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Self Quotes

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Self Quotes

“At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

PeopleNeedsSelfGovernmentCommonOpinionDemocracyStrangeMajorityCourtBottomCommon SenseCorporateCorporationsRejectionFlawsImperfectFoundingDistinctiveSelf-governmentUnderminingAmerican DemocracyTheodoreMoney In PoliticsStrange Times
Author:John Paul Stevens
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“Try not to be too angry or disappointed with your fellow Americans. Most of them don't care about politics as much as the majority of my readers, and the education they have received about it from the government's public school system is nothing more than a septic tank full of warmed-over self-serving statist lies and leftist propaganda.”

SelfGovernmentCareSchoolLyingReaderFellowsAngryMajorityDon't CarePropagandaServingDisappointedPublic SchoolTanksLeftistsSchool SystemSelf Serving
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“Most libertarians agree that all rights are, in effect, property rights, beginning with this fundamental right to self-ownership and control of one's own life. As owners of their own lives, individuals are completely free to do absolutely anything they wish with them provided, of course, that it doesn't violate the identical right of others whether the people around them approve of what they do or not.”

PeopleSelfCoursesIndividualWishRightsEffectsAgreeFundamentalsPropertyLibertarianOwnersOwnershipIdenticalProperty RightsSelf OwnershipOwnership And Control
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving protective shields allow us to believe that each of us is above average on any test of self-integrity. Too often we look to the stars through the thick lens of personal invulnerability when we should also look down to the slippery slope beneath our feet.”

ShouldBelieveLooksSelfStarsBehindsFeetSpecialIntegrityIllusionTestsAverageServingThickLensesShieldsProtectiveSlipperySlopesSelf ServingEgocentricSlippery SlopeAbove AverageInvulnerability
Author:Philip Zimbardo
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“By a kind of happy pre-established harmony, such as a later age discovered between the needs of society and the self-interest of the individual, success in business is in itself almost a sign of spiritual grace, for it is a proof that a man has laboured faithfully in his vocation.”

MenNeedsKindSelfAgeSpiritualIndividualInterestGraceHarmonyProofBusiness SuccessVocationSelf InterestIndividual Success
Book:Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism
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“it is not men that most women worry about when they rise to the defense of the status quo. Their apparent endorsement of male supremacy is, rather, a pathetic striving for self-respect, self-justification, and self-pardon. After fifteen hundred years of subjection to men, Western woman finds it almost unbearable to face the fact that she has been hoodwinked and enslaved by her inferiors - that the master is lesser than the slave.”

MenYearsHas BeensSelfFactsFacesWorryMastersHundredSlaveStriveWesternMalesDefenseSelf RespectJustificationFifteenInferiorsStatus QuoPatheticUnbearablePardonSupremacyEndorsementsSubjectionSelf Justification
Author:Elizabeth Gould Davis
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“It is now very clear that techniques of machine-human interfacing, pharmacology of the synthetic variety, all kinds of manipulative techniques, all kinds of data storage, imaging and retrieval techniques - all of this is coalescing toward the potential of a truly demonic or angelic kind of self-imaging of our culture... And the people who are on the demonic side are fully aware of this and hurrying full-tilt forward with their plans to capture everyone as a 100% believing consumer inside some kind of a beige furnished fascism that won't even raise a ripple.”

PeopleBelieveHumansKindSelfCultureSidesClearPlansMachinesRaisesTechniqueAll KindsVarietyDataConsumersCaptureFascismRippleAngelicStorageDemonicHurryingManipulativeSyntheticTiltImagingPharmacology
Author:Terence McKenna
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“You know, I think everybody I've seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably it's very much the same thing: the therapist is too disinterested, a little too aloof, a little too inactive. They're not really interested in the person, he doesn't relate to the person. All these things I've written so much about. That's why I've made such a practice really, over and over to hammer home the point of self-revelation and being more of yourself and showing yourself. Every book I write I want to get that in there.”

ThinkingKnowsWantWritingLittlesPersonsMadeBookSelfHomePracticeWrittenRelateTherapyRevelationsHammersTherapistsDisinterestedAloofSelf Revelation
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
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“[T]he individual in whom the will for the light is strong and clear finds his heart inextricably bound up with the struggle of the forces of light in his native place and time. Much as he may long for the opportunity of fuller self- expression in a happier world, he knows that for him self-expression is impossible save in the world in which his mind is rooted. The individual in whom the will for the light is weak soon persuades himself that his opportunity lies elsewhere.”

