Distortion Quotes - Page 2

• Laughter, n. An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Laughter, Noise, Inarticulate

  Ambrose Bierce (1958). “The Devil's Dictionary: A Selection of the Bitter Definitions of Ambrose Bierce”, p.100, Prabhat Prakashan

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• It is not enough for theory to describe and analyze, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must partake of and become the acceleration of this logic. It must tear itself from all referents and take pride only in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Pride, Reality, Order

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• Even when the east excited me most, even when I was keenly aware of its superiority to the broad, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which only spared children and the very old-even then it had always for me a quality of distortion.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Children, Ohio, Quality

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• Healing depends on listening with the inner ear - stopping the incessant blather, and listening. Fear keeps us chattering - fear that wells up from the past, fear of blurting out what we really fear, fear of future repercussions. It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present.

  Marion Woodman

  Fear, Future, Healing

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• To the extent that we hyper-separate ourselves from nature and reduce it conceptually in order to justify domination, we not only lose the ability to empathise and to see the non-human sphere in ethical terms, but also get a false sense of our own character and location that includes an illusory sense of autonomy. The failure to see the non-human domain in the richer terms appropriate to ethics licences supposedly ‘purely instrumental’ relationships that distort our perceptions and enframings, impoverish our relations and make us insensitive to dependencies and interconnections

  Val Plumwood

  Relationship, Sympathy, Nature

  Val Plumwood (2005). “Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason”, p.9, Routledge

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• Now, because men of our contemporary age are caught up in the ascetic view of a life-denying religious system, but in spite of this cannot deny the primal laws of nature, a distorted morality had to be developed, which spreads hypocritical appearances over hidden actions. This has brought to a head all those outward forms of modern life, whose vacuousness and corruption are now beginning to disgust us.

  Guido von List

  Life, Religious, Nature

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• When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.

  Walter Lippmann

  Truth, Honesty, Simple

  Walter Lippmann (1955). “Essays in the Public Philosophy”, p.25, Transaction Publishers

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• It's not only imagination, it's the distortion of the vision. You suddenly think, "This person is idealistic, this person is strong, this person has dreams", when you know better most of the time. You put what you want to see on people.

  Olivier Martinez

  Dream, Strong, Thinking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Make-believe colors the past with innocent distortion, and it swirls ahead of us in a thousand ways - in science, in politics, in every bold intention.

  Shirley Temple

  Inspirational, Believe, Past

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• It's good to have certain restrictions sometimes, but it's definitely more fun to play really loud, with distortion.

  J Mascis

  Fun, Play, Sometimes

  "J Mascis on the guitarists you really must hear". Interview with Sam Richards, www.theguardian.com. March 11, 2011.

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• The truth is not distorted here, but rather a distortion is used to get at truth.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Truth Is, Used

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• The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand.

  Walter Isaacson

  Reality, Hands, Style

  Walter Isaacson (2011). “Steve Jobs”, p.118, Simon and Schuster

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• I think the greatest tragedy of mankind is that people have ideas and opinions in their heads but don't have a process for properly examining these ideas to find out what's true. That creates a world of distortions.

  Ray Dalio

  Thinking, Ideas, People

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• We too, must shatter the mirrors. We must look in to ourselves and root out the distortions until that thing which we know in our hearts is perfect and true, stands before us.

  Garth Stein

  Heart, Mirrors, Roots

  Garth Stein (2008). “The Art of Racing in the Rain”, Harper

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• I first came to think about media and politics in the late 1960s, having observed some distortions up close, but since then I wouldn't say that my personal experience has remained an important motive for my writing about media.

  Todd Gitlin

  Writing, Thinking, Media

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• All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Dance, Children, Attitude

  Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmond Malone, Thomas Gray (1798). “The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knight ... Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting”, p.88

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• The un-conscious distortion of the facts is almost harmless compared to the unconscious neglect of an animal's mental life until it verges on the unusual and marvelous.

  Edward Thorndike

  Animal, Facts, Mental Health

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• To probe for unconscious determinants of behavior and then define a man in their terms exclusively, ignoring his overt behavior altogether, is a greater distortion than ignoring the unconscious completely.

  Willard Gaylin

  Men, Behavior, Term

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• We don't have the capacity to exaggerate God's goodness. We can distort it, or even misrepresent it, but we can never exaggerate it.

  Bill Johnson

  Goodness, Capacity

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• Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty.

  Anthony of Sourozh

  Spiritual, Inner Beauty, True Beauty

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• If deliberate distortion of reality by corporate media could be effectively prosecuted in the United States, the entire industry would be behind bars.

  Cynthia McKinney

  Reality, Media, United States

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• Distortions control my self-image, like they do for a lot of us. It's irrational.

  Ron Perlman

  Self, Irrational

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• The constant refrain that bringing our troops home would demonstrate a lack of support for them must be one of the most amazing distortions ever foisted on the American public.

  Ron Paul

  Home, Support, Troops

  "The War Funding Bill". www.counterpunch.org. March 23, 2007.

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• Becoming fully rational is not enough anymore; evidently it can lead to distortions of all the great human possibilities.

  Thomas Keating

  Becoming, Enough, Possibility

  Source: theindiespiritualist.com

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• Rationalization is a cover-up, a process of providing one's emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications - in order to hide one's motives, not just from others, but primarily from oneself. The price of rationalizing is the hampering, the distortion, and, ultimately, the destruction of one's cognitive faculty. Rationalization is a process not of perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions.

  Ayn Rand

  Reality, Order, Giving

  Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.25, Penguin

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