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Stratagem Quotes

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Stratagem Quotes

“There is not a little generalship and stratagem required in the managing and marshalling of our pleasures, so that each shall not mutually encroach to the destruction of all. For pleasures are very voracious, too apt to worry one another, and each, like Aaron's serpent, is prone to swallow up the rest. Thus drinking will soon destroy the power, gaming the means, and sensuality the taste, for other pleasures less seductive, but far more salubrious, and permanent as they are pure.”

MeanLittlesPleasureWorryTastePureDestructionDrinkingSensualityPermanentSeductiveSerpentGamingStratagem
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Men who have lost their conviction of what is good and what is bad find themselves without a sextant to check their position by. We are in the position of a man with an elaborate camping kit who finds himself lost in the woods without his matches; to kindle a fire he has to resort to the stratagems of the caveman. We fall back through generations into the oldest terrors and confusions of the race.”

MenFallLostRaceFireGenerationsPositionTerrorConvictionWoodsChecksConfusionResortsFall BackKindlesCampingStratagemLost In The Woods
Author:John Dos Passos
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“The circumstance that any man could suppose that Matthew when he said, 'Jacob begat Joseph,' or Luke, when he said, 'Joseph was the son of Heli' could refer to the wife of the one, or the daughter-in-law of the other, shows to what desperate stratagems polemical orthodoxy will resort in order to defend an untenable position.”

MenSaidShowsLawOrderWifeAtheismPositionSonCircumstancesDaughterPositive AtheismDesperateResortsOrthodoxyIn-lawsLukeJacobMatthewStratagemDaughter In Law
Book:The creed of Christendom: its foundations and superstructure
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“Among the numerous stratagems by which pride endeavors to recommend folly to regard, there is scarcely one that meets with less success than affectation, or a perpetual disguise of the real character by fictitious appearances.”

RealCharacterPrideRegardAppearanceFollyEndeavorPerpetualDisguiseStratagemReal Character
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
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“Attempts to limit female mobility by hampering locomotion are ancient and almost universal. The foot-binding of upper-class Chinese girls and the Nigerian custom of loading women's legs with pounds of heavy brass wire are extreme examples, but all over the world similar stratagems have been employed to make sure that once you have caught a woman she cannot run away, and even if she stays around she cannot keep up with you. ... Literally as well as figuratively modern women's shoes are what keeps Samantha from running as fast as Sammy.”

IfsWorldWellsHas BeensRunningGirlClassFeetModernExampleLimitsFemaleUniversalShoesAncientCaughtHeavyExtremesLegsChinesePoundsCustomsSexismRunning AwayEmployedWireBindingMobilityBrassUpper ClassStratagemModern WomanSamantha
Author:Alison Lurie
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“By interpreting freedom as the propagation and immediate gratification of needs, people distort their own nature, for they engender in themselves a multitude of pointless and foolish desires, habits, and incongruous stratagems. Their lives are motivated only by mutual envy, sensuality, and ostentation.”

PeopleNeedsDesireNatureFreedomHabitEnvyFoolishSensualityMutualMotivatedMultitudesGratificationPointlessInterpretingStratagemPropagationOstentationImmediate Gratification
Book:The Karamazov Brothers
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“The truth may often be carried about by those who themselves remain all unaware of it. They bear that which has weight and substance and yet for them has no name whereby it may be evoked or called forth. They go about ignorant of the true nature of their condition, such are the wiles of truth and such its stratagems.”

MayTruthNamesConditionsBearsWeightIgnorantSubstanceTrue NatureOften IsStratagem
Book:The Border Trilogy: Picador Classic
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“Making the logo twice the size is often a good thing to do, because most advertisements are deficient in brand identification. Showing the clients' faces is also a better stratagem than it may sound, because the public is more interested in personalities than in corporations. Some clients can be projected as human symbols of their own products.”

HumansMayFacesSoundProductsPersonalityGood ThingsSizeSymbolsBrandsCorporationsThings To DoClientsIdentificationAdvertisementsLogosStratagem
Book:Confessions of an advertising man
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“It is possible that the meaning of wisdom in Hebrew indicates aptitude for stratagems and the application of thought in such a way that the stratagems and ruses may be used in achieving either rational or moral virtues, or in achieving skill in a practical art, or in working evil and wickedness.”

