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Possibility Quotes

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Possibility Quotes

“Man is an intellectual animal, and therefore an everlasting contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces between the two, without a possibility of its ever being otherwise.”

MenTwoIdeasEndsUniverseAnimalPiecesPossibilityIntellectualIntellectSensesContradictionCentreTornEverlasting
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“In 1879 the Bengali scholar S.M. Tagore compiled a more extensive list of ruby colors from the Purana sacred texts: ‘like the China rose, like blood, like the seeds of the pomegranate, like red lead, like the red lotus, like saffron, like the resin of certain trees, like the eyes of the Greek partridge or the Indian crane…and like the interior of the half-blown water lily.’ With so many gorgeous descriptive possibilities it is curious that in English the two ancient names for rubies have come to sound incredibly ugly.”

TwoEyeCertainNamesSoundWaterHalfTreeBloodPossibilityColorRedSacredRoseAncientUglyChinaSeedsListsCuriousIndianGreekScholarInteriorsGorgeousLiliesRubiesLotusesBengaliTagoreCranesSaffronPomegranatesSacred TextsWater Lily
Author:Victoria Finlay
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“Yes, I spent two long years, traveling all over the United States, all over Europe, interviewing many, many, many people who had been thrown out of their academic jobs because they taught that there was a possibility of life coming from something other than Darwinism, who thought that possibly random selection and mutations didn't account for the universe, didn't account for gravity, didn't account for why nobody had ever seen an individual species evolve - no one's ever seen an individual species evolve!”

PeopleYearsLongTwoStatesJobsUniverseIndividualUnitedUnited StatesPossibilityTaughtEuropeAccountsSpeciesEvolveThrownAcademicGravitySelectionDarwinismMutation
Author:Ben Stein
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“To avert the danger [posed by theory] to life, Nietzsche could choose one of two ways: he could insist on the strictly esoteric character of the theoretical analysis of life - that is, restore the Platonic notion of the noble delusion - or else he could deny the possibility of theory proper and so conceive of thought as essentially subservient to, or dependent on, life or fate... If not Nietzsche himself, at any rate his successors [Heidegger] adopted the second alternative.”

IfsWayTwoCharacterFateDangerPossibilityTheoryNotionRateDenyNobleAlternativesAnalysisDependentDelusionAdoptedTheoreticalTwo WaysSuccessorsEsotericPlatonicSubservientAvertHeidegger
Author:Leo Strauss
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“Tad Homer-Dixon is a rare kind of public intellectual, who combines real expertise with a commitment to communicate to the widest possible readership. In The Ingenuity Gap he wants us all to wake-up to the fearful possibility that our blithe trust in science and technology may be misplaced. Human ingenuity may not be capable of coping with two emerging crises of this century and the next: population growth and environmental despoliation. Read Homer Dixon's wake-up call and you will see the future very differently.”

WantHumansKindMayTwoRealNextGrowthTechnologyCenturyPossibilityCapableIntellectualCommitmentWake UpCrisisEnvironmentalPopulationCommunicateGapsFearfulWant UEmergingExpertiseCopingIngenuityScience And TechnologyMisplacedPopulation GrowthReadershipWake Up CallBlithe
Author:Michael Ignatieff
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“The industrial economy which divides society absolutely into two portions, the payers of wages and the receivers of them, the first counted by thousands and the last by millions, is neither fit for, nor capable of, indefinite duration: and the possibility of changing this system for one of combination without dependence, and unity of interest instead of organized hostility, depends altogether upon the future developments of the Partnership principle.”

FirstsTwoWisdomLastsPoliticsInterestPrinciplesMillionsEconomyPossibilityDependsDevelopmentFitCapableUnityCombinationOrganizedLiberalismDividesPortionsPartnershipDependenceWagesHostilityDurationReceiverFuture Development
Book:Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy
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“Collaborations work when both or however many parties are the right people to be working together for whatever reason - whether it's two musicians or a musician and a filmmaker or a musician and a choreographer, if the combination is right, the possibility exists to make something greater than the individuals could make. But if the combination is wrong than you generally end up with a compromised piece is probably less than the individuals could make.”

PeopleIfsTwoEndsReasonTogetherIndividualPartyGreaterPiecesPossibilityMusicianCombinationFilmmakerWorking TogetherCollaborationChoreographers
Author:John Parish
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“Now take a look at the way the Drug War is conducted over the past 40 years. It goes back farther, but start from 40 years ago: There's very little spent on prevention and treatment. There's a lot on policing, a ton of stuff on border control and a lot on out-of-country operations. And the effect on the availability of drugs is almost undetectable; drug prices don't change on measures of availability. So there are two possibilities: Either those conducting the Drug War are lunatics, or they have another purpose.”

WayYearsLooksLittlesTwoWarCountryPastPurposeStuffEffectsPossibilityDrugYears AgoOperationsBordersTreatmentOver The PastDon't ChangeWar On DrugsPreventionConductingAvailabilityBorder Control
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“When you take a picture you haven't a clue that it is going to be what it is. Maybe you have a clue but you don't really know. There are too many possibilities. Part of the game is how many balls you can juggle. It is to me. When you are 12 you can juggle two. Maybe when you are 50 you can juggle five. That is an interesting concept to me: how much I can put in and still make it pull together?”

