Quotessence
Home / Topics / Reluctant Quotes

Reluctant Quotes

Browse 305 quotes about Reluctant.

Related topics

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsFeelsGivingWayWorldMenWantHas BeensMeanNeedsSeemsWellsKindMayYearsStillsFactsMightMindSometimesStatesUseWould BeDoneHandsRealReasonTryingWarLeaderMessiahNamesPoliticalReaderShowsTurnsTwoWriting

Reluctant Quotes

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

MindGodFeelingsLastsNightTermRoomsApproachEnglandSteadyReluctantMe AloneTrinityUnrelentingDejected
Book:Yours, Jack: The Inspirational Letters of C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Going to war accelerated the move from indirect to direct rule. Almost any state that makes war finds that it cannot pay for the effort from its accumulated reserves and current revenues. Almost all war-making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat - including men - from reluctant citizens who have other uses for their resources.”

MenMeanWarStatesUseMovingEffortPayLibertyCitizensTaxesResourcesDirectRaisesIncludingCurrentsLibertarianCombatLibertarianismReservesRevenueReluctantIndirectGoing To War
Book:Roads from Past to Future
Create image

“Finally, to the theme of the respiratory chain, it is especially noteworthy that David Kellin's chemically simple view of the respiratory chain appears now to have been right all along-and he deserves great credit for having been so reluctant to become involved when the energy-rich chemical intermediates began to be so fashionable. This reminds me of the aphorism: 'The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer'.”

Has BeensScienceEnergySimpleViewsRichInvolvedDeserveCreditChainsThemeChemicalsAphorismObscureFashionableReluctantRespiratory
Author:Peter D. Mitchell
Create image

“The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.”

Has BeensStatesIndividualEnergyNationsCommunityPowerfulPrinciplesPowerEnvironmentSecurityConceptsRelationSacredEnvironmentalClimate ChangeInternationalYieldCooperationSovereignSovereigntyAssuredImperativesNationalityInternational RelationsReluctantSlownessNational SovereigntyGlobal CommunityUnilateralism
Author:Maurice Strong
Create image

“At a recent conference, a colleague told one of us that in IPCC discussions, some scientists have been reluctant to make strong claims about the scientific evidence, lest contrarians "attack us". Another said that she'd rather err on the side of conservatism in her estimates, because then she feels more "secure."”

FeelsHas BeensSaidStrongSidesEvidenceScientistClaimsClimate ChangeSecureDiscussionColleaguesConferencesConservatismReluctantScientific Evidence
Author:Naomi Oreskes
Create image

“Now shut the engines off. Come down and flatten out, feel the long float, and at the given moment pull the stick right home. She's down. Now taxi in. Switch off. It's over - but not quite, for the port engine, just as if it knew, as if reluctant at the last to let me go, kicked, kicked, and kicked again, as overheated engines will, then backfired with an angry snorting: Fool! The best is over ...But I did not hear.”

IfsFeelsLongMomentsHomeLastsGivenFoolLet MeDown AndAngrySticksFlightAviationEnginesFloatsReluctantPortTaxiLet Me Go
Author:Cecil Arthur Lewis
Create image

“One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project, most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.”

PeopleWayLittlesHas BeensCareEasyProjectsProgramMethodMedicineHumanitarianMedicalSocialismTraditionalDisguiseReluctantImposingMedical CareSocialized Medicine
Author:Ronald Reagan
Create image

“Praise is like sunlight to the warm human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold wind of criticism, we are somehow reluctant to give our fellow the warm sunshine of praise.”

GivingHumansSpiritGrowsReadyWindFlowerColdCriticismPraiseFellowsWarmSunshineSunlightHuman SpiritReluctantCold Wind
Book:How to Win Friends and Influence People
Create image

“Why is there such insistence that AGW has occurred and needs drastic solutions? This is a puzzle, but my short answer is that the IPCC has been built on the AGW proposition and of course keeps plugging it, whatever the data say. The IPCC has considerable clout. Most people shy off inspecting the evidence because it looks like science and must therefore be hard. The media have been captured by AGW (it makes for great stories), the environmental movement and the Greens love it, and business is reluctant to get involved.”

PeopleNeedsLooksHas BeensHardStoriesCoursesAnswersMediaMovementInvolvedSolutionsEvidenceBuiltEnvironmentalDataGlobal WarmingShyPuzzlesPropositionsGet InvolvedCapturedReluctantInsistenceDrasticClout
Author:Don Aitkin
Create image

“The reader reads aloud, with a sing-song up … then down … then down again cadence. My mood shifts from merely reluctant to derisive. It’s a tired reading style. I’m sick of it. It attaches more importance to the words than the words themselves—as they’ve been arranged—could possibly sustain, and it gives poets and poetry a bad name.”

GivingSongReadingNamesStylePoetReaderSickImportanceTiredMoodReluctantCadence
Book:Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Create image

“Make no mistake; the American Revolution was not fought to obtain freedom, but to preserve the liberties that Americans already had as colonials. Independence was no conscious goal, secretly nurtured in cellar or jungle by bearded conspirators, but a reluctant last resort, to preserve "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."”

