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Ordinary People Quotes

Browse 473 quotes about Ordinary People.

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Ordinary People Quotes

“Cutangle: While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe. Treatle: I hadn't looked at it like that, but you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance. They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.”

PeopleKnowsStillsImportantFactsUniverseIgnoranceStrangeHigherOrdinaryFundamentalsWarmBoundariesIgnorantPlanesConfusedUncertainOrdinary PeopleDiscworldBewilderedOrdinary Things
Author:Terry Pratchett
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“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”

PeopleLoveLifeHeartDifferentCharacterHandsBeautifulLaughingMovementApproachLaughterOrdinaryStonesGoldMadDareFlightSpellsDestroyingGesturesHeelsSighVeilsBreezeOrdinary PeopleDisturbedIndicationSeductiveCholeraBraidsPaving
Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

PeopleKindMeanDoeArtPlayFactsLife IsReligionCultureNationsChristTakenCivilizationHorrorJokesOrdinaryMereMortalsImmortalSuperiorityEverlastingOrdinary PeopleExploitsSolemnSplendorPresumptionMerrimentGnatsMere Mortals
Book:Christian Reflections
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“What I bring to the interview is respect. The person recognizes that you respect them because you're listening. Because you're listening, they feel good about talking to you. When someone tells me a thing that happened, what do I feel inside? I want to get the story out. It's for the person who reads it to have the feeling . . . In most cases the person I encounter is not a celebrity; rather the ordinary person. "Ordinary" is a word I loathe. It has a patronizing air. I have come across ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. (p. 176)”

PeopleWantFeelsPersonsDoneStoriesFeelingsTalkingCasesHappenedAirListeningOrdinaryExtraordinaryFeel GoodInterviewsEncountersOrdinary PeopleLoatheExtraordinary ThingsOrdinary PersonPatronizing
Author:Studs Terkel
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“Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect.”

PeopleArtSometimesPassionLiteratureSecretMysteryEffectsOrdinaryIntellectVeilsOrdinary PeopleMystery Of Life
Book:The Essential Oscar Wilde
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“Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”

PeopleIfsHandsCommunitySimpleBuildingListeningHeroOrdinaryLeapTallBootsHeroismRescueBulletsOrdinary PeopleSuperpowerBruisedCapesTall Buildings
Book:Second Glance
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“The city breathing, burning, living the life thy had preserved. Ten million lives and more. If something should happen to all that life - how terrible! Nita gulped for control as she remembered Fred's word of just this morning, an eternity ago. And this was what being a wizard was about. Keeping terrible things from happening, even when it hurts. Not just power, or control of what ordinary people couldn't control, or delight in being able to make strange things happen. Those were the side effects - not the reason, the purpose.”

PeopleIfsShouldReasonHappensAblePurposeSidesHurtCitiesMorningMillionsEffectsStrangeTerribleTenHappeningsOrdinaryEternityDelightThings HappenBurningBreathingLive LifeRememberedIt HurtsOrdinary PeopleWizardsTerrible ThingsStrange ThingsSide Effects
Author:Diane Duane
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“For it is in the millions of small melodies that the truth of history is always found, for history only matters because of the effects we see or imagine in the lives of the ordinary people who are caught up in, or give shape to, the great events.”

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Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set I: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon
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“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”

PeopleActionJobsProcessClearEffectsParticularNeededTerribleMoralityAuthorityStandardsOrdinaryResourcesFundamentalsAgentsObedienceDestructiveOrdinary PeopleHostilityObedience To Authority
Author:Stanley Milgram
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“We want to see a struggle. We want to see people falling over but getting themselves back up on their feet, and that's what's extraordinary- ordinary people and their struggle. There's nothing as interesting as real life out your window. You walk down the street for half an hour, I'll give you half an hour of drama.”

PeopleWantGivingRealFallHoursWalksInterestingHalfStruggleFeetStreetsDramaOrdinaryWindowExtraordinaryReal LifeOrdinary People
Author:Ricky Gervais
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“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.”

PeopleIfsWorldLooksEarthOrderJusticeAnswersPoorGraceHavensThis WorldWillingDespairHappeningsOrdinaryOptimisticDataOddsOrdinary PeoplePulsePessimisticSemblance
Author:Paul Hawken
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“There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.”

PeopleWorldWayMaySometimesLightPainSpiritSufferingForceLosesAnswersPowerfulHealingDarknessToo MuchThis WorldOrdinarySightExtraordinaryEncountersOrdinary People
Author:Mother Teresa
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“I hate ordinary people!”

PeopleHateOrdinaryI HateOrdinary People
Book:Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
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“You never know," Jack said speculatively. "There may come a time when savages like William Hamleigh aren't in power; when the laws protect the ordinary people instead of enslaving them; when the king makes peace instead of war. Think of that - a time when towns in England don't need walls!”

PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsMaySaidWarLawWallKingsProtectOrdinaryEnglandTownsSavagesOrdinary PeopleMaking Peace
Book:Ken Follett EPIC HISTORICAL COLLECTION
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“Unfortunately, the world has taken some of the greatest minds God has given us and locked them up in cages. Most very brilliant or creative people seem strange to ordinary people. Geniuses are almost always outcasts. The intelligent are bullied on the playground. They see the world differently and are shunned for it. They nearly all turn out to be lonely at the least, locked up at the worst. It's human nature to encourage the status quo and shun those who see life differently.”

PeopleWorldMindHumansSeemsTurnsGivenCreativeTakenWorstHuman NatureStrangeGeniusOrdinaryLonelyIntelligentBrilliantLockedCagesStatus QuoOrdinary PeopleCreative PeopleBulliedOutcastPlaygroundsLocked Up
Author:Ted Dekker
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“The theater troubled her. It had a magic of its own, one that didn’t belong to her, one that wasn’t in her control. It changed the world, and said things were otherwise than they were. And it was worse than that. It was magic that didn’t belong to magical people. It was commanded by ordinary people, who didn’t know the rules. They altered the world because it sounded better.”

PeopleKnowsWorldSaidMagicChangedOrdinaryTheaterOrdinary PeopleAltered
Book:Wyrd Sisters: (Discworld Novel 6)
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“The Superclass tries to promote its values. Ordinary people complain of divine injustice, they envy power, and it pains them to see others having fun. They don’t understand that no one is having fun, that everyone is worried and insecure, and that what the jewels, cars, and fat wallets conceal is a huge inferiority complex.”

PeopleTryingPainValuesFunCarDivineHugeOrdinaryComplexesInjusticeEnvyComplainingFatsWorriedHaving FunInsecureJewelsOrdinary PeopleInferiorityWalletsInferiority Complex
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“Eating, drinking, dying - three primary manifestations of the universal and impersonal life. Animals live that impersonal and universal life without knowing its nature. Ordinary people know its nature but don't live it and, if they think seriously about it, refuse to accept it. An enlightened person knows it, lives it, and accepts it completely. He eats, he drinks, and in due course he dies - but he eats with a difference, drinks with a difference, dies with a difference.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsPersonsDiesThreeCoursesDifferencesAnimalAcceptingKnowingDyingDrinkEatingOrdinaryUniversalDrinkingRefuseDuesPrimariesManifestationEnlightenedOrdinary PeopleUniversal Life
Author:Aldous Huxley
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