KnowsStillsI CanTwoTogetherGamesInterestingFiveHavensPossibilityPhotographyConceptsBallsClue
Author:Lee Friedlander
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“Given that there are seven billion people living on this earth, there is a consistent quantity of imbecile or idiot, okay. Previously, these people could express themselves only with their friends or at the bar after two or three glasses of something, and they said every silliness, and people laughed. Now they have the possibility to show up on the internet. And so, on the internet, along with the messages of a lot of interesting and important people - even the Pope is writing on Twitter - we have a great quantity of idiots.”

PeopleWritingSaidTwoImportantShowsEarthThreeGivenInterestingPossibilityInternetMessagesOkaySevenGlassesBillionsBarsIdiotConsistentLaughedQuantityPopeThey SaidLiving OnImbecilesSilliness
Author:Umberto Eco
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“Psycho-analysis has taught us that a boy's earliest choice of objects for his love is incestuous and that those objects are forbidden ones - his mother and his sister. We have learnt, too, the manner in which, as he grows up, he liberates himself from this incestuous attraction. A neurotic, on the other hand, invariably exhibits some degree of psychical infantilism. He has either failed to get free from the psychosexual conditions that prevailed in his childhood or he has returned to them - two possibilities which may be summed up as developmental inhibition and regression.”

MayTwoHandsMotherChoicesGrowsLove IsBoysGrowing UpChildhoodConditionsPossibilityObjectsTaughtDegreesAttractionAnalysisForbiddenHis LoveNeuroticExhibitsTaught UsPsychoInhibitionsDevelopmentalRegression
Book:Totem and Taboo
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“Taking the one seat describes two related aspects of spiritual work. Outwardly, it means selecting one practice and teacher among all the possibilities, and inwardly, it means having the determination to stick with that practice through whatever difficulties and doubts arise until you have come to true clarity and understanding.”

MeanTwoSpiritualUnderstandingPracticeDoubtTeacherPossibilityAspectDeterminationDifficultySticksWork OutAriseClarityRelatedSeatsSpiritual Work
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. When you're afraid, keep your mind on what you have to do...if you have been thoroughly prepared, you will not be afraid. We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do.”

IfsKnowsMenWayTryingMindHas BeensTwoDifferentDreamCan DoMistakeSuccessfulPossibilityStonesPreparedProfitDifferent WaysTry AgainDiscouragementStepping StonesSuccessful Man
Author:Dale Carnegie
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“Though freedom and wealth are both good things which most of us desire and though we often need both to obtain what we wish, they still remain different. Whether or not I am my own master and can follow my own choice and whether the possibilities from which I must choose are many or few are two entirely different questions. The courtier living in the lap of luxury but at the beck and call of his prince may be much less free than a poor peasant or artisan, less able to live his own life and to choose his own opportunities for usefulness.”

NeedsMayStillsTwoDifferentAbleDesireChoicesOpportunityWishWealthMy OwnPoorPossibilityMastersGood ThingsLuxuryLapPeasantsUsefulnessArtisansCourtiersBeck And Call
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“There are two basic defenses for an open ending: one is, If you read carefully enough, you'll know what happened. And the other is, That's how life is: things don't come to neat endings, there isn't a "happily ever after." But if you take that second line of defense, then I think you have to make the point that the writer has shown the range of possibility.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTwoEnoughLife IsLinesHappenedPossibilityDefenseRangeNeatHappily Ever AfterEver After
Author:Lorin Stein
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“We have hitherto considered only two possibilities: that the received opinion may be false, and some other opinion, consequently, true; or that, the received opinion being true, a conflict with the opposite error is essential to a clear apprehension and deep feeling of its truth. But there is a commoner case than either of these; when the conflicting doctrines, instead of being one true and the other false, share the truth between them.”

MayTwoFeelingsOpinionCasesClearSharePossibilityTruth IsConflictEssentialsOppositesErrorsDoctrineBeing TrueApprehensionDeep FeelingCommonersOthers Opinions
Author:John Stuart Mill
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“We'd already lost the possibility of stopping global warming entirely. That hasn't been in the cards for a long time. The triumph of Trump probably means that we're not going to be able to stop it at the two-degree mark that the world had been aiming for. That's very bad news, mostly because the planet seems to be more sensitive than we thought to even small increases in temperature.”

WorldMeanLongTwoSeemsAbleLostPossibilityPlanetsTrumpDegreesNewsLong TimeIncreaseMarkCardsTriumphSensitiveGlobal WarmingStoppingTemperatureBad News
Author:Bill McKibben
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“The hope of internet anarchists was that repressive governments would have only two options: accept the internet with its limitless possibilities of spreading information, or restrict internet access to the ruling elite and turn your back on the 21st century, as North Korea has done.”

TwoDoneGovernmentTurnsAcceptingCenturyInformationPossibilityInternetAccessElites21st CenturyRulingLimitlessKoreaNorth KoreaAnarchistTwo OptionsInternet AccessLimitless Possibilities
Author:Peter Singer
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