“Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange our experiences...Experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness.” PeopleIfsLooksStoriesValuesFallWishAbilityTakenPossessionTalesFallenEncountersContinuingIdealismEmbarrassment Author:Walter Benjamin
“Writing is nothing less than thought transference, the ability to send one's ideas out into the world, beyond time and distance, taken at the value of the words, unbound from the speaker.” WorldWritingIdeasValuesAbilityTakenDistanceSpeakersTransferenceUnboundTime And Distance Author:Arthur M. Jolly
“American society has a remarkable ability to resist change, or to take whatever change has taken place and attempt to make it go away.” ChangeAbilityUnited StatesTakenRemarkableGoing AwayAmerican Society Author:Nora Ephron
“I try to write each piece in the language of the piece, so that I'm not using the same language from piece to piece. I may be using ten or twenty languages. That multiplicity of language and the use of words is African in tradition. And black writers have definitely taken that up and taken it in. It's like speaking in tongues. It may sound like gibberish to somebody, but you know it's a tongue of some kind. Black people have this. We have the ability as a race to speak in tongues, to dream in tongues, to love in tongues.” PeopleKnowsWritingTryingKindMayUseDreamSpeakLanguageSoundBlackAbilityRaceTakenPiecesTenTraditionTwentiesTongueBlack PeopleMultiplicitySpeaking In Tongues Author:Alexis De Veaux
“One could even argue that we have a duty to create and pass on stories about choice because once a person knows such stories, they can't be taken away from him. He may lose his possessions, his home, his loved ones, but if he holds on to a story about choice, he retains the ability to practice choice.” IfsKnowsMayPersonsStoriesHomeChoicesLosesAbilityPracticeTakenDutyPossessionArguingLoved Ones Author:Sheena Iyengar
“I think the willingness to listen is really a matter of confidence. You can't be so superconfident in your abilities that you ignore what others say, and you can't be so diffident in your abilities that you think that if they say something, you will be so taken in that you will do the wrong thing. When you are confident about your abilities and also fully aware of what you don't know you are willing to listen to outside experts with the full sense that if you don't find it worthwhile you will ignore it.” IfsThinkingKnowsMatterAbilityTakenWillingListeningExpertsWillingnessWorthwhileWrong Things Author:Raghuram Rajan
“My fear, is that we are becoming so dependent on technology that if it was all taken away for some reason, some big incident, that we are losing our ability to function without it.” IfsReasonBigsAbilityTechnologyTakenBecomingLosingFunctionDependentIncidents Author:Bruce Boxleitner
“Chris Addison is a stand-up comic, but his ability to act is extraordinary, to be so natural, I've taken 25 years just getting to that level.” YearsNaturalAbilityLevelsTakenExtraordinaryComic Author:Peter Capaldi
“You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But "democracy" is an illusion - a sham - if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.” IfsWantTwoAbilityPartyLeaderDemocracyTakenCitizensOffersIllusionSignificantConcealedCitizenry Author:Glenn Greenwald
“Since the government creates no wealth, it can only transfer the wealth required to hire people. Even if the government creates a million jobs, that is not a net increase in jobs, when the money that pays for those jobs is taken from the private sector, which loses that much ability to create private jobs.” PeopleIfsGovernmentJobsLosesWealthAbilityPayMillionsTakenIncreaseTransfersPrivate Sector Author:Thomas Sowell
“You've no idea how wonderful toilet paper is until it's taken away from you by an unfeeling universe. I think it's the defining characteristic of human civilization, the ability to manufacture something decent to wipe your ass on.” ThinkingHumansIdeasUniverseAbilityTakenWonderfulCivilizationPaperAssNo IdeaCharacteristicsDecentToiletsDefiningWipeAway From YouToilet PaperHuman CivilizationUnfeeling Book:Judas Unchained Source: Judas Unchained
“The pressure to conform to 'politically correct' speech is primarily a pressure not to use certain expressions. But when our freedom to use certain expressions is taken away, then our ability to think in certain ways is also curtailed.” ThinkingWayUseCertainAbilityTakenExpressionSpeechPressureConformPolitically Correct Book:The TNIV and the Gender-neutral Bible Controversy Source: The TNIV and the Gender-neutral Bible Controversy
“We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military force in the world, and we owe them the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they and their families will be taken care of if they sacrifice life, limb or the ability to sleep without war's nightmares. We owe them not just thanks and best wishes, but action, and action in our nation's capital.” IfsWorldMindWarCareActionOpportunityForceNationsWishSleepAbilityKnowingTakenSacrificeMilitaryThanksNightmarePeace Of MindTroopsLimbsOur TroopsMilitary ForceBest Wishes Author:John F. Kerry