WayMayArtUsedEvilMoralVirtueAchieveSkillsPracticalsRationalApplicationWickednessHebrewAptitudeStratagemMoral Virtues
Book:A Maimonides Reader
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“There are, by the most conservative counting, two grave and deeply regrettable collateral victims of the peer-review gruesome stratagem: one is the daring of thought (wished-washed to the lowest common denominator), and the other is the individuality, as well as the responsibility, of editors (those seeking shelter behind the anonymity of "peers", but in fact dissolved in it, in many cases without a trace).”

WellsTwoFactsCommonBehindsResponsibilityCasesVictimIndividualityConservativeSeekingGravesEditorsReviewsDaringShelterPeersLowestCountingAnonymityCommon DenominatorStratagemCollateralLowest Common DenominatorWithout A TracePeer Review
Author:Zygmunt Bauman
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“There were various aspects of Sun Tzu's approach that appealed to Ho Chi Minh: a) to learn to understand both the enemy and yourself, to seek out his weaknesses and your own strengths, and act accordingly, b) to make ample use of subterfuge and stratagem in order to defeat or disarm your adversary, and c) to use outright violence only when absolutely necessary in the belief that political struggle was more effective than military struggle.”

UsePoliticalOrderBeliefEnemyStruggleSunViolenceMilitaryApproachWeaknessAspectDefeatVariousAdversariesStratagemSubterfugePolitical Struggle
Author:William J. Duiker
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“There is nothing that is quite so reassuring in an awkward situation as knowing that one is well turned-out, and while I hope I am not so fainthearted as to require such stratagems, I am not so foolish as to overlook their value.”

WellsValuesSituationKnowingFoolishAwkwardReassuringStratagemAwkward Situations
Book:The Cecelia and Kate Novels: Sorcery & Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician
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“In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere — "Bibles laid open, millions of surprises," as Herbert says, "fine nets and stratagems." God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”

IfsKnowsMenMayYoungReadingWishSoundMillionsAtheismFineSurpriseAtheistCarefulYoung ManTrapsStratagem
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

WarFightingPoliticsPeaceEnemyWords Of WisdomBattleExcellenceSupremeResistanceConquerPersuasionArt Of WarTotal WarStrategistMake Peace Not WarPeace Not WarBreaking PromisesEastern PhilosophyWar StrategyStratagemFighting BattlesMilitary LeadershipWill To FightMilitary StrategyPolitics And War
Book:Strategy Six Pack
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“Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.”

KnowsWorldHumansSaidRunningDifficultHuman BeingsRichModernOneselfCleverEnormousVarietyBeing YourselfDevicesRunning AwayEmployedModern WorldDifficult ThingsInconvenientKnowing OneselfJoshStratagemBilling
Author:John W. Gardner
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“There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune on his army: By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army. By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds. By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.”

WayMindArtWarFactsThreeCausesPrinciplesConditionsMilitaryIgnoranceCircumstancesArmySoldierDiscriminationKingdomsIgnorantShakesMisfortunesOfficersRulersRetreatAdaptationAttemptingArt Of WarRestlessnessStrategistEmployingStratagemThree WaysBeing Ignorant
Book:The Art of War
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“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

KnowsMayArtWarSpiritFightingWinningForceWaitingEnemyKnow HowFiveMilitaryVictoryEssentialsCapacityArmyPreparedHandleSuperiorsInferiorsSovereignArt Of WarAnimatedStrategistUnpreparedWar StrategyStratagem
Book:The Art Of War - The Oldest Military Treatise in the World
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“The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.”

WarCoursesNaturalEnemyPrinciplesHarmStratagem
Book:The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Short Stories, Plays, Historical Works, Poetry and Autobiographical Writings (Illustrated): The Entire Opus of the Prolific American Writer, Biographer and Historian, Including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall and many more
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“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

IfsKnowsNeedsWarInspirationSufferingResultsEnemyMilitaryVictoryBattleDrugHundredStrategyDefeatWarriorKnow YourselfArt Of WarStrategicGreat WarStrategistWar StrategyStratagemFighting BattlesGreatest VictoryWar VictoryGreatest MilitaryGreat BattleWill To FightMilitary StrategyWars And BattlesDefeating The EnemyWar With Yourself
Book:The Art of War
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