Common Sense Quotes - Page 4

• Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Motivational, Business, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.148, Harvard University Press

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• The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.

  Thomas Paine

  America, Causes, Mankind

  Common Sense introduction (1776)

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• Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, Vices, Wickedness

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense: and The American Crisis I”, p.15, Penguin

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• He was one of those men who possess almost every gift, except the gift of the power to use them.

  Charles Kingsley

  Sarcastic, Power, Men

  Charles Kingsley (1855). “Westward ho!: The voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth”, p.20

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• Freedom is poetry, taking liberties with words, breaking the rules of normal speech, violating common sense. Freedom is violence.

  Norman O. Brown

  Freedom, Liberty, Violence

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• Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Men, Law

  Thomas Jefferson “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, Lulu.com

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• A lot of people like to fool you and say that you're not smart if you
  never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That's
  what I learned from selling crack.

  Snoop Dogg

  Smart, College, People

  "What I've Learned: Snoop Dogg" by Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. July 14, 2008.

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• A person of any mental quality has ideas of his own. This is common sense.

  Franz Liszt

  Ideas, Quality, Mental Illness

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• Writing, Im convinced, should be a subversive activity - frowned on by the authorities - and not one cooed over and praised beyond common sense by some teacher.

  Dan Simmons

  Teacher, Writing, Authority

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• Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...

  David Deutsch

  Common, Theory

  David Deutsch (2011). “The Fabric of Reality”, p.6, Penguin UK

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• Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.

  John Masefield

  Poetry, Mixtures, Uncommon

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• Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.

  Margaret Deland

  Dangerous, Conscience, Common

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• No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean finger nails.

  John Mortimer

  Law, Nails, Cleaning

  A Voyage Round My Father act 1 (1971)

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• Innocence can be redefined and called stupidity. Honesty can be called gullibility. Candor becomes lack of common sense. Interest in your work can be called cowardice. Generosity can be called soft-headedness, and observe : the former is disturbing

  Abraham Maslow

  Honesty, Generosity, Stupidity

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• Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Perception, Atheism

  1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'Conclusion'.

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• I have confidence in people's basic common sense.

  Dixie Lee Ray

  Confidence, People, Common

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• Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense.

  Alexander Pope

  Half, Fine, Good Sense

  Alexander Pope, William Roscoe (1847). “The works of Alexander Pope, esq., with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author, an Estimate of his poetical character and writings, and occasional remarks by William Roscoe, esq”, p.377

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• The left has come to regard common sense - the traditional wisdom and folkways of the community - as an obstacle to progress and enlightenment.

  Christopher Lasch

  Community, Progress, Enlightenment

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• People are crying out for a Conservative Party that is decent, reasonable, common sense and in it for the long term of this country.

  David Cameron

  Country, Party, Long

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• Low-wage workers are also consumers. It's just common sense: when these workers have more take-home pay it leads to spending that trickles up to benefit many small, locally owned businesses.

  Mark Price

  Home, Benefits, Pay

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• Common sense is an instinct given to man and enough of it is genius. Smartness is measured by the level of common sense one has, not by how much educated or knowledgeable he is.

  Josh Billings

  Men, Genius, Levels

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• Common-sense is part of the home-made ideology of those who have been deprived of fundamental learning, of those who have been kept ignorant.

  John Berger

  Home, Ignorant, Fundamentals

  John Berger (2015). “A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor”, p.66, Canongate Books

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• Common sense is calculation applied to life.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Common, Calculations

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• Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

  Rene Descartes

  Thinking, Needs, Common

  "Discourse on the Method". Treatise by René Descartes, Pt. 1, 1637.

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• Common sense tells us that we should focus our resources to benefit children, teachers and taxpayers by keeping dollars in the classroom.

  Bob Beauprez

  Teacher, Children, Focus

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