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Would Be Quotes

“Maybe in the back of my mind I was kind of wishing that I would become a rock star, kind of wishing that I would reach enough people who would be willing to pay me for the music, that I would actually be able to live off of just writing the songs that I wanted to write. But I don't think I really admitted to myself that that was my goal.”

People Thinking Writing Mind Kind Enough Would Be Able Wanted Song Wish Stars Goal Pay Rocks Willing Rock Star Of My Mind

Author:Jonathan Coulton

“Well, maybe surf one time; I think it would be fun to catch a wave just once.”

Thinking Wells Would Be Fun Wave One Time Surfing Surf

Author:Crystal Gayle

“So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you'll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they're 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn't meet their life expectancy.I'm here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.”

People Thinking Years Long Would Be Forget Four Paper News Twenties Decades Disappointed Papers Dropping Finishing Bad News Expectancy Life Expectancy Convocation

Author:Adrian Tan

“Republicans ... are conservatives who think it would be best if we faced the fact that people are no damned good. They think that if we admit that we have selfish, acquisitive natures and then set out to get all we can for ourselves by working hard for it, that things will be better for everyone. They are not insensitive to the poor, but tend to think the poor are impoverished because they won't work. They think there would be fewer of them to feel sorry for if the government did not encourage the proliferation of the least fit among us with welfare programs.”

People Ifs Thinking Feels Hard Facts Government Would Be Poor Fit Republican Program Sorry Selfish Welfare Fewer Proliferation Insensitive Welfare Programs

Author:Andy Rooney

“We'd be making sail in the dawn, with a fair breeze, singing a chanty song wid no care to it. And astern the land would be sinking low and dying out, but we'd give it no heed but a laugh, and never look behind. For the day that was, was enough, for we was free men - and I'm thinking 'tis only slaves do be giving heed to the day that's gone or the day to come - until they're old like me.”

Thinking Men Giving Looks Enough Would Be Care Song Behinds Laughing Gone Land Dying Singing Lows Fairs Slave Like Me Dawn Sail Breeze Heed Free Man Sinking Days To Come

Book:The Hairy Ape

Source: The Hairy Ape

“I have really got it into my head to try to be United States Senator, and, if I could have your support, my chances would be reasonably good. But I know, and acknowledge, that you have as just claims to the place as I have; and therefore I cannot ask you to yield to me, if you are thinking of becoming a candidate, yourself. If, however, you are not, then I should like to be remembered affectionately by you; and also to have you make a mark for me with the Anti-Nebraska members down your way.”

Source: LINCOLN – Complete 7 Volume Edition: Biographies, Speeches and Debates, Civil War Telegrams, Letters, Presidential Orders & Proclamations: Including the Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt & 3 Biographies: The Every-day Life of the President, Lincoln by Carl Shurz and Abraham Lincoln by Joseph H. Choate

“If evolution was worth its salt, it should've evolved something better than 'survival of the fittest.' I think a better idea would be 'survival of the wittiest.' At least, that way, creatures that didn't survive could've died laughing.”

Ifs Thinking Way Should Ideas Would Be Laughing Evolution Creatures Survival Died Salt Worth It Something Better Survival Of The Fittest Wittiest

Author:Lily Tomlin

“I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats of any kind, whether of jail or retribution, then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer, not the prophet who sacrificed himself.... What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.”

Ifs Thinking Men Kind Would Be Humanity Sleep Century Highest Threat Raised Beast Prophet Jail Lions Irresistible Retribution Emblems Unarmed

Author:Boris Pasternak

“In love as in speculation there is much filth; in love also, people think only of their own gratification; yet without love there would be no life, and the world would come to an end.”

People Thinking World Love Ends Would Be Speculation Gratification Without Love Filth

Author:Emile Zola

“I like my life to be pure and clean and organised, and I like to have had eight hours' sleep a night. I honestly don't think I'd be as successful if I was a party animal. Because I don't think my personality would be as focused and open as it is.”

