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Pretext Quotes

“[T]ake the war on drugs. The average American says, "The war on drugs has been beneficial." The rest of us see reality. This war has destroyed thousands of Americans. It is also a pretext for government agents to rob innocent people in airports and on the highways - they seize and confiscate large amounts of cash and say to their victims: "Sue us if you don't like it." And more and more judges, politicians, intelligence agents, and law-enforcement officers are on the take - as dependent on the drug-war largess as the drug lords themselves.”

PeopleIfsHas BeensWarRealityGovernmentLawLordJudgingAmountPoliticianDrugVictimAverageInnocentDestroyedAgentsDependentOfficersCashLaw EnforcementEnforcementHighwaysAirportsBeneficialWar On DrugsPretext
Author:Jacob G. Hornberger
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“The People will not allow themselves to be changed into hogs by the Circes of Atheism. Their souls will flash indignation against their transformers. A day will come when they will see that they are impoverished under the pretext of being enriched; that, when they are robbed of their souls and of God, both their titles to liberty are stolen from them.”

PeopleSoulLibertyAtheismChangedTitlesFlashStolenIndignationPretextHog
Book:Lamartine on Atheism: Atheism Among the People
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“A cool blooded and crafty politician, when he would be thoroughly revenged on his enemy, makes the injuries which have been inflicted, not on himself, but on others, the pretext of his attack. He thus engages the world as a partisan in his quarrel, and dignifies his private hate, by giving it the air of disinterested resentment.”

WorldGivingHas BeensWould BeHatePoliticsEnemyAirPoliticianInjuryResentmentQuarrelsPartisansPretextDisinterestedCrafty
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“There is, moreover, very little sense in preventing young people from giving expression to their ideas on the pretext that they have less experience than have older persons. There are many who may live a thousand years without encountering experience of any value. It could only be in a society of persons equally gifted that such an idea could have any meaning.”

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Book:Sex & Character
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“Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free. In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”

MenYearsHas BeensAgeNextStrongNationsTermNaturalPoorCommonRaceLibertyEnemyProgressCenturyCrimeIgnoranceCivilizationYears AgoFruitDeedsSeedsLustEaseMotiveMatureDelicateSuperstitionsHarvestConquestGood DeedsCravingPoor ManPretextStrong ManAthensSowingNatural Enemies
Author:Lord Acton
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“Germany, which has lately united 80 million Germans, has submitted certain neighboring countries to her supremacy and gained military strength in many aspects, and thus has become, as clearly can be seen, a dangerous rival to principal imperialistic powers in Europe - England and France. That is why they declared war on Germany on a pretext of fulfilling the obligations given to Poland. It is now clearer than ever, how remote the real aims of the cabinets in these countries were from the interests of defending the now disintegrated Poland or Czechoslovakia.”

WarRealCountryCertainGivenInterestUnitedMillionsMilitaryDangerousEuropeAspectEnglandAimObligationFranceGermanyPrincipalFulfillingRivalsCabinetsSupremacyPolandPretextCzechoslovakia
Author:Vyacheslav Molotov
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“I dislike The Exorcist, and I found it a warning sign of the dangers in a furious cinematic talent putting the audience through it (a Hitchcock phrase) without purpose, or without the nagging moral anxiety that activated Hitch. You see, I don't think William Friedkin believes in the Devil, or cares about him. I think he found exorcism a pretext for a gross-out and he calculated there was an audience for it, or a crowd ready to be challenged. Maybe I'm too much of an atheist to stand religion being so thrashed.”

ThinkingBelieveCareFilmPurposeFoundMoralAudienceToo MuchTalentDangerReadyAnxietyDevilHollywoodAtheistCrowdsPhrasesWarningDislikeGrossFuriousPretextCinematicHitchcockNaggingExorcismExorcistWarning Signs
Author:Edward Jay Epstein
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“To large numbers of American citizens life in certain parts of the country becomes intolerably hazardous. They may be seized on any pretext, however flimsy, and put to death with horrible tortures. No government pretending to be civilized can go on condoning such atrocities. Either it must make every possible effort to put them down or it must suffer the scorn and contempt of Christendom.”

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Author:H. L. Mencken
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“If we set out with... a scrupulous regard to the Constitution, the government will acquire a spirit and a tone productive of permanent blessings to the community. If on the contrary,... the Constitution is slighted, or explained away, upon every frivolous pretext, the future of government will be feeble, distracted and arbitrary. The rights of the subjects will be the sport of every party vicissitude. There will be no settled rule of conduct, but everything will fluctuate with the alternate prevalency of contending factions.”

IfsGovernmentSpiritSportsCommunityPartyRightsSubjectsBlessingConstitutionRegardContraryPermanentToneAcquireProductiveArbitraryDistractedFactionsFrivolousPretextVicissitudesContendingSlighted
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“I have often come across convinced adepts of Greek mythology who mock our faith under the pretext that we do not say anything else to those whom we instruct in divine things, but merely command them to believe. They accuse the apostles of ignorance, labelling them barbarians, because they do not have the subtlety of eloquence; and they say that the cult of martyrs is ridiculous, considering it completely absurd for the living to seek assistance from the dead.”

