Passive Quotes - Page 5

• There are a few societies that show signs of having been very rational about the physics of construction and the physics of real life. Some of the old middle-Eastern societies had downdraft systems over whole cities, and passive, rapid-evaporation ice-making systems. They were rational people using good physical principles to make themselves comfortable without additional sources of energy.

  Bill Mollison

  Real, Ice, Cities

  "Permaculture: Design For Living". Interview with Alan AtKisson, www.context.org. 1991.

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• We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free. (pg. 323, The Pleasures of Eating)

  Wendell Berry

  Voice, Mind, Remember

  Wendell Berry (2010). “Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food (Large Print 16pt)”, p.12, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I spent my time drinking and staring at a television in the airport bar. More death and destruction. Crime. Pollution. All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn´t need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.

  John Twelve Hawks

  Drinking, Airports, News Stories

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• Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.

  William Safire

  Passive Voice, Negative, Splits

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• Gods, I wish the world was full of passive women.He thougt for a moment longer, then scowled. On second thoughts, what a nightmare that'd be. It's the job of a man to fan the spark into flames, not quench it.

  Steven Erikson

  Jobs, Men, Flames

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• I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained for me to die.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Eagles, Hands, Broken

  Alexandre Dumas (2015). “Count of Monte Cristo: {Complete & Illustrated}”, p.1563, eKitap Projesi (PublishDrive)

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• Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  People, Mind, Credit

  "Seven Words to the Cross: A Lenten Study for Adults". Book by J. Ellsworth Kalas (p. 93), 1979.

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• Thinking gets you nowhere. It may be a fine and noble aid in academic studies, but you can't think your way out of emotional difficulties. That takes something altogether different. You have to make yourself passive then, and just listen. Re-establish contact with a slice of eternity.

  Etty Hillesum

  Emotional, Thinking, Different

  Etty Hillesum (1985). “An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”

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• She was a dark, unenduring little flower - yet he thought he detected in her some quality of spiritual reticence, of strength drawn from her passive acceptance of all things. In this he was mistaken.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Spiritual, Flower, Acceptance

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.751, e-artnow

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• Many dog owners believe that as much as 60 percent of their pet's brain is set aside solely to demonstrate applications of the verb "to eat"-in both the active and passive forms.

  Stanley Coren

  Dog, Believe, Pet

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• Relief is a short-lived emotion, passive and thin. The agony of doubt disappears, leaving little memory of how it really felt. Life aligns behind the new truth.

  Ann Brashares

  Memories, Agony, Leaving

  FaceBook post by Ann Brashares from Mar 29, 2013

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• When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then that all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation ends in nothing better than a passive resignation... when I consider all this... I am silent.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Limits, Satisfaction, Inquiring

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (Literary Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel”, p.7, e-artnow

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• Reading is very creative - it's not just a passive thing. I write a story; it goes out into the world; somebody reads it and, by reading it, completes it.

  Margaret Mahy

  Reading, Writing, Creative

  Interview with Elissa Gershowitz, www.hbook.com. November 1, 2009.

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• Let no one think of me that I am humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends. To such a life glory belongs.

  Euripides

  Humble, Thinking, Enemy

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• You do not hate the time you waste; it evokes a much more passive emotion than that. You only wish you had it back, like a quarter in an unlucky slot machine.

  Rick Bragg

  Hate, Wish, Machines

  FaceBook post by Rick Bragg from Aug 10, 2010

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• Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Mean, Opportunity, Thinking

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• Faites de beaux rêves, monsieur," she called as she put out the light. Switters had always loved that expression, "Make fine dreams." In contrast to the English, "Have sweet dreams," the French implied that the sleeper was not a passive spectator, a captive audience, but had some control over and must accept some responsiblity for his or her dreaming. Moreover, a "fine" dream had much wider connotations than a "sweet" one.

  Tom Robbins

  Dream, Sweet, Light

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• I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Men, Thinking, Hair

  Goodbye to Berlin "Berlin Diary" (1939)

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• People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Appreciation, People, Giving

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• Man ... put himself in a tight corner when he decided that woman was innately passive.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Men, Corners, Decided

  Nawal El Saadawi (2015). “The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World”, p.195, Zed Books Ltd.

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• I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.

  Tim Ferriss

  Real, People, Fields

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• Feedback for leaders is often nuanced and difficult to deliver. That said, hearing you are passive-aggressive from 10 different people described 10 different ways becomes hard to ignore.

  Scott Weiss

  People, Leader, Way

  "Treating the Dysfunctional CEO". scott.a16z.com. December 6, 2011.

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• You know, you have to start with hope...you don't get anywhere in this country without hope. So it's a necessity. What Barack says is that people have to understand hope isn't just blind optimism. It isn't passive. It isn't just sitting there waiting for things to get better. Hope is the vision that you have to have. It's the inspiration that moves people into action...There are more people engaged in this political process in this year than we've seen in my lifetime. And it is all because of hope because people believe in the possibility of something unseen.

  Michelle Obama

  Country, Believe, Moving

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• For the perception of the beautiful we have the term "taste"--a metaphor taken from that which is passive in the body and transferred to that which is active in the mind.

  Thomas Reid

  Beautiful, Taken, Perception

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• you can't equate passive dependent power with assertive power because the dependent kind isn't fun, it doesn't give you a kick, it just allows you to survive.

  Marilyn French

  Fun, Giving, Kind

  Marilyn French (2013). “The Bleeding Heart: A Novel”, p.379, Open Road Media

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