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Simple Quotes

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Simple Quotes

“Everything - a bird, a tree, even a simple stone, and certainly a human being - is ultimately unknowable. This is because it has unfathomable depth. All we can perceive, experience, think about, is the surface layer of reality, less than the tip of an iceberg. Underneath the surface appearance, everything is not only connected with everything else, but also with the Source of all life out of which it came. Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself.”

ThinkingWayHumansShowsRealityHuman BeingsSimpleTreeFlowerSourceBirdStonesDepthAppearanceConnectedSurfacePerceiveLayersUnfathomableIceberg
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
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“Hemingway, damn his soul, makes everything he writes terrifically exciting (and incidentally makes all us second-raters seem positively adolescent) by the seemingly simple expedient of the iceberg principle - three-fourths of the substance under the surface. He comes closer that way to retaining the magic of the original, unexpressed idea or emotion, which is always more stirring than any words. But just try and do it!”

WayWritingTryingIdeasSoulSeemsThreeSimpleEmotionPrinciplesMagicExcitingOriginalsSurfaceSubstanceDamnPositivelyStirringIcebergRetaining
Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
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“The Zen way of calligraphy is to write in the most straightforward, simple way as if you were a beginner, not trying to make something skillful or beautiful, but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writing.”

IfsWayWritingTryingFirstsBeautifulTimeNatureSimpleAttentionFirst TimeDiscoveringStraightforwardSkillfulBeginnersSimple WaysCalligraphy
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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“Biblical higher criticism is preserved in the particular enclave of academic Christian scholarship and is thought to be too unfruitful to share with the average pew-sitter, for it raises more questions than the church can adequately answer. So the leaders of the church would protect the simple believers from concepts they were not trained to understand. In this way that ever-widening gap between academic Christians and the average pew-sitter made its first appearance.”

WayFirstsMadeChristianReligionChurchSimpleAnswersLeaderShareParticularHigherProtectConceptsCriticismRaisesAverageAppearanceBelieverGapsAcademicBiblicalScholarship
Author:John Shelby Spong
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“Nothing has given me more hope recently than to observe how simple conversations give birth to actions that can change lives and restore our faith in the future. There is no more powerful way to initiate significant social change than to start a conversation. When a group of people discover that they share a common concern, that's when the process of change begins.”

PeopleWayGivingActionGivenSocialProcessSimplePowerfulCommonGroupsShareBirthConversationConcernSignificantLife ChangingSocial ChangeInitiateProcess Of Change
Author:Margaret J. Wheatley
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“The secret of adventure, then, is not to carefully seek it out but to travel in such a way that it finds you. To do this, you first need to overcome the protective habits of home and open yourself up to unpredictability. As you begin to practice this openness, you'll quickly discover adventure in the simple reality of a world that defies your expectations. More often than not, you'll discover that “adventure” is a decision after the fact-a way of deciphering an event or an experience that you can't quite explain.”

WorldWayNeedsFirstsFactsHomeRealitySimpleDecisionSecretPracticeEventsAdventureHabitExpectationsOvercomingOpennessProtectiveUnpredictability
Author:Rolf Potts
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“The pleasant converse of the fireside, the simple songs of home, the words of encouragement as I bend over my school-tasks, the kiss as I lie down to rest, the patient bearing with the freaks of my restless nature, the gentle counsels mingled with reproofs and approvals, the sympathy that meets and assuages every sorrow, and sweetens every little success--all these return to me amid the responsibilities which press upon me now, and I feel as if I had once lived in heaven, and, straying, had lost my way.”

IfsWayFeelsLittlesHomeSchoolLyingSongLostHeavenSimpleResponsibilityReturnSorrowKissingTasksEncouragementPressesPatientMy WayGentlePleasantFreakApprovalRestlessConversesWords Of EncouragementReproofReturn To Me
Author:J. G. Holland
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“Another simple and powerful way to dissolve problems is not to dwell upon the outcome of your actions. Instead, learn to value each action (no matter how small or large), to do it with complete attention. Your joy and satisfaction comes from doing each action with a whole heart and mind. Results and consequences then take care of themselves. When you are not absorbed by concern for outcomes, how much anxiety can you ever have?”

WayMindHeartMatterWholeProblemCareActionJoyValuesSimpleResultsPowerfulAttentionLearningAnxietyConsequenceConcernSatisfactionTake CareOutcomesHeart And MindPower Of The Mind
Author:Brenda Shoshanna
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“Error is multiform (for evil is a form of the unlimited, as in the old Pythagorean imagery, and good of the limited), whereas success is possible in one way only (which is why it is easy to fail and difficult to succeed - easy to miss the target and difficult to hit it); so this is another reason why excess and deficiency are a mark of vice, and observance of the mean a mark of virtue: Goodness is simple, badness is manifold.”

WayMeanReasonFormEvilEasyDifficultSimpleVirtueFailingMissingSucceedGoodnessMarkErrorsVicesOne WayReason WhyTargetExcessUnlimitedImageryDeficiencyBadnessObservanceManifold
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“Only when we see that the way of God's law is absolutely inflexible will we see that God's grace is absolutely indispensable. A high view of the law reminds us that God accepts us on the basis of Christ's perfection, not our progress. Grace, properly understood, is the movement of a holy God toward an unholy people. He doesn't cheapen the law or ease its requirements. He fulfills them in his Son, who then gives his righteousness to us. That's the gospel. Pure and simple.”

