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Personhood Quotes

Browse 95 quotes about Personhood.

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Personhood Quotes

“At the time, though, I felt distant from Zuckerberg and all the kids at Harvard. I still feel distant from them now, ever more so, as I increasingly opt out (by choice, by default) of the things they have embraced. We have different ideas about things. Specifically we have different ideas about what a person is, or should be. I often worry that my idea of personhood is nostalgic, irrational, inaccurate.”

PersonhoodMisfitSocial Distance
Book:Feel Free: Essays
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“There are at least two ways to believe in the idea of quality. You can believe there's something ineffable going on within the human mind, or you can believe we just don't understand what quality in a mind is yet, even though we might someday. Either of those opinions allows one to distinguish quantity and quality. In order to confuse quantity and quality, you have to reject both possibilities. The mere possibility of there being something ineffable about personhood is what drives many technologists to reject the notion of quality. They want to live in an airtight reality that resembles an idealized computer program, in which everything is understood and there are no fundamental mysteries. They recoil from even the hint of a potential zone of mystery or an unresolved seam in one's worldview. This desire for absolute order usually leads to tears in human affairs, so there is a historical reason to distrust it. Materialist extremists have long seemed determined to win a race with religious fanatics: Who can do the most damage to the most people?”

ReligionQualityMaterialismQuantityPersonhood
Book:You Are Not a Gadget
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“On embodying all sorts of contradictions: I believe that the creatures residing in each corner of my soul are equally wild, equally strong, equally free! It is not possible to bridle or to leash any of them! They are freely doing their dances, leaps, flights, climbs, prawls and swoopings! They are all out there and everybody sees them! I am many things all at once and with the same ferocity.”

Know ThyselfPersonality DevelopmentPersonhoodSoul DevelopmentSoul AlchemyThe Full SoulThe Total Person
Author:C. JoyBell C.
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“As biological beings, we humans - anchored to our biology - can only experience a thermodynamic arrow of time in one direction but given our rapid technological advances and the forthcoming Cybernetic Singularity, that might change for good. The ultimate effects of future developments may appear quite strange to us, present-day humans, as the emergence of things like personalized 'non-linear' reality and fluid distributed identity could challenge our current biological and cultural assumptions. The resulting 'identity' architectures will transform our notion of personhood and form the kernel of posthuman civilization.”

IdentityPersonhoodCybernetic SingularityArrow Of TimePhysics Of TimeCultural AssumptionsPosthuman CivilizationSubjective Time
Book:The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics
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“Women are also property in our bible; adultery is a property crime in the Old Testament, not a sex crime.”

ReligionWomenMarriageHistoryBiblePropertyInequalityInfidelityAdulteryOld TestamentObjectificationPersonhoodObjectification Of Women
Book:When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden: What the Government Should be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism
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“When we begin to reflect Christ, the Bible, when more understood as being centered around Christ, seems to be potentially every man's biography regarding God's promised experiences and truth for him - his individual, unique path of humbling oneself before the Lord and then being exalted by the Lord back into his true and righteous personhood. Many followers may speak of it merely to try to change other people (before changing themselves), but the prophets speak of it as a living word which miraculously tells their very own experiences.”

PeopleMenTryingMaySeemsIndividualSpeakChristLordPathUniqueUnderstoodOneselfEvery ManProphetFollowersRighteousBiographiesExaltedHumblingPersonhoodHumbling Experiences
Author:Criss Jami
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“The act of consciousness is central; otherwise we are overrun by the complexes. The hero in each of us is required to answer the call of individuation. We must turn away from the cacaphony of the outerworld to hear the inner voice. When we can dare to live its promptings, then we achieve personhood. We may become strangers to those who thought they knew us, but at least we are no longer strangers to ourselves.”

