“A song has a life of its own. It's an autonomous thing, separate from your own experience, almost. And the mere repetition of it means it's subject to change; it means approaching it differently, expressing different emotional aspects of it. It doesn't feel like wallowing.” FeelsMeanDifferentSongSubjectsEmotionalAspectMereRepetitionAutonomousWallowing Author:St. Vincent
“We have two distinct types of political organization to take into account; and clearly, too, when their origins are considered, it is impossible to make out that the one is a mere perversion of the other. Therefore when we include both types under a general term like government, we get into logical difficulties; difficulties of which most writers on the subject have been more or less vaguely aware, but which, until within the last half-century, none of them has tried to resolve.” Has BeensTwoGovernmentLastsPoliticalTermHalfImpossibleSubjectsCenturyTypeOrganizationAccountsDifficultyMereLogicalResolvePerversionMake Out Author:Albert J. Nock
“Nothing disturbs me more than superficiality and mere sloganizing on matters of public policy, and the suspicion that what the speaker is saying represents the full extent of his knowledge on the subject.” MatterSubjectsPolicyMereSpeakersSuspicionPublic PolicySuperficiality Author:Preston Manning
“Progress is slow partly from mere intellectual inertia. In a subject where there is no agreed procedure for knocking out errors, doctrines have a long life. A professor teaches what he was taught, and his pupils, with a proper respect and reverence for teachers, set up a resistance against his critics for no other reason than that it was he whose pupils they were.” LongReasonTeachTeacherProgressSubjectsTaughtIntellectualErrorsMereCriticsResistanceDoctrineProfessorsReverenceLong LifeProceduresPupilsKnockingInertia Author:Joan Robinson
“The habit of committing our thoughts to writing is a powerful means of expanding the mind, and producing a logical and systematic arrangement of our views and opinions. It is this which gives the writer a vast superiority, as to the accuracy and extent of his conceptions, over the mere talker. No one can ever hope to know the principles of any art or science thoroughly who does not write as well as read upon the subject.” KnowsGivingWritingMindWellsMeanDoeArtViewsPowerfulOpinionPrinciplesSubjectsHabitMereLogicalConceptionArrangementsSuperiorityOur ThoughtsExpandingAccuracySystematicTalkers Author:William Blaikie
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instance--its subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picture--the actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscape--should be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.” ShouldArtDifferentEndsMatterFormSpiritPoetryGivenSituationAchieveSubjectsEventsPoetCircumstancesDegreesUnityMereStriveInstanceLandscapeStrifePenetrateIncidentsTopography Author:Walter Pater
“But the creative person is subject to a different, higher law than mere national law. Whoever has to create a work, whoever has tobring about a discovery or deed which will further the cause of all of humanity, no longer has his home in his native land but rather in his work.” PersonsDifferentHomeLawHumanityCausesCreativityCreativeLandSubjectsHigherDiscoveryMereDeedsNativeCreative PersonNative LandHigher Law Author:Stefan Zweig
“In fact I'm in too much of a mental muddle to know where I am - an idealist or not. I'm a mere man of letters, and I do what I can with those subjects.” KnowsMenI CanFactsToo MuchSubjectsLettersMereIdealistMuddle Book:Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations Source: Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations
“Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.” PeopleHardFactsActionOpinionSubjectsEvidenceMereReversal Book:Galapagos: A Novel Source: Galapagos: A Novel
“Those subject to capital punishment are real human beings, with their own backgrounds and narratives. By contrast, those whose lives are or might be saved by virtue of capital punishment are mere 'statistical people.' They are both nameless and faceless, and their deaths are far less likely to be considered in moral deliberations.” PeopleHumansRealMightHuman BeingsMoralVirtueSubjectsMereSavedPunishmentBackgroundsNarrativeContrastNamelessCapital PunishmentDeliberationReal HumanFaceless Author:Cass Sunstein