PeopleWayGivingLawChristSimpleViewsAcceptingGraceProgressMovementSonHolyPureUnderstoodPerfectionBasesEaseRighteousnessRequirementsIndispensableGod's GraceHoly God
Book:It Is Finished: 365 Days of Good News
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“Nature places a simple constraint on those who leave the flock to go their own way: they get eaten. In society it's a bit more complicated. Nonetheless the admonition stands: avoiding the unknown has considerable survival value. Society, nature, and artmaking tend to produce guarded creatures.”

WayValuesBitsSimpleProduceCreaturesSurvivalComplicatedAvoidingConstraintsFlocksGuardedAdmonition
Book:Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
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“To make it really clear and simple, let's call this movement across history we see in passages like the ones we just looked at from Exodus and Deuteronomy clicks. What we see is God meeting people at the click they're at, and then drawing them forward.When they're at F, God calls them to G.When we're at L, God calls us to M.And if we're way back there at A, God meets us way back there at A and does what God always does: invites us forward to B.”

PeopleIfsWayDoeSimpleClearMovementMeetingsDrawingPassagesInvitesClicksExodus
Author:Rob Bell
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“The beautiful wooden board on a stand in my father's study. The gleaming ivory pieces. The stern king. The haughty queen. The noble knight. The pious bishop. And the game itself, the way each piece contributed its individual power to the whole. It was simple. It was complex. It was savage; it was elegant. It was a dance; it was a war. It was finite and eternal. It was life.”

WayWarWholeBeautifulFatherGamesIndividualSimpleStudyPiecesKingsEternalComplexesNobleQueensBoardsSavagesFiniteElegantKnightsBishopsPiousIvoryHaughtyIndividual Power
Book:The Infinite Sea: The Second Book of the 5th Wave
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“What is a positive attitude? The simple definition is the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think. Interestingly, it's also the definition of a negative attitude.”

ThinkingWaySimpleAttitudeNegativeDefinitionsPositive AttitudeNegative Attitude
Book:Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: New Edition, Updated & Revised: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS & HAPPINESS
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“At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable. Heaven forfend me from Lamarck nonsense of a 'tendency to progression', 'adaptations from the slow willing of animals', &c! But the conclusions I am led to are not widely different from his; though the means of change are wholly so. I think I have found out (here's presumption!) the simple way by which species become exquisitely adapted to various ends.”

ThinkingWayMeanDifferentEndsLightLastsFoundHeavenSimpleAnimalOpinionWillingMurderSpeciesVariousConvincedContraryTendenciesConclusionNonsenseAdaptationProgressionAdaptedPresumptionGleamConfessingOrigin Of SpeciesSimple Ways
Book:Charles Darwin's Works: The life and letters of Charles Darwin... ed. by his son, Francis Darwin. 2v
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“Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not 'Islamic.' No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state. It was formerly al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, and has taken advantage of sectarian strife and Syria's civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian border. It is recognized by no government, nor the people it subjugates. ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.”

PeopleWayHas BeensTwoWarStatesRealityGovernmentReligionPoliticsSidesCommunityLeadershipSimpleVisionClassTakenClearViolenceGenerationsPolicyPureEthicsGainsAdvantageOrganizationVictimMajorityStrategyUnityKillingHuman RightsIraqTerrorismTerroristIdeologyBordersCivil WarTwo ThingsIslamicAlsTerritoryForeign PolicySyriaStrifeBoth SidesSlaughterAl QaedaIsilIslamic TerrorismTaken Advantage
Author:Barack Obama
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“Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in words: the most primitive nations have poetry, but only quitewell developed civilizations can produce good prose. So don't think of poetry as a perverse and unnatural way of distorting ordinary prose statements: prose is a much less natural way of speaking than poetry is. If you listen to small children, and to the amount of chanting and singsong in their speech, you'll see what I mean.”

IfsThinkingWayMeanChildrenPoetryNationsNaturalSimpleProducePoetAmountCivilizationSpeechOrdinaryDirectOneselfStatementsProsePoetry IsPrimitiveUnnaturalSmall ChildChantingExpressing Oneself
Author:Northrop Frye
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“Each man's private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly within himself, and not care what the world thinks. The mass of human beings, however, are not made that way; and many people have been saved from crime or sin by the simple dislike of doing things they would not like to confess.”

PeopleThinkingMenWorldWayHumansLittlesHas BeensMadeSelfCareHuman BeingsSinSimpleMoralNiceCrimeOughtMoralityMassConscienceSavedCodeDislikeMoral CodeThermometers
Book:Modes and Morals
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“English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with elements of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.”

WayMayWholeLanguageTermNaturalSimpleIdentityElementsVariousTricksDataNativeBagsCompatibleNative Language
Book:Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine
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“I am so far from thinking the maxims of Confucius and Jesus Christ to differ, that I think the plain and simple maxims of the former, will help to illustrate the more obscure ones of the latter, accommodated to the then way of speaking.”

ThinkingWayHelpingReligionJesusChristSimpleJesus ChristFormerLatterObscureMaximsPlain And Simple
Book:Christianity as Old as the Creation: Or, The Gospel, a Republication of the Religion of Nature. |. ...
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