetherLastsFormSoundWeekConditionsMovementGeniusOrdinaryBasesRemainsSeriesExtraordinaryRingsAbsurdImpulseInsanityLatterBellsVibrationsKinshipOrdinary ManVibrate
Author:Otto Weininger
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“With ordinary men the moments which are united in a close continuity out of the original discrete multiplicity are very few, and the course of their lives resembles a little brook, whereas with the genius it is more like a mighty river into which all the little rivulets flow from afar; that is to say, the universal comprehension of genius vibrates to no experience in which all the individual moments have not been gathered up and stored.”

MenLittlesMomentsCoursesIndividualUnitedGeniusOrdinaryFlowRiversUniversalOriginalsContinuityComprehensionBrooksMultiplicityAfarOrdinary ManVibrateDiscrete
Book:Sex & Character
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“He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him from one state to another, prepares himself in that way for future changes and for recognizing his condition. The life of Caesar has no more to show us than our own; an emperor's or an ordinary man's, it is still a life subject to all human accidents.”

MenWayHumansStillsStatesShowsRememberEvilCausesConditionsSubjectsChangedOrdinaryAccidentsThreatenedRecognizingEmperorOrdinary Man
Book:Essays
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“Ordinary men, to whom all things are possible, don't often, if ever, think of Heaven. It is a name, and nothing more, and they are content to wait and let things be, but to those who are doomed to be shut out for ever you cannot think what it means, you cannot guess or measure the terrible endless longing to see the gates opened, and to be able to join the white figures within.”

IfsThinkingMenMeanAbleNamesHeavenWaitingWhiteFiguresTerribleOrdinaryAll ThingsLongingEndlessGatesDoomedOrdinary Man
Book:Dracula's Guest: & Other Stories
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“I have always directed my attempts at the figurative representation of objects by way of summary and not very descriptive brushstrokes, diverging greatly from the real objective measurements of things, and this has led many people to talk about childish drawing.. ..this position of seeing them (the objects) without looking at them too much, without focussing more attention on them than any ordinary man would in normal everyday life..”

PeopleMenWayRealAttentionToo MuchSeeingPositionObjectsNormalOrdinaryEverydayDrawingObjectivesRepresentationEveryday LifeMeasurementOrdinary ManSummary
Author:Jean Dubuffet
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“Although the semicircle of the Moon is placed above the circle of the Sun and would appear to be superior, nevertheless we know that the Sun is ruler and King. We see that the Moon in her shape and her proximity rivals the Sun with her grandeur, which is apparent to ordinary men, yet the face, or a semi-sphere of the Moon, always reflects the light of the Sun.”

KnowsMenLightFacesSunKingsShapesMoonOrdinaryCirclesSuperiorsSpheresRulersNeverthelessRivalsGrandeurOrdinary ManProximity
Book:The Hieroglyphic Monad
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“the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. [He] falls in love or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter, or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes”

MenMindArtTwoPoetryFallPoetOrdinaryCookingFalling In LoveSmellNoiseChaoticTypewritersOrdinary ManSpinoza
Book:The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays
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“All the controversialists who have become conscious of the real issue are already saying of our ideal exactly what used to be said of the Socialists' ideal. They are saying that private property is too ideal not to be impossible. They are saying that private enterprise is too good to be true. They are saying that the idea of ordinary men owning ordinary possessions is against the laws of political economy and requires an alteration in human nature.”

MenHumansSaidIdeasRealLawPoliticalUsedPoliticsEconomyIssuesImpossibleHuman NatureOrdinaryConsciousIdealsPropertyPossessionUsed To BeBeing TrueLiberalismEnterprisePrivate PropertyOrdinary ManAlterationsPolitical EconomyPrivate EnterpriseToo Good To Be True
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“I want here to make three suggestions: first, that the doubts the ordinary man feels about religion are justified, and need not be stifled or concealed; second, that there is no ground for the view that Christianity is the only alternative to communism, or that there can be no sound character training that is not based on religion; and, third, I want to make some practical suggestions to the parents who are not believers, on what they should tell the children about God, and what sort of moral training they should give them.”

