Witness Quotes - Page 8

• And one eye-witness weighs
  More than ten hear-fays. Seeing is believing,
  All the world o'er.

  Plautus

  Believe, Eye, World

  "Comedies of Plautus".

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• Art is that which comes to a man, and stands between himself and an implacable witness - the work.

  Eduardo Chillida

  Art, Men, Art Is

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• Throw yourself into the convulsions of the world. I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't believe progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it, to look at it, to witness it. Try and get it. Seize the moment.

  Joan Didion

  Life, Believe, Progress

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• It is not true that democracy will always safeguard freedom of conscience better than autocracy. Witness the most famous of all trials. Pilate was, from the standpoint of the Jews, certainly the representative of autocracy. Yet he tried to protect freedom. And he yielded to a democracy.

  Joseph A. Schumpeter

  Freedom, Democracy, Trials

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• Lawyers hold that there are two kinds of particularly bad witnesses--a reluctant witness, and a too-willing witness.

  Charles Dickens

  Two, Lawyer, Kind

  Charles Dickens (1842). “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club: In 2 Vol”, p.82

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• At my age, and in my circumstances, what sinister object, or personal emolument had I to seek after, in this life? The growing infirmities of age and the increasing love of retirement, daily confirm my decided predilection for domestic life: and the great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm.

  George Washington

  Retirement, Heart, Humble

  George Washington (1835). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.412

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• We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation-just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer-we are challenged to change ourselves.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Cancer, Fate, Thinking

  Viktor E. Frankl (2017). “Man's Search for Meaning: A Young Adult Edition”, p.111, Beacon Press

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• God is a witness that cannot be sworn.

  Samuel Beckett

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.101, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I can hear the sizzle of newborn stars, and know anything of meaning, of the fierce magic emerging here. I am witness to flexible eternity, the evolving past, and I know we will live forever, as dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting pattern of winds.

  Joy Harjo

  Stars, Past, Dust

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• It is said that peace is the basic tenet of all religion. Yet it is in the name of religion that there has been so much disturbance, bloodshed and persecution. It is indeed a pity that even at the close of the twentieth century we've had to witness such atrocities because of religion. Flying the flag of religion has always proved the easiest way to crush to nothingness human beings as well as the spirit of humanity.

  Taslima Nasrin

  Crush, Names, Flying

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• A tragedy's first act is crowded with supporting players: witnesses crimping their faces, policemen scribbling in pads and making radio calls, EMS guys unfolding equipment, tubes and wheels.

  Darin Strauss

  Player, Guy, Tragedy

  Darin Strauss (2011). “Half a Life: A Memoir”, p.9, Random House

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• Anybody who witnesses the suffering of animals and has a glimmer of hope of reducing that suffering can't take the position that it's all or nothing. We have to be pragmatic. Screw the principle.

  Ingrid Newkirk

  Animal, Suffering, Principles

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• Those of us who witness the degraded state of the environment and the suffering that comes with it cannot afford to be complacent. We continue to be restless. If we really carry the burden, we are driven to action. We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!

  Wangari Maathai

  Giving Up, Suffering, Generations

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• Ireland, as distinct from her people, is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for "Ireland," and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, shame and degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland-yea, wrought by Irishmen upon Irish men and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call Ireland.

  James Connolly

  Liars, Heart, Men

  James Connolly (1987). “Labour in Irish history ; The re-conquest of Ireland ; Socialism and nationalism”

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• If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the imprisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint a landscape, and convey into souls and ochres all the enchantments of Spring or Autumn; or can liberate and intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses; it is certain that the secret cannot be kept; the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his doors.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Song, Spring, Autumn

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• Literally, no man ever sees himself as others see him. No photograph or reflection ever gives us the same slant on ourselves that others see. It has often been proved on the witness stand that no two people ever see the same accident precisely the same way. We see through different eyes and from different angles. But if we could see things as other people see them, we could come closer to knowing why they do what they do and why they say what they say.

  Richard L. Evans

  Photography, Eye, Men

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• I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes. It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness.

  Rajneesh

  Past, Simple, Judging

  Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Osho (1986). “The Last Testament: Interviews with the World Press”, Rajneesh Foundation International

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• Temptation can be defined as an inducement to do evil. Three powerful forces work together to ruin a believer's character and witness: Satan, the world system, and our own lustful "flesh" tendencies.

  Charles Stanley

  Christian, Powerful, Character

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• Witness and stand back from Nature, that is the first step to the soul's freedom.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Freedom, Soul, Firsts

  Sri Aurobindo (2016). “The Life Divine: Art of living”, p.257, editionNEXT.com

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• Whenever man commits a crime heaven finds a witness.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, Heaven, Crime

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• Be a witness of sex too. Don't be the controller of it. Don't try to forcibly bring it under control, remain a witness of it too. Just as you are a witness of everything else, remain a witness of sex too.

  Rajneesh

  Sex, Trying, Controllers

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• While other faiths are also often oppressive, sharia law is especially oppressive. Its interpretations stipulate the execution of Muslims who commit adultery, renounce their faith (apostates) or have same-sex relationships. Sharia methods of execution, such as stoning, are particularly brutal and cruel - witness the stoning to death this week in Somalia of a 20-year-old woman divorcee who was accused of adultery. This is the fourth stoning of an adulterer in Somalia in the last year.

  Peter Tatchell

  Sex, Years, Law

  "Just say no to sharia law" by Peter Tatchell, www.theguardian.com. November 19, 2009.

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• The mark of the true church is an expanding witness to the presence of God.

  Gregory Beale

  Church, Worship, Expanding

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• Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Inspiration, Spirituality

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• Our work is not to change what you do, but to witness what you do with enough awareness, enough curiosity, enough tenderness that the lies and old decisions upon which the compulsion is based become apparent and fall away. When you no longer believe that eating will save your life when you feel exhausted or overwhelmed or lonely, you will stop. When you believe in yourself more than you believe in food, you will stop using food as if it were your only chance at not falling apart. When the shape of your body no longer matches the shape of your beliefs, the weight disappears.

  Geneen Roth

  Lonely, Lying, Fall

  Geneen Roth (2011). “Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

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