BelieveIgnoranceDivineConvincedMythologyRidiculousAbsurdCommandGreekConsideringGreek MythologySay AnythingCultAssistanceMartyrApostlesEloquenceMockBarbariansSubtletyPretextGreek Myth
Author:Theodoret
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“I couldn't portray a women in all her natural loveliness.. I haven't the skill. No one has. I must, therefore, create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears to me in terms of volume of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty interpret my subjective impression. Nature is mere a pretext for decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art. I want to express the absolute, not merely the factitious woman.”

WantArtTermNaturalLinesEmotionHavensSkillsMassWeightAbsolutesMereImpressionPlusSentimentsTranslateVolumeCompositionSubjectiveLovelinessPretext
Book:Georges Braque
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“The tone and tendency of liberalism...is to attack the institutions of the country under the name of reform and to make war on the manners and customs of the people under the pretext of progress.”

PeopleWarCountryNamesProgressInstitutionsTendenciesReformMannersToneLiberalismCustomsPretext
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Collected from His Writings and Speeches
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“Mine was a trained Presbyterian conscience and knew but the one duty - to hunt and harry its slave upon all pretexts and on all occasions, particularly when there was no sense nor reason in it.”

ReasonAtheismMinesDutyConscienceSlavePositive AtheismOccasionsHuntsPretextPresbyteriansAll Occasions
Book:Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
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“The source of Pyrrhonism comes from failing to distinguish between a demonstration, a proof and a probability. A demonstration supposes that the contradictory idea is impossible; a proof of fact is where all the reasons lead to belief, without there being any pretext for doubt; a probability is where the reasons for belief are stronger than those for doubting.”

IdeasReasonFactsBeliefDoubtImpossibleFailingSourceStrongerProofProbabilityContradictoryDemonstrationPretext
Author:Andrew Michael Ramsay
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“Of all hostile feelings, envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it even to himself, but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his hostility.”

LooksFeelingsEnvyHardestJustifyHostileHostilityPretext
Book:Elements of Rhetoric: Comprising an Analysis of the Laws of Moral Evidence and of Persuasion : with Rules for Argumentative Composition and Elocution
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“Friendship after the flesh is very easily destroyed on some slight pretext, since it is not held firm by spiritual perception. But when a person is spiritually awakened, even if something irritates him, the bond of love is not dissolved; rekindling himself with warmth of the love of God, he quickly recovers himself and with great joy seeks his neighbor's love, even though he has been gravely wronged or insulted by him. For sweetness of God completely consumes the bitterness of the quarrel.”

IfsPersonsHas BeensSpiritualJoyPeaceLove IsPerceptionNeighborFleshDestroyedGod LoveFirmBitternessWarmthSweetnessQuarrelsAwakenedInsultedPretextGreat JoyWrongedBonds Of Love
Author:Diadochos of Photiki
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“Some of my unhappiest moments have been in organizations. Somehow it seems to be quite respectable to do things in organizations that you would never do in private life. I have had people insult me to my face in front of colleagues. I have had my feelings rammed down my throat on the pretext that it would do me good. I have been required to do things which I didn't agree with because the organization wished it... In my worst moments I have thought organizations were places designed to be run by sadists and staffed by masochists.”

PeopleHas BeensMomentsFeelingsSeemsRunningFacesLanguageSocietyWorstFrontsCommunicationOrganizationAgreeInsultThroatColleaguesPrivate LifeRespectablePretextWorst Moments
Author:Charles Handy
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“As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”

TwoCountryStatesCharacterGovernmentChristianLawNationsReligiousUnitedOpinionUnited StatesProductsHarmonyAtheistTranquilityEnmityInterruptionsPretextTwo CountriesChristian Nation
Author:John Adams
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“Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”

PeopleIfsLibertyColorArmsBearsGunStandingDestructionArmyAmendmentsGun ControlFreedom And LibertySecond AmendmentFreedom LibertyFirearmsRight To Bear ArmsPretextMilitiaBearing ArmsGun RightsRights And FreedomsPro GunFounding Fathers Gun2 AmendmentFounding Fathers Second AmendmentAnti GunAmendment 1Amending The ConstitutionAmendment 19Amendment 4Patriotic Gun
Book:Blackstone's Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States, and of the Commonwealth of Virginia: With an Appendix to Each Volume, Containing Short Tracts Upon Such Subjects as Appeared Necessary to Form a Connecte
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“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors.”

FirstsLongRealPoliticsPoorLibertyPrinciplesEconomyRichMankindHabitDegreesPrejudiceShameMajorityPropertyLiberalismEnterpriseIdleAttackingCountenanceDividingPretextIndustrious
Book:The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila
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“According to the legend an evil old doctor, who called himself God and us dogs, created the first boy in his adolescent image. The boy peopled the garden with male phantoms that rose from his ejaculations. This angered God, who was getting on in years. He decided it endangered his position as CREATOR. So he crept upon the boy and anaesthetized him and made Eve from his rib. Henceforth all creation of beings would process through female channels. But some of Adam's phantoms refused to let God near them under any pretext.”

YearsFirstsMadeEvilProcessBoysDogCreationPositionLetting GoFemaleGardenDecidedDoctorsRoseMalesCreatorLegendsAdamDoctor WhoPhantomsRibsPretextEjaculation
Author:William S. Burroughs
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