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Ordinary Quotes

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Ordinary Quotes

“It would scarcely be acceptable, for example, to ask in the course of an ordinary conversation what our society holds to be the purpose of work.”

Purpose Courses Asks Example Conversation Ordinary Our Society Acceptable

Author:Alain de Botton

“Publishers, theatrical managers, and critics ask not for the quality inherent in creative art, but will it meet with a good sale, will it suit the palate of the people? Alas, this palate is like a dumping ground; it relishes anything that needs no mental mastication. As a result, the mediocre, the ordinary, the commonplace represents the chief literary output.”

Source: Anarchism: Top Crime Collections

“No metaphysician has yet shaken the ordinary individual's belief in his own existence. The uncertainties only begin for most of us when we ask what else is.”

Asks Individual Belief Existence Ordinary Uncertainty

Book:Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness

Source: Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness

“Change depends on people knowing the truth. Change depends on people speaking that truth out loud. That's what movements do. Movements educate people to the truth. They pass along information and ideas that many others do not know, and they cause them to ask questions, to challenge their own long-held beliefs. ... Movements are the way ordinary people get more freedom and justice. Movements are how we keep a check on power and those who abuse it.”

“Religion and science have nothing to do with each other, they're about different things, science is about the way the world works and religion is about [...] miracles. [...] And in any case, if you ask most ordinary people in church or in a mosque why they believe, it's almost certainly got something to do with the belief that God does wonderful things, that God intervenes, that God heals the sick, that God answers prayers, God forgives sins.”

“Every year I write a tax advice column and I used to always make fun of that. One year, one of my favorite IRS commissioners, I think his name was Roscoe somebody, wrote that one of the most often-asked questions by taxpayers was, "How can I contribute more?" Well, I tell ya, ol' Roscoe's really been doing situps under parked cars again. I've heard a lot of people ask a lot of questions about taxes, but I never heard anybody say, "How can I, the ordinary person, send more money for no reason?"”

“To achieve respectability, to be admitted to the debate, they must accept without question or inquiry the fundamental doctrine that the state is benevolent, governed by the loftiest intentions, adopting a defensive stance, not an actor in world affairs but only reacting to the crimes of others...If even the harshest of critics tacitly adopt these premises, then the ordinary person may ask, who am I to disagree?”

“Like Paul Kraston said, all I ask in life is a water bed, a TV and a typewriter. Well, I'll just have an ordinary bed, a TV and a guitar.”

Wells Said Life Is Asks Water Tvs Bed Ordinary Guitar Typewriters

Author:John Lennon

“I consider it my patriotic duty as an ordinary citizen - not as Secretary of State - to ask questions. I think we have to ask ourselves the tough questions.”

Thinking States Asks Duty Citizens Ordinary Tough Patriotic Secretary Ordinary Citizens Tough Questions

Author:Madeleine Albright

“A story has the opportunity to enlighten us, because as we connect the extraordinary moments on film with the ordinary moments of our lives, we ask ourselves, "What am I going to do the next time I'm scared? What would it be like to say goodbye to my family for the last time?"”

“In my [Impossibility] theorem I'm assuming that the information is a ranking. Each voter can say of any two candidates, I prefer this one to this one. So then we have essentially a ranking. It's a list saying this is my first choice. This is my second choice. Each voter, in principle, could be asked to give that entire piece of information. In the ordinary Plurality Voting, say as used in electing Congressmen, we generally only ask for the first choice. But, in principle, we could ask for more choices.”

Giving Firsts Two Used Choices Asks Principles Pieces Information Ordinary Assuming Lists Candidates Voting Voters Impossibility Congressman Theorems Ranking Second Choice

Author:Kenneth Arrow

“Please don't ask me for the actual answer to anything, because I don't have it. Because all I do is look at stuff and ask questions. What can I say? I just think the world's barking mad. Look, I'm not an expert. I'm just an ordinary person.”

Thinking World Looks Persons Asks Stuff Answers Please Ordinary Mad Ask Me Experts Ordinary Person

Author:Annie Lennox

“The demands of Jesus are difficult just because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time he asks us to regard these as something usual, ordinary.”

Asks Jesus Difficult Demand Goodness Ordinary Regard Extraordinary Usual

Author:Albert Schweitzer

“Anyone who watches even the slightest amount of TV is familiar with the scene: An agent knocks on the door of some seemingly ordinary home or office. The door opens, and the person holding the knob is asked to identify himself. The agent then says, "I'm going to ask you to come with me.”

Persons Home Asks Watches Doors Tvs Amount Scene Office Ordinary Familiar Agents Knobs

Book:Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

“The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.”

Humans Ideas Enough Christian Desire Dies Asks Circumstances Ordinary Ideology Vulnerable

Author:Kathleen Norris

“In my experience, God rarely makes our fear disappear. Instead, He asks us to be strong and take courage. What is courage? As Ordinary discovered, courage is not the absence of fear; rather, it's choosing to act in spite of the fear. You could say that without fear, you can't have genuine courage.”

Asks Strong Ordinary Disappear Absence Genuine Spite

Author:Bruce Wilkinson

“The only ones who ever come here from your lands are the minstrels, and the lovers, and the mad. And you don't look like much of a minstrel, and you're— pardon me for saying so lad, but it's true— ordinary as cheese crumbs. So it's love if you ask me.”

Ifs Looks Asks Land Lovers Ordinary Mad Ask Me Cheese Pardon Lad Crumbs Pardon Me Minstrels

Book:Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie

Source: Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie

“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.”

“We're not going to deputize a whole bunch of American citizens to start grabbing people or turning them in, in part because the ordinary American citizen may not know whether or not this person is illegal or not. But, you know, the notion that we're going to criminalize priests, for example, or doctors who are providing services to individuals, and throw them in jail for doing what their calling asks them to do, which is to provide help and service to people in need, I think that is a mistake. I think that's out of America's character.”