Ifs Thinking Would Be Night Hours Sleep Animal Party Successful Personality Pure Clean Eight Focused Honestly Organised Party Animal

Author:Jessie J

“I've never run across anybody who suggested that women need to be reprogrammed. I don't think I've even come across anybody who wanted to teach a girl how to throw right. They just accept it is what it is. But honestly, folks, it's always reprogramming men. It's always men who seem to provide or be at the root of all of these cultural problems. And if we could just make men less like men and more like, I guess, women, then we would be rid of all of these problems.”

Ifs Thinking Men Needs Problem Seems Would Be Running Wanted Girl Accepting Teach Roots Folks Honestly It Is What It Is

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“My dad was a bedwetter; I think his dad was a bedwetter. I like to talk about it because it's something that I thought would be my deepest, darkest secret my whole life, and then you become an adult, and it's not.”

Thinking Whole Would Be Secret Dad Adults My Dad Whole Life Darkest Secrets

Author:Sarah Silverman

“I don't want to go into space because of war. I think we would if it was triggered. If China said they want to put military bases on Mars, we'd be at Mars in two years. That would be quick. I don't want that to be the reason.”

Ifs Thinking Want Years Said Two War Reason Would Be Space Military Bases China Two Years Mars Military Bases

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Money is like a canvas or a shape shifter. It's like whatever you project on that canvas, that's what money is for you. Really, in its essence it's power. Most people relate to money the way they relate to power. They either think other people have it, and they don't and they're mad about it, or they feel fearful of it like having it would be a burden or a responsibility.”

People Thinking Way Feels Would Be Responsibility Shapes Projects Essence Mad Burden Relate Fearful Canvas

Author:Tony Robbins

“It would be great if we were on multiple planets, but I think that's unrealistic. Hawking says we have to be on multiple planets so an asteroid could come and you'd still have some humans left. It's a nice idea. It satisfies the multiple-eggs-in-multiple-baskets concept.”

Ifs Thinking Humans Stills Ideas Would Be Left Nice Planets Concepts Eggs Multiple Baskets Asteroids

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Nothing in the world, no object or event, would be true or false if there were not thinking creatures.”

Ifs Thinking World Would Be Events Objects Creatures Being True True Or False

Book:Truth and Predication

Source: Truth and Predication

“I think my dad would make an incredible president, and it would be great if he'd run again. But personally, for our family, part of me is glad that he didn't. We lost our mother recently, and we need to focus on ourselves.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Would Be Running Mother Lost President Focus Dad Incredibles My Dad Glad Our Family

Author:Alexandra Kerry

“If you trace the history of mankind, our evolution has been mediated by technology, and without technology it's not really obvious where we would be. So I think we have always been cyborgs in this sense.”

Ifs Thinking Has Beens Would Be Technology Mankind Evolution Obvious Cyborg

Author:Evgeny Morozov

“I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for his thunderbolts.”

Ifs Thinking Believe Would Be Care Earth Evil I Believe Weak God Exists Figs Spiteful Thunderbolts

Book:The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales

Source: The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales

“There are some great writers who are great talkers, but there are more great writers who are not great talkers. People seem to think there is some connection between talking and writing, but I love to talk and if there were some connection between the two of them I would be the most prolific writer in the history of the world.”

People Ifs Thinking World Writing Two Seems Would Be Talking Connections World History Great Writers Talkers

Author:Fran Lebowitz

“I think going into 'New Moon,' I knew the characters better. I knew the world better and I knew the actors who would be playing these roles. I had a sense of their rhythms and tones. 'Twilight' I was writing in a vacuum. We hadn't cast it yet.”

Thinking World Writing Character Would Be Actors Roles Moon Casts Rhythm Tone Twilight Vacuums New Moon

Author:Melissa Rosenberg

“Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.”

Ifs Thinking Littles Helping Would Be Divine And Love

Book:Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion

“My life and work have been far from free of blemish, and so I think it would be unpardonable for a biographer not to dish up the dirt.”

Thinking Has Beens Would Be Dishes Dirt Biographers

Author:William Styron

“If I had to pick a hero, it would be Charles Darwin--the size of his mind, which included all that scientific curiosity and knowledge seeking, and the ability to put it all together. There is a genuine spirituality about Darwin's thinking.”