KnowsWorldMindHeartMayLongSelfLightLyingOpportunityIndividualStrongForceStruggleClearImpossibleExpressionWeakBoundsNativeElsewhereRootedSelf ExpressionPlace And TimeNative Place
Book:Darkness and the light
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“A really intelligent nation might be held together by far stronger forces than are derived from the purely gregarious instincts. A nation need not be a mob of slaves, clinging to one another through fear, and for the most part incapable of self-government, and begging to be led; but it might consist of vigorous self-reliant men, knit to one another by innumerable ties, into a strong, tense, and elastic organisation.”

MenNeedsSelfGovernmentMightTogetherStrongForceNationsStrongerIntelligentSlaveInstinctTiesIncapableTenseBeggingVigorousOrganisationClingingSelf-governmentGregariousSelf Reliant
Author:Francis Galton
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“The image the Republicans have of themselves needs the image they have of the Democrats to bring it into sharp focus. The Democrats are plainly a disreputable crowd; the Republicans, by contrast, are men of standing and sobriety. Many a middle-class American in many a small town has had to explain painfully why he chose to be a Democrat. No middle-class American need feel uneasy as a Republican. Even when he is a minority--for example, among the heathen on a college campus--he can, like any white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, warm himself before his little fire of self-esteem.”

MenNeedsFeelsLittlesSelfWhiteClassFireFocusMiddleSelf EsteemExampleCollegeRepublicanStandingTownsDemocratCrowdsWarmEsteemMinoritiesMiddle ClassContrastSmall TownProtestantsSobrietyCampusUneasyHeathenAnglo SaxonCollege Campus
Author:Clinton Rossiter
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“Someone who thinks well of himself is said to have a healthy self-concept and is envied. Someone who thinks well of his country is called a patriot and is applauded. But someone who thinks well of his species is regarded as hopelessly naïve and is dismissed.”

ThinkingWellsSaidSelfCountryHealthyConceptsSpeciesPatriotEnviedSelf Concept
Book:The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life
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“He who wants to educate himself in Chess must evade what is dead in Chess... the habit of playing with inferior opponents; the custom of avoiding difficult tasks; the weakness of uncritically taking over variations or rules discovered by others; the vanity which is self-sufficient; the incapacity for admitting mistakes; in brief, everything that leas to standstill or to anarchy.”

WantSelfDifficultMistakeHabitWeaknessTasksChessVanityOpponentsSufficientCustomsAnarchyEducateInferiorsAvoidingVariationAdmittingSelf SufficientIncapacityDifficult TasksStandstill
Author:Emanuel Lasker
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“There is no such thing as a secret among our leaders; communication is very open and honest, and if it's not, then it can become seemingly brutal. You've heard my arguments for love, friends, and authenticity, but there are the deceivers, the manipulators, the control freaks, and the self-appointed teachers in the Body who would love to use our system for their own selfish purposes. We all know the realities of the old sin nature.”

IfsKnowsSelfUseBodyRealityPurposeSinSecretLeaderTeacherHeardHonestCommunicationArgumentSelfishAuthenticityFreakBrutalControl FreakDeceiverManipulator
Author:Ted Haggard
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“In the century that has just passed, many of the intellectual elite went mad. It was as if, with the death of God, everyone suddenly turned into a saviour who wanted either to annihilate the obsolete world order or to establish a utopia. Naturally, there were writers among those who went mad. The fact that they had knowledge did not exempt intellectuals: there is madness everywhere. When one loses control over one's self, the result is madness.”

IfsWorldSelfFactsWantedOrderLosesResultsCenturyIntellectualMadnessMadElitesUtopiaSaviourObsoleteWorld Order
Author:Gao Xingjian
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“Cut that in Three, which Nature hath made One , Then strengthen hyt, even by it self alone, Wherewith then Cutte the poudred Sonne in twayne, By length of tyme, and heale the woonde againe. The self same Sunne twys yet more, ye must wounde, Still with new Knives, of the same kinde, and grounde; Our Monas trewe thus use by natures Law, Both binde and lewse, only with rype and rawe, And ay thanke God who only is our Guyde, All is ynugh, no more then at this Tyde.”