LifeLastsGoalMistakeLibertyRevolutionConsciousIndependencePursuitPreservesJungleResortsPursuit Of HappinessReluctantAmerican RevolutionCellarsConspiratorsLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Book:The Oxford history of the American people
Create image

“It's not fear of striking out that makes me reluctant to step up to the plate. It's the fear of getting hit in the head by a 90 mph fastball, the pitcher coming off of the mound to stomp me with her cleats while I am down, the rest of the opposing team rushing out of the dugout hurling insults as they kick me and spit on me, while all along the crowd in the stands is cheering them on and laughing at my failure. So, no, it's not the fear of striking out that keeps me from stepping up to the plate.”

FearStepsLaughingTeamCrowdsKicksInsultCheerPlatesPitcherSpitOpposingReluctantRushingStep UpFastballsHurlingMphStriking OutCleats
Author:Jim Copeland
Create image

“I hate war, and I hate having to struggle. I honestly do because I wish I had been born into a world where it was unnecessary. This context of struggle and being a warrior and being a struggler has been forced on me by oppression. Otherwise I would be a sculptor, or a gardener, carpenter - You know, I would be free to be so much more… I guess part of me or a part of who I am, a part of what I do is being a warrior - a reluctant warrior, a reluctant struggler. But I do it, because I’m committed to life.”

KnowsWorldHas BeensWarWould BeHateWishBornStruggleI HateCommittedHonestlyWho I AmOppressionWarriorUnnecessaryGardenerReluctantSculptorsCarpenter
Author:Assata Shakur
Create image

“...convince all nuclear powers, including those which have been more reluctant up to now, of the necessity to respect the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become fully aware of the profound truth of the following conclusion which the United Nations approved by unanimity four years ago: "Mankind is confronted with a choice: we must halt the arms race and proceed to disarmament or face annihilation".”

YearsHas BeensFacesChoicesNationsInterestUnitedRaceFourMankindArmsYears AgoProfoundIncludingFollowingNuclearConclusionConvinceFour YearsApprovalUnited NationsReluctantHaltDisarmamentApprovedAnnihilationNuclear PowerArms RaceNuclear DisarmamentUnanimityNuclear ArmsProfound TruthNuclear Arms Race
Author:Alfonso Garcia Robles
Create image

“God is the original, master forgiver. Each time we grope our reluctant way through the minor miracle of forgiving, we are imitating his style. I am not at all sure that any of us would have had imagination enough to see the possibilities in this way to heal the wrongs of this life had he not done it first.”

WayFirstsDoneEnoughImaginationStylePossibilityMastersForgivenessMiracleOriginalsForgivingHealThis LifeMinorsReluctantImitating
Book:Days of Grace Through the Year
Create image

“Germans grew reluctant to stay in communal ski lodges, fearing they might talk in their sleep. They postponed surgeries because of the lip-loosening effects of anesthetic. Dreams reflected the ambient anxiety. One German dreamed that an SA man came to his home and opened the door to his oven, which then repeated every negative remark the household had made against the government.”

MenMadeHomeDreamGovernmentMightFearSleepDoorsEffectsGrewAnxietyNegativeLipsHouseholdSurgeryRemarksReluctantSkisOvensLodgesAmbientAnesthetics
Author:Erik Larson
Create image

“Major international interventions are doomed unless the US is directly or indirectly involved. But if American politicians, officials and servicemen are to be put at risk of arrest and prosecution, the United States will be most reluctant to act in order to curb aggression or prevent genocide. So the effect of the court may well be to diminish, not increase, the numbers of (in the words of the UN Secretary General) 'innocents of distant wars and conflicts'.”

IfsWellsMayWarStatesOrderUnitedNumbersUnited StatesRiskEffectsInvolvedPoliticianConflictMajorsIncreaseCourtInternationalOfficialsGenocideAggressionSecretaryDoomedDiminishInterventionReluctantCurbProsecutionServicemen
Author:Margaret Thatcher
Create image

“Ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. That was the whole idea, right? That‘s why we went. I am reluctant to let that fact disappear down the memory hole, because if — as the war ends, or at least starts to end — if, at this time, the history of the war is written as us going there to topple the regime of a bad man when that frankly isn‘t why were told that we were going there — Aren‘t we still at risk of making this horrific mistake again? And, aren‘t we letting the people who foisted the WMD idea on us, not many years ago, aren‘t we sort of letting them get away with it?”

PeopleIfsMenYearsStillsIdeasWarEndsWholeFactsMemoriesMistakeWrittenRiskWeaponsMassYears AgoDestructionIraqDisappearHolesGet AwayRegimesWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionReluctantHorrificBad ManWmd
Author:Rachel Maddow
Create image

“The surer of himself an admiral is, the finer the tactical development of his fleet, the better his captains, the more reluctant must he necessarily be to enter into a melee with equal forces, in which all these advantages will be thrown away, chance reign supreme, and his fleet be place on terms of equality with an assemblage of ships which have never before acted together.”

TogetherForceTermChanceDevelopmentEqualAdvantageSupremeShipsThrownCaptainsReignReluctantTacticalAdmiralAssemblageSea Power
Book:Sea Power and World History: 1660-1783
Create image