KnowsMayTurnsVoiceAnswersConsciousnessKnowingAchieveHeroComplexesDareStrangerHearingFinding YourselfInner VoiceBe True To YourselfLivelihoodListen To YourselfIndividuationPersonhood
Book:The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
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“Reading is the subtle and thorough sharing of the ideas and feelings by underhanded means. It is a gross invasion of Privacy and a direct violation of the Constitutions of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Age. The Teaching of Reading is equally a crime against Privacy and Personhood. One to five years on each count.”

YearsMeanIdeasFeelingsAgeReadingFiveTeachingCrimeDirectThirdsConstitutionFive YearsPrivacySubtleFourthGrossFifthInvasionViolationThoroughPersonhoodInvasion Of Privacy
Author:Walter Tevis
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“Only a God of love is fully personal. Thus the Trinity is crucial for maintaining a fully personal concept of God. As theologian Robert Letham writes, “Only a God who is triune can be personal.... A solitary monad cannot love and, since it cannot love, neither can it be a person.” Therefore it “has no way to explain or even to maintain human personhood.”

WayWritingHumansPersonsLove IsConceptsCrucialSolitaryTheologianMaintainingTrinityPersonhood
Author:Nancy Pearcey
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“It's a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it. And yet, the average American can name over a hundred corporate logos and ten plants. Is it a surprise that we have accepted a political system that grants personhood to corporations, and no status at all for wild rice and redwoods? Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. When we learn their names and their gifts, it opens the door to reciprocity.”

PoliticalNamesAnimalPowerfulSupportDoorsTenHundredConnectionsPlantSurpriseAverageAcceptedCorporateCorporationsGrantsRiceDisrespectPolitical SystemsReciprocityLogosPlants And AnimalsPersonhoodRedwoods
Author:Robin Wall Kimmerer
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“Towards the end of it [working as an escort girl] I could feel myself drifting towards a liquor habit and I had a few minor mental breakdowns due to a what I felt like was a constant chipping away at my personhood (guys thinking I would have unprotected sex with them if they just paid me fifty more dollars, for instance) and a few abusive clients.”

IfsThinkingFeelsEndsGuyGirlSexFeltHabitPaidConstantDollarsDuesInstanceFiftyMinorsClientsLiquorBreakdownDriftingAbusivePersonhoodChipping AwayMental Breakdown
Author:Marie Calloway
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“What is emotional intimacy? It is that depp sense of being connected to one another. It is feeling loved, respected and appreciated, while at the same time seeking to reciprocate. To feel loved is to have the sense that the other person genuinely cares about your well-being. Respect has to do with feeling that your potential spouse has positive regard for your personhood, intellect, abilities and personality. Appreciation is that inner sense that your partner values your contribution to the relationship.”

FeelsWellsPersonsFeelingsCareValuesAbilityEmotionalPersonalityRegardSeekingAppreciationConnectedIntellectPartnersIntimacyWell BeingContributionSpouseAppreciatedPersonhoodReciprocate
Author:Gary Chapman
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“The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at and marketed to us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.”

BodyHappensFacesUsedVoiceSimpleConversationAccomplishmentReductionWomen's BodiesObjectificationPersonhood
Author:Ashley Judd
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“It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

PeopleHumansHelpingFeelingsMightDesireBeliefHuman BeingsFictionActivityMembersConscienceConstitutionStructureCorporationsFacilitatePersonhood
Author:John Paul Stevens
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“What is a Person? is a clear and comprehensive reconsideration of the meaning of human personhood as the central core of social structures. With breadth of intellect and balance of wisdom, Smith resets the frame of reflection for the most important discussions of the twenty-first century.”

FirstsHumansPersonsImportantSocialClearCenturyBalanceReflectionTwentiesStructureIntellectCoreDiscussionComprehensiveBreadthResetPersonhoodSocial StructureReconsideration
Author:William B. Hurlbut
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“To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God's love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship.”

GivingSelfHomeRealityChristDiedGuiltSelf WorthEncountersSignificanceLeisureReignCitizenshipTranscendenceGod's LoveSense Of SelfPersonhoodChristian Marriage
Author:John Stott
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