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Provocation Quotes

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Provocation Quotes

“When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened, do not be distressed, for this has happened providentially; but be glad and reject the thoughts that arise within you, knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences will be cut off, whereas if the thoughts persist the evil may be expected to develop.”

HeartFeelingsEvilThoughtsProvidenceDistressProvocationConsequences Of Evil
Author:St. Mark the Ascetic
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“what, for instance, were you telling me about charity? And yet the gratification derived from giving charity is an arrogant and immoral tell nothing gratification, the gratification a rich man takes in his riches, his power, and the comparison he makes between his importance and the importance of a poor man. Charity corrupts both the one who gives it and the one who receives it, and furthermore, it doesn't achieve its goal, because it only intensifies poverty. Lazy people who don't want to work throng around people who give, like gamblers around the gambling table, hoping to win. And meanwhile, the pitiful coins that are tossed their way Such trivial are insufficient for even a hundredth of what they need. Have you given away much in your lifetime? Perhaps eighty kopecks, no more, if you stop and think about it. Just try to remember the last time you gave something; it would be a good two years go, and perhaps four. You're just making a lot of noise and impeding the cause. In today's society charity should definitely be prohibited by law. In the new social order there will be no such thing as poor people.”

PhilosophyPoliticalMoralityCharityInequalityIntrospectionProvocationEconomic TheorySocial CriticismRadical Ideas
Book:Demons
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“An idea was forming in his mind. It was only rudimentary, but in the circumstances, it could be called a plan. He loathed the alien for attacking them, without any provocation. He hated the way it was smashing up his ship – and all of them – with hardly any effort or regard for life at all. “How’s that message coming?” “Umm – they must be jamming us, sir – I can’t get through.”

WayMindCircumstancesRegardPlanTheUsIAllProvocationShipForHeOnlyThemThroughWasComingAnCan TSirRudimentaryHow SOf ThemUmmWhithout
Book:Space Sucks!
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“there were at least three that we know of, public efforts and proposals by Russia to be considered for Nato membership, begin the process. And all of those were turned down. So the prospect moving forward was of Nato being the non-Russia, the security organization aimed at Excluding Russia from European security.... as John Mearsheimer will tell you, it's not about what people claim, it's about what the other side believes that you might do to them.”

SecurityProvocationUkraine WarCurrent EventsThreats2022
Author:Nicolai N. Petro
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“those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its Allies are mainly responsible for this trainwreck. the April 2008 decision to bring Ukraine and Georgia into Nato was destined to lead to conflict with Russia. the Bush administration was the principal architect of that fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have doubled down on that policy at every turn...”

ProvocationUkraine War2022
Author:John J. Mearsheimer
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“It is natural to feel angry once in a while, but it becomes a serious problem when you are getting angry regularly even in routine situations at home or in the office. When the anger becomes frequent and flares up at the slightest provocation, it is an indication that all is not well in your life. Frequent and uncontrolled anger is a symptom of a fragile state of mind, which gets manifested at the slightest unfavourable situation.”

MindAngryFragileFeelProvocationSituationsFrequentRegularlyManifestedUnfavourable
Book:31 Ways to Happiness
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“There is another dangerous component to armed robberies, one that I could never understand. I noticed some time ago that with each robbery I committed there was an intense out of control anger that gripped me. It was as if I was there to get something that was inherently mine, and I came to take it by force. I’ve heard many stories directly from individuals about how they just burst into stores with their guns drawn. They would be shouting at people, gun butting them sometimes for no reason at all. One individual told me that he ran into a store and jump kicked a fella who just stood there. The only reason he was kicked is that he was there. It’s as if once you’ve overridden your conscience of going through with the act, it is replaced with anger and a level of brutality that is usually reserved for when you are fighting for your life. This, to me, is what makes armed robberies so dangerous—because the slightest provocation or any sudden movement by anyone could lead to them being shot or killed. It is always an extremely delicate and dicey situation, because the armed robber is pulling the trigger out of fear more than anything else.”

DangerousAngerBrutalityShoutingProvocationOut Of ControlViolent CrimesCold BloodedBe AwareArm RobberyStaying CalmInherentlyArm Robbers
Book:The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father
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“Elderly gentlemen, gentle in all respects, kind to animals, beloved by children, and fond of music, are found in lonely corners of the downs, hacking at sandpits or tussocks of grass, and muttering in a blind, ungovernable fury elaborate maledictions which could not be extracted from them by robbery or murder. Men who would face torture without a word become blasphemous at the short fourteenth. It is clear that the game of golf may well be included in that category of intolerable provocations which may legally excuse or mitigate behavior not otherwise excusable.”

MenWellsKindMayChildrenFacesFoundGamesAnimalClearBehaviorLonelyMurderBlindGolfExcuseCornersGentleGrassBelovedGentlemanTortureCategoriesElderlyFuryHackingRobberyProvocationMutteringMalediction
Author:A. P. Herbert
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“The vice named surrealism is the immoderate and impassioned use of the stupefacient image or rather of the uncontrolled provocation of the image for its own sake and for the element of unpredictable perturbation and of metamorphosis which it introduces into the domain of representation; for each image on each occasion forces you to revise the entire Universe.”

UseUniverseForceElementsSakeVicesOccasionsIntroducingRepresentationUnpredictableDomainSurrealismMetamorphosisProvocationImpassioned
Author:Louis Aragon
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“To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what he says.”

