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Simpletons Quotes

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Simpletons Quotes

“We have not chosen this time. We cannot help it if we are born as men of the early winter of full Civilization, instead of on the golden summit of a ripe Culture, in a Phidias or a Mozart time. Everything depends on our seeing our own position, our destiny, clearly, on our realizing that though we may lie to ourselves about it, we cannot evade it. He who does not acknowledge this in his heart, ceases to be counted among the men of his generation, and remains either a simpleton, a charlatan, or a pedant.”

IfsMenHeartMayDoeHelpingLyingCultureRealizingBornDestinySeeingGenerationsPositionHe ManDependsCivilizationRemainsWinterCeaseChosenGoldenAcknowledgeOur DestinySummitRipeCharlatansPedantsSimpletonsPhidias
Book:Form and actuality
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“For it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-head or water-conversationalist, pro-computerologist or Neo-Luddite, simpleton or sage, to interfere with aesthetics. The real world is the playing ground for each and every group, to make or unmake laws. But the tip of the nose of my book or stories or poems is where their rights end and my territorial imperatives begin, run and rule.”

IfsWorldBookRealEndsStoriesRunningLawWaterRightsGroupsMadNuclearNosesGiantsMinoritiesReal WorldInterfereSageImperativesAestheticsDwarfsDolphinsDwarvesTerritorialSimpletonsOrangutansMad World
Book:Fahrenheit 451: Curriculum Unit
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“It's really a trade-off: you're always having to decide whether you're going to say the more ambitious thing, and lose a little clarity - or are you going to say something really clearly, and sacrifice a little nuance? Get too obscure, and you sound like a pretentious asshole; go overboard with the clarity, and you sound like you're talking down to your audience, or like you yourself are a reductive simpleton.”

LittlesSoundLosesTalkingAudienceSacrificeLike YouTradeClarityAmbitiousObscurePretentiousNuanceOverboardTrade OffsSimpletonsTalking Down
Author:Elif Batuman
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“The difference between a simpleton and an intelligent man, according to the man who is convinced that he is of the latter category, is that the former wholeheartedly accepts all things that he sees and hears while the latter never admits anything except after a most searching scrutiny. He imagines his intelligence to be a sieve of closely woven mesh through which nothing but the finest can pass.”

MenDifferencesAcceptingImagineAll ThingsIntelligentConvincedFormerLatterCategoriesFinestWovenScrutinyWholeheartedlyIntelligent ManMeshSimpletons
Book:A Writer's Nightmare: Selected Essays, 1958-1988
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“You've a right to believe that we're governed by Nature and the hidden Force within her. You can think that the gods, including my Melitele, are merely a personification of this power invented for simpletons so they can understand it better, accept its existence. According to you, that power is blind. But for me, Geralt, faith allows you to expect what my goddess personifies from nature: order, law, goodness. And hope.”

ThinkingBelieveLawOrderForceExistenceAcceptingGoodnessBlindIncludingGoddessPersonificationSimpletons
Author:Andrzej Sapkowski
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“I was just thinking of bundling up Cecily and feeding her to the ducks at Hyde Park," said Will, pushing his wet hair back and favoring Jem with a rare smile. "I could use your assistance." "Unfortunately, you may have to delay your plans for suicide a bit longer. Gabriel Lightwood is downstairs, and I have two words for you. Two of your favorite words, at least when you put them together." "'Utter simpleton'?" inquired Will. "'Worthless upstart'?" Jem grinned. "'Demon pox,'" he said.”

ThinkingMaySaidTwoUseTogetherBitsPlansHairSuicideParksDemonPushingDucksWetDelayAssistanceFeedingWorthlessYour FavoriteGabrielJemHydePoxSimpletonsUpstartFavorite WordsGabriel LightwoodHyde ParkDemon PoxWet Hair
Book:The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess
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“The newspaper that obstructs the law on a trivial pretext, for money's sake, is a dangerous enemy to the public weal. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.”

WaySelfAmericaNationsOpinionEnemyMediaHonorStealingIgnorantAwfulJournalismPublic OpinionComplacentDo Not FearHordeYour HonorSimpletonsMedia ControlDitching
Book:Mark Twain: Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims and Other Speeches
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“We discovered that in connection with these figures the German national simpletons and money-grubbers of the Frankfurt parliamentary swamp always counted as Germans the Polish Jews as well, although this dirtiest of all races, neither by its jargon nor by its descent, but at most only through its lust for profit, could have any relation of kinship with Frankfurt.”

WellsRaceFiguresConnectionsRelationProfitJewLustPolishDescentKinshipSwampsJargonParliamentarySimpletonsFrankfurt
Author:Friedrich Engels
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“One is not unpopular because he uses peculiar expressions; that just so happens; such terms become a fad, and by and by everybody, down to the last simpleton, uses them. But a person who follows through an idea in his mind is, and always will be, essentially unpopular. That is why Socrates was unpopular, though he did not use any special terms, for to grasp and hold his 'ignorance' requires greater vital effort than understanding the whole of Hegel's philosophy.”

MindPersonsIdeasPhilosophyWholeUseHappensLastsUnderstandingTermEffortGreaterSpecialIgnoranceExpressionPeculiarFadsHegelFollow ThroughSimpletons
Author:Soren Kierkegaard
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