Assertion Quotes - Page 8

• Well, let’s start with the maxim that the best writing is understated, meaning it’s not full of flourishes and semaphores and tap dancing and vocabulary dumps that get in the way of the story you are telling. Once you accept that, what are you left with? You are left with the story you are telling.
  The story you are telling is only as good as the information in it: things you elicit, or things you observe, that make a narrative come alive; things that support your point not just through assertion, but through example; quotes that don’t just convey information, but also personality.

  Gene Weingarten

  Writing, Vocabulary, Dancing

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• The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism is hostile to religion is a lie.

  Adolf Hitler

  Lying, Mean, Catholic

  Letter to the Nazi Party, July 22, 1933.

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• Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. The logical consequence is that there will come a time when we will have to buy a government permit just to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from our own lungs!

  Ron Paul

  Government, Air, Atmosphere

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• There is -- in world affairs -- a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  World, Affair, Confession

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953”, p.34, Best Books on

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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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• 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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• 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 will start out this evening with an assertion: fantasy is a place where it rains.

  Italo Calvino

  Rain, Evening, Fantasy

  Italo Calvino (1988). “Six Memos for the Next Millennium”, p.81, Harvard University Press

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• Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Mean, Responsibility, Self

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.156, SUNY Press

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• Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits. It is intellectual bankruptcy.

  Dan Barker

  Atheist, Taken, Religion

  Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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• I feel a kind of reverence for the first books of young authors. There is so much aspiration in them, so much audacious hope and trembling fear, so much of the heart's history, that all errors and shortcomings are for a while lost sight of in the amiable self assertion of youth.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Book, Reading, Heart

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1873). “Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, p.453

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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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• 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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• 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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• Do not imagine that what we have said of the insufficiency of our understanding and of its limited extent is an assertion founded only on the Bible: for philosophers likewise assert the same, and perfectly understand it,- without having regard to any religion or opinion.

  Maimonides

  Understanding, Opinion, Philosopher

  Moses Maimonides (2016). “Guide for the perplexed”, p.283, Moses Maimonides

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• When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Liberty, Be Careful, Interest

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2012). “The Philosophy of History”, p.430, Courier Corporation

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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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• Men have defined the parameters of every subject. All feminist arguments, however radical in intent or consequence, are with or against assertions or premises implicit in the male system, which is made credible or authentic by the power of men to name.

  Andrea Dworkin

  Power, Men, Names

  Andrea Dworkin (1989). “Pornography: men possessing women”, Plume

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• Second, the resolution contains the blatantly false assertion that negotiating a timeline for bringing U.S. troops home with the Iraqi government undermines U.S. national security. Such a statement shows a misunderstanding of the enemy we face in Iraq.

  Peter DeFazio

  Home, Government, Iraq

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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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• Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its center, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Moving, Opposites, Heaven

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

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• Youth is insolent; it is its right - its necessity; it has got to assert itself, and all assertion in this world of doubts is a defiance, is an insolence.

  Joseph Conrad

  Doubt, World, Youth

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Complete Novels of Joseph Conrad - All 20 Works in One Premium Edition: Including Unforgettable Titles like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes and Many More (With Author’s Letters, Memoirs and Critical Essays)”, p.771, e-artnow

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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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• 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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