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Author:John Dee
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“My main interest... is the love of truth, whether pleasant or not. Truth is self-sufficient, and there is nothing to which it can be subordinated without loss. When truth is made subservient to anything else, however great (say religion), it becomes impure and sordid.”

MadeSelfInterestLossTruth IsSufficientPleasantSelf SufficientSubservient
Book:A History of Science: Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece
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“But what must be the character of that policy, which aims at national prosperity through the impoverishment of a large proportion of the home producers, with a view to supply foreigners at a cheaper rate, and give them all the benifet of the national privation and self denial?”

GivingSelfCharacterHomeViewsPolicyAimRateProsperityProducersDenialProportionForeignersCheaperSelf-denial
Book:A Treatise on Political Economy: Or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth
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“If one denies that, when the meaning is true, then the meant is what is so, one rejects propositional truth. If the rejection is universal, then it is the self-destructive proposition that there are no true propositions. If the rejection is limited to the dogmas, then it is just a roundabout way of saying that all the dogmas are false.”

IfsWaySelfUniversalDenyRejectionDestructiveRejectsDogmaPropositionsSelf Destructive
Book:A Second Collection
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“You are born supernaturally through faith, by the grace of God, into the kingdom of righteousness; but you are born a little babe, that is all; and if you make any progress from that point on, it must be by work, by sacrifice, by the practice of Christian virtues, by benevolence, by self-denial, by resisting the adversary, by making valiant war for God and against sin; and on no other basis, am I authorized in giving you a hope that you may come to manhood in Christ Jesus.”

IfsGivingMayLittlesWarSelfChristianSpiritualityJesusChristBornSinPracticeVirtueGraceProgressSacrificeBasesKingdomsDenialRighteousnessManhoodGrace Of GodAdversariesBenevolenceBabeResistingSelf-denialValiant
Author:Charles Henry Fowler
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“What is it that is done to our children that their puberty should deform them? They have the joy of movement; they have an enterprising curiosity; they are ready for sensible self-denial; they dream ahead, and they have a faithful memory, and, above all, great compassion... The well-meaning educator who flatters and humours the young not only does a disservice to the community, but also damages the individual by depriving him of the opportunities of self-discovery.”

ShouldWellsChildrenDoeSelfDoneDreamYoungJoyOpportunityIndividualCommunityMemoriesCompassionMovementHumourReadyDiscoveryOur ChildrenCuriositySelf DiscoveryDenialFaithfulDamageSensibleEducatorPubertySelf-denialDisserviceDeprivingEnterprising
Author:Kurt Hahn
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“There can be no doubt that the young of today have to be protected against certain poisonous effects inherent in present-day civilization. Five social diseases surround them, even in early childhood. There is the decline in fitness due to modern methods of locomotion; the decline in initiative due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis; the decline in care and skill due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship; the decline in self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of tranquilizers and stimulants, and the decline in compassion, which William Temple called "spiritual death.”

SelfCareTodaySpiritualYoungCertainSocialCompassionDoubtFiveModernChildhoodEffectsDisciplineCivilizationSkillsDiseaseTraditionMethodDuesNo DoubtTemplesSurroundDeclineProtectedInitiativeInherentSelf DisciplinePresent DayPoisonousAvailabilityEarly ChildhoodCraftsmanshipStimulantsSpiritual Death
Author:Kurt Hahn
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“As a mathematician, von Neumann was quick, brilliant, efficient, and enormously broad in scientific interests beyond mathematics itself. He knew his technical abilities; his virtuosity in following complicated reasoning and his insights were supreme; yet he lacked absolute self confidence.”

SelfInterestAbilityAbsolutesMathematicsFollowingInsightComplicatedBrilliantSelf ConfidenceSupremeReasoningBroadsEfficientMathematicianVirtuosityVon Neumann
Author:Stanislaw Ulam
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“In their pure form, the martial arts demand the intense awareness of the meditative mind, and have nothing to do with anger or wanton aggression. A practitioner is taught from the outset that the skills must never be used for personal gain, but only in self-defence or in the protection of others -- and even then only enough force as is absolutely necessary should be used.”

ShouldMindArtSelfEnoughFormUsedForceAwarenessTaughtPureSkillsDemandGainsProtectionIntenseMartial ArtsAggressionDefenceWantonSelf DefencePersonal Gain
Author:David Fontana
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