Assertion Quotes - Page 2

• The assertion fallacy is the fallacy of confusing the conditions for the performance of the speech act of assertion with the analysis of the meaning of particular words occurring in certain assertions.

  John Searle

  Confusing, Analysis, Speech

  "Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language". Book by John Searle, 1969.

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• Complexity assertions have to be part of the interface

  Alexander Stepanov

  Complexity, Interfaces

  "C Programming". Interview with Al Stevens, collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca. 1995.

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• History is no longer just a chronicle of kings and statesmen, of people who wielded power, but of ordinary women and men engaged in manifold tasks. Women's history is an assertion that women have a history.

  Toshiko Kishida

  Kings, Men, People

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• No matter how improbable an assertion is, if it is made with enough assurance it has an affect.

  Erich Maria Remarque

  Matter, Enough, Made

  Erich Maria Remarque (2013). “The Black Obelisk: A Novel”, p.197, Random House

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• Emphatic and reiterated assertion, especially during childhood, produces in most people a belief so firm as to have a hold even over the unconscious.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Childhood, Belief

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.35, Routledge

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• The president led us into the Iraq war on the basis of unproven assertions without evidence; he embraced a radical doctrine of pre-emptive war unprecedented in our history; and he failed to build a true international coalition.

  Nancy Pelosi

  War, Iraq, President

  "Bush: America Has 'Great Responsibilities'". www.foxnews.com. January 21, 2004.

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• Hope is like one of those orchids that grows around toxic waste: lovely in itself - and an assertion, if you like, of indefatigable good - but a sure sign that something nasty lies underneath.

  Rachel Cusk

  Lying, Orchids, Toxic Waste

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• Islamophobia, in all its guises, seeks to minimise the importance of the individual and maximise the importance of the group. Yet our instinctive stance ought to be one of suspicion towards such endeavours. For individuals are undeniably real. Groups, on the other hand, are assertions of opinion.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Real, Hands, Groups

  "Islam is not a monolith" by Mohsin Hamid, www.theguardian.com. May 19, 2013.

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• At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being

  Frederick Hertz

  Religious, Hate, Mistake

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• Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Atheist, Atheism, Negative

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• Therefore the Sage embraces Unity, and is a model for all under Heaven. He is free from self-display, therefore he shines forth; from self-assertion, therefore he is distinguished; from self-glorification, therefore he has merit; from self-exaltation, therefore he rises superior to all. Inasmuch as he does not strive, there is no one in the world who can strive with him.

  Laozi

  Humility, Self, Shining

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• I was being foolish. An atheist can't stand behind their assertion that God doesn't exist. The stupidest thing I ever could have done was to reject His Truth.

  Kirk Cameron

  Atheist, Atheism, Done

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• Progress in thought is the assertion of individualism against authority.

  Oscar Wilde

  Liberty, Progress, Individualism

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.94, Harvard University Press

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• No one is obliged to take a position on the urgent issues of the day, but there are times when our impoverished public sphere could do with some occasional assertions of literary and moral authority.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Issues, Spheres, Moral

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Marry first, and love will come after is a shocking assertion; since a thousand things may happen to make the state but barely tolerable, when it is entered into with mutual affection.

  Samuel Richardson

  And Love, May, Firsts

  Samuel Richardson (1751). “Clarissa; Or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life”, p.420

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• To love is to see myself in you and to wish to celebrate myself with you. What I love is the embodiment of my values in another person. Love is an act of self-assertion, self-expression and a celebration of being alive.

  Nathaniel Branden

  Love Is, Self, Expression

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• Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians have insisted for centuries that God does not exist and that there is 'nothing' out there; in making these assertions, their aim was not to deny the reality of God but to safeguard God's transcendence.

  Karen Armstrong

  Christian, Reality, Doe

  Karen Armstrong (2009). “The Case for God”, p.11, Knopf Canada

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• When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one by the other; regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages, of the same reality, a reality convincingly human just because it is too complex.

  Marguerite Yourcenar

  Science, Reality, Ideas

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• So many things which once had distressed or revolted him — the speeches and pronouncements of the learned, their assertions and their prohibitions, their refusal to allow the universe to move — all seemed to him now merely ridiculous, non-existent, compared with the majestic reality, the flood of energy, which now revealed itself to him: omnipresent, unalterable in its truth, relentless in its development, untouchable in its serenity, maternal and unfailing in its protectiveness.

  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

  Moving, Reality, Serenity

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• Self-assertion may deceive the ignorant for a time; but when the noise dies away, we cut open the drum, and find it was emptiness that made the music.

  Mary Elizabeth Braddon

  Cutting, Self, Ignorant

  Mary Elizabeth Braddon (2014). “Aurora Floyd”, p.298, Jazzybee Verlag

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• No. I cannot expect you to believe it. Take it as a lie--or a prophecy. Say I dreamed it in the workshop. Consider I have been speculating upon the destinies of our race until I have hatched this fiction. Treat my assertion of its truth as a mere stroke of art to enhance its interest. And taking it as a story, what do you think of it?

  H. G. Wells

  Art, Lying, Believe

  H. G. Wells (2016). “The Time Machine”, p.90, H. G. Wells

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• I'm not a proper anything. Majoring in philosophy kind of turns positive assertions into maybes.

  Kevin Hearne

  Philosophy, Kind, Turns

  Kevin Hearne (2014). “The Iron Druid Chronicles 6-Book Bundle: Hounded, Hexed, Hammered, Tricked, Trapped, Hunted”, p.413, Del Rey

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• An interesting fiction... however paradoxical the assertion may appear... addresses our love of truth- not the mere love of facts expressed by true names and dates, but the love of that higher truth, the truth of nature and principals, which is a primitive law of the human mind.

  James F. Cooper

  Law, Names, Interesting

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• There are two insults which no human being will endure: The assertion that he hasn't a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Two, Sense Of Humor, Insult

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.335, Penguin

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• Animal rights activists talk about cruelty and torture, some backing their assertions by publishing out-of-date photographs of "experiments" banned long ago. This is a misrepresentation. The work we do is performed with compassion, care, humanity and humility. I have never seen an animal suffer pain.

  Robert Winston

  Pain, Humility, Animal

  "The shame of our silence" by Robert Winston, www.theguardian.com. May 30, 2006.

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