MenWantNeedsGivingFeelsShouldFirstsChildrenCharacterThreeParentSoundViewsMoralChristianityDoubtAtheismTrainingOrdinaryThirdsPositive AtheismBelieverPracticalsCommunismAlternativesSuggestionsJustifiedConcealedOrdinary Man
Author:Margaret E. Knight
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“Johnson is wise, Boswell foolish; Johnson warns and abstains, Boswell plunges; Johnson is rather a great man writing than a greatwriter, Boswell is a great writer and an ordinary man; and they are two of a kind, abysmal melancholics and compulsive socializers, afraid of solitude and afraid of death and dissolution, victims of themselves, meant for each other, needing each other, needing evidence and arguments (Boswell is a lawyer, Johnson magisterially dictates to him some of his briefs), making beautiful models of rational discourse out of the useful substance of all they know.”

KnowsMenWritingKindTwoBeautifulFriendshipWiseSolitudeModelsOrdinaryEvidenceArgumentVictimLawyerFoolishRationalSubstanceGreat MenDiscourseJohnsonPlungeGreat WritersOrdinary ManDissolutionAfraid Of Death
Author:Marvin Mudrick
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“The trouble is that the expression 'material thing' is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for 'sense-datum'; it is not here given, and is never given, any other role to play, and apart from this consideration it would surely never have occurred to anybody to try to represent as some single kind of things the things which the ordinary man says that he 'perceives.”

MenTryingKindPlayGivenRolesTroubleExpressionMaterialsPerceptionOrdinaryDataPerceiveConsiderationMaterial ThingsOrdinary ManFoils
Author:J. L. Austin
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“You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.”

MenGivingMindDifficultPleasureObjectsTasteOrdinaryCuriosityLuxuryCrownsCheaperOrdinary ManCapricePascal
Book:La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims
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“Organization is simply the means by which the acts of ordinary men can be made to add up to extraordinary results. To this idea of progress that does not wait on some lucky break, some chance discovery, or some rare stroke of genius, but instead is achieved through systematic, cumulative effort, the engineer has contributed brilliantly.”

MenMeanDoeMadeIdeasWaitingChanceResultsEffortBreakProgressGeniusLuckyOrdinaryDiscoveryOrganizationLuckAddExtraordinaryEngineersStrokesBrillianceSystematicOrdinary ManCumulativeLucky Breaks
Author:William Wickenden
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“The essence of modernity is that progress no longer waits on genius; instead we have learned to put our faith in the organized efforts of ordinary men. Science is as old as the race, but the effective organization of science is new. Ancient science, like placer mining, was a pursuit of solitary prospectors. Nuggets of truth were found, but the total wealth of knowledge increased slowly. Modern man began to transform this world when he began to mine the hidden veins of knowledge systematically.”

MenWorldFaithFoundWaitingWealthEffortRaceProgressModernThis WorldMinesGeniusOrdinaryEssenceOrganizationAncientPursuitOrganizedSolitaryVeinsModernityMiningOrdinary ManModern ManNuggetsWealth Of Knowledge
Author:William Wickenden
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“It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and that if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) wielded power, all would be well. That view requires only emotion and self-praise - easy to come by and satisfying as well. To understand why it is that 'good' men in positions of power will produce evil, while the ordinary man without power but able to engage in voluntary cooperation with his neighbors will produce good, requires analysis and thought, subordinating emotions to the rational.”

IfsMenBelieveWellsSelfWould BeAblePoliticalEvilPoliticsSocialEasyTermViewsEmotionPositionProduceActivityOrdinaryPraiseNeighborAriseRationalAnalysisGood ManCooperationSatisfyingTemptingOrdinary ManEvil ManPosition Of PowerTerm LimitsSelf PraiseSocial Evils
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“Since natural law was thought to be accessible to the ordinary man, the theory invited each juror to inquire for himself whether a particular rule of law was consonant with principles of higher law. This view is reflected in John Adams' statement that it would be an 'absurdity' for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, 'against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.'”

MenWould BeLawNaturalViewsAcceptingOpinionPrinciplesParticularJudgingTheoryHigherJudgmentOrdinaryConscienceStatementsAbsurdityInvitedRule Of LawNatural LawOrdinary ManConsonantsJurorsHigher Law
Author:John Adams
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“By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man ... Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocracies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion.”

MenMeanSleepCuttingEventsExpressionOrdinaryConstitutionRageThrownLionsSlothOrdinary ManGreat EventsAssemblage
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible; his life is thus centered not in reality itself but in his ideas of it. By focusing the mind wholly on each objects and every action, zazen strips it of extraneous thoughts and allows us to enter into a full rapport with life.”

MenMindIdeasRealityActionLife IsAttentionOpinionImpossibleObjectsOrdinaryReflectionPrejudiceOrdinary ManRapportCheckerboard
Book:The three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment
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