Ifs Thinking Mind Would Be Together Spirituality Ability Hero Picks Curiosity Size Seeking Genuine

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“When I ran for the U.S. Senate the assumption was that anyone's name that was close to "Osama" doesn't stand a chance. So if somebody thought that tacking on "Hussein" in there would be a killer, then I think they underestimate the American people and the seriousness of the problems we face.”

People Ifs Thinking Problem Would Be Faces Names Chance Ran Assumption Senate Killers Underestimate Hussein Seriousness

Author:Barack Obama

“I think it's a good idea to tie Peter Mandelson to a van. Such an act would be cruel and barbaric and inhuman. But it would at least cheer everyone up a bit.”

Thinking Ideas Would Be Bits Ties Cheer Good Ideas Peter Vans Inhuman Barbaric

Author:Jeremy Clarkson

“It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work.”

Thinking World Would Be Past Impossible Acceptance Demand Blind Mythology Resolve Sheer Testament New Testament Blind Acceptance

Author:Rudolf Bultmann

“Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future.”

“There are advantages to being the chairman. One of my favorite perks was picking out an issue and doing what I called a "deep dive." It's spotting a challenge where you think you can make a difference - one that looks like it would be fun - and then throwing the weight of your position behind it. Some might justifiably call it "meddling." I've often done this just about everywhere in the company.”

“Especially in entertainment geared toward young people, the women are much stronger than they used to be. There's not really the damsel in distress anymore. I think the stereotype still possibly lives in different genre pictures but, in entertainment for the younger generation, they're used to women being equal and being strong. I think if you don't portray that, it would be kind of weird.”

“I love simple food. I like to serve the entire animal, not only because it somehow provokes a customer to think about it, but also because to honor of the animal that has been killed for us to eat, you have to eat the whole thing. It would be silly to just eat the chops and throw everything else away.”

Thinking Has Beens Whole Would Be Simple Animal Food Honor Customers Silly Provoking Being Silly Simple Food

Author:Mario Batali

“Complaints about the social irresponsibility of the intellectual typically concern the intellectual's tendency to marginalize herself, to move out from one community by interior identification of herself with some other community - for example, another country or historical period... It is not clear that those who thus marginalize themselves can be criticized for social irresponsibility. One cannot be irresponsible toward a community of which one does not think of oneself as a member. Otherwise runaway slaves and tunnelers under the Berlin Wall would be irresponsible.”

“I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case.”

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

“He who thinks he can have flesh and bones without being subject to any external influence, or any accidents of matter, unconsciously wishes to reconcile two opposites, viz., to be at the same time subject and not subject to change. If man were never subject to change there could be no generation; there would be one single being, but no individuals forming a species.”

Ifs Thinking Men Two Matter Would Be Individual Wish Generations Influence Subjects Opposites Species Bones Accidents Flesh Reconcile Two Opposites External Influences

Book:The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: The Guide for the Perplexed

“I think it's unfortunate that there exists only one path in America to complete social legitimacy, and that is marriage. I think, for instance, that it would be far easier for Americans to elect a black president or a female president than an unmarried president.”

Thinking Would Be America Social Black President Path Easier Female Instance Unfortunate Legitimacy Unmarried Female President

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“However many people complain about the "red tape," it would be sheer illusion to think ... continuous administrative work can be carried out in any field except by means of officials working in offices.... The choice is only that between bureaucracy and dillettantism.”

People Thinking Mean Would Be Choices Fields Office Illusion Red Complaining Officials Tape Sheer Bureaucracy Administrative Red Tape

Author:Max Weber

“It would be a sign of great simplicity to think that the world was created in six days, or indeed at all in time; [...] Time is a thing posterior to the world. Therefore it would be correctly said that the world was not created in time, but that time had its existence in consequence of the world. For it is the motion of the heaven that has displayed the nature of time.”

Thinking World Said Would Be Heaven Existence Six Consequence Simplicity

Author:Philo

“I think Churchill would be appalled at the Thatcher government.”

Thinking Government Would Be

Author:Edward Heath

“Everything is in place - after 500 years - to build a true 'new world' in the Western Hemisphere... And what happens if we don't pass NAFTA? I truly don't think that 'criminal' would be too strong a word for rejecting NAFTA.”

