Observance Quotes - Page 2

• Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code - a code which would guarantee the success of a community or state. The difficulty is that these techniques are in the hands of the wrong people-or, rather, there aren't any right people.

  B. F. Skinner

  Hands, People, Community

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.153, Hackett Publishing

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• Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Latin, Believe, Superstitions

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• Certain small ways and observances sometimes have connection with large and more profound ideas.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Ideas, Profound, Connections

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• All affected can accept the consequences and the side effects that [the norm's] general observance can be anticipated to have for the satisfaction of everyone's interests, and the consequences are preferred to those of known alternative possibilities for regulation.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Sides, Alternatives, Regulation

  "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere". Book by Jürgen Habermas, 1962.

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• If hell has no answer for the questioning dead, it is not because it refuses to answer (for rigorous, alas, in observance, is the imperishable fire), but it is because hell has nothing to say, will say nothing eternally.

  Georges Bernanos

  Fire, Answers, Hell

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. But if we had no divine instruction on the subject, our own interest would demand of us a strict observance of the principle of these injunctions. . . .

  Noah Webster

  Hate, Men, Views

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• It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it.

  Golda Meir

  Religious, Pain, Believe

  "My Life". Book by Golda Meir, 1975.

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• I accumulated in those years so fine a surplus in the Book of Observance that I have been drawing confidently upon it ever since.

  Winston Churchill

  Book, Years, Drawing

  Sir Winston Churchill (1951). “A Roving Commission”

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• It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Character, Law, Nations

  Speech on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926.

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• It goes with the passionate intensity and deep conviction of the truth of a religious belief, and of course of the importance of the superstitious observances that go with it, that we should want others to share it - and the only certain way to cause a religious belief to be held by everyone is to liquidate nonbelievers. The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought to a few has been too great to justify our entrusting moral accountancy to religious belief.

  Peter Medawar

  Spiritual, Religious, Blood

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.210, Oxford University Press, USA

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• When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.

  Idries Shah

  Prayer, Mean, Emotional

  Idries Shah (1991). “Seeker After Truth”, p.22, Octagon Press Ltd

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• I always have had, and always shall have, a profound regard for Christianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rights, its usages and observances.

  Henry Clay

  Father, Rights, Profound

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• The observance of one commandment, however clearly and forcibly enjoined, cannot make up for the neglect of another which is enjoined with equal clearness and equal force.

  William Wilberforce

  Neglect, Force, Equal

  William Wilberforce (2005). “A Practical View of Preferred Christians”, p.84, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The observance of Thanksgiving Day-as a function-has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm.

  Mark Twain

  Hard Times, Years, Two

  Mark Twain (2015). “Following the Equator: "A Journey Around the World"”, p.170, eKitap Projesi

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• No country can allow its safety to be wholly dependent on faithful observance by other states of rules to which they are obliged.

  Arthur Balfour

  Country, Safety, Faithful

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• All would wish to be saved and to enjoy the glory of paradise; but to gain heaven, it is necessary to walk in the straight road that leads to eternal bliss. This road is the observance of the divine commandments. Hence, in his preaching, the Baptist exclaimed: Make straight the way of the Lord.

  Alphonsus Liguori

  Heaven, Wish, Baptists

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• Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it.

  Carl Jung

  Lying, Law, Subtle

  Carl Gustav Jung (1953). “Collected Works of C.G. Jung: The development of personality”

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• Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Morality, Duty, Term

  Mahatma Gandhi (2010). “Hind Swaraj”, p.49, Rajpal & Sons

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• Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Fighting, Prisoner, Strict

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in theinfringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Rain, Men, Wind

  Henry David Thoreau (2017). “The Most Alive is the Wildest – Thoreau’s Complete Works on Living in Harmony with the Nature: Walden, Walking, Night and Moonlight, The Highland Light, A Winter Walk, The Maine Woods, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples…”, p.299, e-artnow

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• Some 'separation' zealots would expunge any vestige of religious observance in public schools. Many of the same anti-religious fanatics would like to wipe out of existence all church-related schools, by regulation or taxation, so that universal ignorance of the life of spirit should prevail.

  Russell Kirk

  Christian, Religious, School

  Russell Kirk (1986). “The Assault on religion: commentaries on the decline of religious liberty”, Univ Pr of Amer

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• It is my thought that clean living and a strict observance of the golden rule of true sportsmanship are foundation stones without which a championship structure cannot be built.

  Major Taylor

  Sportsmanship, Foundation, Stones

  Major Taylor (1928). “The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World: The Story of a Colored Boy's Indomitable Courage and Success Against Great Odds; an Autobiography”

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• There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides. Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation
  as immigration law.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Race, Law, People

  "Whose Country Is This?", Good Housekeeping Magazine, February, 1921.

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• Not every action or emotion however admits of the observance of a due mean. Indeed the very names of some directly imply evil, for instance malice, shamelessness, envy, and, of actions, adultery, theft, murder. All these and similar actions and feelings are blamed as being bad in themselves; it is not the excess or deficiency of them that we blame. It is impossible therefore ever to go right in regard to them - one must always be wrong.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Names, Evil

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• Error is multiform (for evil is a form of the unlimited, as in the old Pythagorean imagery, and good of the limited), whereas success is possible in one way only (which is why it is easy to fail and difficult to succeed - easy to miss the target and difficult to hit it); so this is another reason why excess and deficiency are a mark of vice, and observance of the mean a mark of virtue: Goodness is simple, badness is manifold.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Simple, Errors

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.41, Wordsworth Editions

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