ThinkingMeanRememberLawMotherNightTermPrayerWifeSonHusbandDaughterMercyForgivingRefuseSelfishExceptionDaily LifeBullyingOur PrayersHintsIn-lawsOur WordsIncessantDeceitfulProvocationMother In LawNaggingBossy
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington - not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.”

MenWayWarSpiritBlackMankindCrimeStupidConflictTradeThreatDefenseWarriorFollyTragicJustifyDeliberateResortsAdviseProvocationAmerican Way Of Life
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons. And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons. The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.”

UseSeemsWeaponsFunctionDefenseNuclearPrioritiesTargetNuclear WeaponsThreateningNuclear WarProvocation
Author:Martin Amis
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“Self-Control is the very essence of character. To be able to look a man straight in the eye, calmly and deliberately, without the slightest ruffle of temper under extreme provocation, gives a sense of power which nothing else can give. To feel that you are always, not sometimes, master of yourself, gives a dignity and strength to character, buttresses it, supports it on every side, as nothing else can. This is the culmination of thought mastery.”

MenGivingFeelsLooksSelfSometimesCharacterEyeAbleSidesSupportMastersDignityEssenceExtremesTemperMasterySelf ControlProvocationCulminationIt SupportRufflesDignity And Strength
Book:Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged): Before a Man Can Lift Himself, He Must Lift His Thought
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“Meditation may require a lifetime to master, but it will have been a lifetime well spent. ... If you want to judge your progress, ask yourself these questions: Am I more loving? Is my judgment sounder? Do I have more energy? Can my mind remain calm under provocation? Am I free from the conditioning of anger, fear, and greed? Spiritual awareness reveals itself as eloquently in character development and selfless action as in mystical states.”

IfsWantMindWellsMayHas BeensStatesCharacterActionSpiritualAsksEnergyMeditationProgressAwarenessJudgingMastersDevelopmentJudgmentLifetimeGreedCalmSelflessMysticalConditioningCharacter DevelopmentProvocationSpiritual AwarenessSounder
Author:Eknath Easwaran
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“Everything has two handles; the one soft and manageable, the other such as will not endure to be touched. If then your brother do you an injury, do not take it by the hot hard handle, by representing to yourself all the aggravating circumstances of the fact; but look rather on the soft side, and extenuate it as much as is possible, by considering the nearness of the relation, and the long friendship and familiarity between you--obligations to kindness which a single provocation ought not to dissolve. And thus you will take the accident by its manageable handle.”

IfsLooksLongTwoHardFactsSidesKindnessBrotherOughtCircumstancesRelationHotEndureAccidentsHandleObligationInjuryTouchedConsideringFamiliarityRepresentingYour BrotherProvocationManageableForbearanceIf ThenAggravatingLong Friendship
Author:Epictetus
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“Christian society is like a bundle of sticks laid together, whereof one kindles another. Solitary men have fewest provocations to evil, but, again, fewest incitations to good. So much as doing good is better than not doing evil will I account Christian good-fellowship better than an hermitish and melancholy solitariness.”

MenChristianTogetherEvilSocietyAccountsSticksMelancholySolitaryFellowshipDoing GoodKindlesBundlesProvocationSolitary Man
Book:The Works: Now First Collected : with Some Account of His Life and Sufferings. Devotional works
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“If we could make up our minds to spare our friends all details of ill health, of money losses, of domestic annoyances, of altercations, of committee work, of grievances, provocations, and anxieties, we should sin less against the world's good-humor. It may not be given us to add to the treasury of mirth; but there is considerable merit in not robbing it.”

IfsWorldShouldMindMayGivenLossSinAnxietyAddIllDetailsComplainingMeritSparesCommitteesTreasuryGrievanceMirthAnnoyanceRobbingProvocationGood HumorIll Health
Book:Compromises
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“Infatuation is one of those slightly comic illnesses which are at once so undignified and so painful that a nice-minded world does its best to ignore their existence altogether, referring to them only under provocation and then with apology, but, like its more material brother, this boil on the neck of the spirit can hardly be forgotten either by the sufferer or anyone else in his vicinity. The malady is ludicrous, sad, excruciating and, above all, instantly diagnosable.”

WorldDoeSpiritExistenceNiceBrotherMaterialsForgottenPainfulIllnessComicNecksApologyInfatuationReferringSufferersProvocationMaladyVicinity
Book:Three Cases for Mr. Campion
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“Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a palatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings, among the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is enacted. And the circumstances that provoke it, however trivial or mean, are no measure of its power. In the present instance the stage is a scrubbed gun deck, and one of the external provocations a man-of-war's-man's spilled soup.”

MenMeanWarPlayPassionStageCircumstancesGunProfoundInstanceProvokingSoupGarbageBeggarDeckProvocation
Book:Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories
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“For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by His Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much beyond his ability.”

MenSpiritAbilityTaughtDiscoveryScriptureInterpretationPortionsProvocationInvocation
Book:Pneumatologia: Or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, Wherein an Account is Given of His Name, Nature, Personality, Dispensation, Operations, and Effects; His Whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained; and the Doctrine Concerning it Vindicated
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“The question becomes what kind of coalition can we build that will make a transition and empower the people of Iraq? The American soldiers' presence there is an act of provocation. There's a big red ball on the back of every American soldier in that country, so our being there contributes to the crisis, it does not resolve the crisis.”

PeopleKindDoeCountryBigsRedBallsCrisisSoldierIraqEmpoweringResolveTransitionBeing ThereCoalitionsProvocationAmerican Soldier
Author:Jesse Jackson
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