Ifs Thinking World Years Happens Would Be Strong Trade Western Criminals New World Rejecting Hemisphere Nafta

Author:David Rockefeller

“I don't recall that I have said and I don't think that I really feel that we need a world government. We need governments of the world that work together and collaborate. But, I can't imagine that there would be any likelihood or even that it would be desirable to have a single government elected by the people of the world.”

People Thinking World Needs Feels Said I Can Government Would Be Together Imagine Working Together Imagine That Recalls Desirable Likelihood World Government

Author:David Rockefeller

“I must suppose that reading wonderful writers may, inadvertently, teach an avid reader a great deal -- not only about life and other matters, but about how to write. Therefore doubtless I have benefited from frequent immersions in the glowing genius of others. It would be nice to think so. (I do actually think so). But to improve my skills will never be the prompting force of my reading -- that's just literary lust.”

Thinking Writing May Matter Would Be Reading Force Deals Teach Nice Wonderful Reader Genius Skills Lust Being Nice Glowing Avid Immersion

Author:Tanith Lee

“First of all, I wish everyone who loved football could stand in the quarterback's shoes just for a play, because I think it would be tremendously humbling to anyone who loved the game to say, "I didn't -- I had no idea." You can think about what it would be like, and the cameras are getting better at giving that perspective, that one that the skycam comes down and you get a sense of it, but you just -- you don't know.”

Thinking Knows Giving Firsts Ideas Play Would Be Games Wish Football Perspective Down And Cameras Shoes No Idea Get Better Quarterback Humbling

Author:Steve Young

“Thought without language, says Lavelle, would not be a purer thought; it would be no more than the intention to think. And his last book offers a theory of expressiveness which makes of expression not "a faithful image of an already realized interior being, but the very means by which it is realized.”

Thinking Mean Book Would Be Lasts Language Expression Theory Offers Intention Faithful Interiors Very Mean

Book:In Praise of Philosophy

Source: In Praise of Philosophy

“Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name political economy of the single convenient term economics. I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.”

Thinking Wells May Helping Would Be Political Names Term Economy Economics Minors Convenient Troublesome Alterations Substitution Political Economy

Book:The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy

“Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind set if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us.”

Ifs Thinking Way Mind War States Facts Would Be Choices Fall United Mistake United States Danger Terrible Criminals Terrorist Standpoint Fall Back Mind Set Terrorist Attacks Wrong Choices

Author:Dick Cheney

“As during the time of kings it would have been naive to think that the king's firstborn son would be the fittest to rule, so in our time it is naive to think that the democratically elected ruler will be the fittest. The rule of succession is not a formula for identifying the best ruler, it is a formula for conferring legitimacy on someone or other and thus forestalling civil conflict.”

Thinking Has Beens Would Be Son Kings Conflict Our Time Formulas Rulers Naive Succession Identifying Legitimacy

Author:J. M. Coetzee

“I love this life, because I am a human being and it sure would be nice, I think, to preserve it. But I don't even know if that's true, because God's mind is huge, and I don't really know what he's thinking.I can only do what I do with a spirit of humor, and faith and give the controls over to something else.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Giving Mind Humans I Can Would Be Spirit Human Beings Nice Huge This Life Preserves Being Nice

Author:Elizabeth Lesser

“We are living in a society that is totally dependent on science and high technology, and yet most of us are effectively alienated and excluded from its workings, from the values of science, the methods of science, and the language of science. A good place to start would be for as many of us as possible to begin to understand the decision-making and the basis for those decisions, and to act independently and not be manipulated into thinking one thing or another, but to learn how to think. That's what science does.”

Thinking Doe Would Be Values Language Decision Technology One Thing Bases Method Dependent Decision Making Excluded Good Place High Technology

Author:Ann Druyan

“I have more compassion than if I had led a life where everything worked out exactly as I had planned or if I had never been wounded or if I had never been betrayed or I had never been harmed. I don't think I would be as good a person.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Would Be Compassion Wounded Betrayed

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“I think that one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the camp fire, but are lousy in politics.”

Thinking Problem Would Be Political Politics Party Boys Republican Faithful Loyal Nasty Republican Party Neat Obedient Campfire Boy Scout Loyal And Faithful

Author:Newt Gingrich