Astonishing Quotes - Page 5

• Humans are incapable of securely storing high-quality cryptographic keys, and they have unacceptable speed and accuracy when performing cryptographic operations. (They are also large, expensive to maintain, difficult to manage, and they pollute the environment. It is astonishing that these devices continue to be manufactured and deployed. But they are sufficiently pervasive that we must design our protocols around their limitations.)

  Charlie Kaufman

  Keys, Design, Quality

  "Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World". Book by Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman and Mike Speciner, April 22, 2002.

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• [Ritual] dwells in an invisible reality and gives this reality a vocabulary, props, costume, gesture, scenery. Ritual makes things separate, sets them apart from ordinary affairs and thoughts. Rituals need not be solemn, but they are formalized, stylized, extraordinary, and artificial. In the name of ritual, we can do anything. We can do astonishing acts. In the end, ritual gives us assurance about the unification of things.

  Barbara Myerhoff

  Reality, Names, Vocabulary

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• As wonders, miracles are always astonishing, but as signs they are never wholly inexplicable.

  Kenneth L. Woodward

  Miracle, Wonder, Inexplicable

  Kenneth L. Woodward (2001). “The Book of Miracles: The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam”, p.383, Simon and Schuster

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• It's astonishing how many business owners are terrified of selling. Salespeople who see the most people a day are the highest paid regardless of the economy.

  Brian Tracy

  People, Economy, Selling

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• By the former of these (canon law), the most refined, sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order.

  John Adams

  Men, Order, Law

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.5, Hackett Publishing

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• To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people's feelings, to rend the thin veils of civilisation so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency that, without replying, dazed and blinded, she bend her head as if to let her pelt f jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked.

  Virginia Woolf

  Dirty, Thinking, People

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• astonishing splashes of colour

  James M. Barrie

  Colour

  James M. Barrie (2015). “Peter Pan: Top 100 Classic Novels”, p.4, 谷月社

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• The fact that solar has gone down 80 percent since 2008 is astonishing. Wind is perhaps not coming down as quickly. Lack of storage - batteries - is a bottleneck. That makes it very difficult to put large amounts of renewable energy on the grid.

  Christiana Figueres

  Wind, Energy, Batteries

  "We'll Have a Global Climate Treaty in 2015". Interview with Catherine Brahic, www.slate.com. March 22, 2014.

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• It's often hard to determine, especially in early drafts, whether or not a story has a bona fide complication. Remember this: A complication must either illuminate, thwart, or alter what the character wants. A good complication puts emotional pressure on a character, promoting that character not only to act, but to act with purpose.If the circumstance does none of these things, then it's not a complication at all - it's a situation. This situation, or setup, might be interesting or even astonishing, but it gives the story no point of departure.

  Monica Wood

  Character, Writing, Emotional

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• I look forward to the time when the churches come to celebrate and honour the work of animal protection as an imperative arising from their belief in the Creator and in the gospel of the crucified. After all, similarly remarkable things have happened, for example, the growing consensus among churches that the environment should be cared for and protected as a Christian duty--an astonishing turnaround when one considers the prevailing dualism in previous centuries, which expressly discouraged concern for "earthly" matters as distinct from "spiritual" ones.

  Andrew Linzey

  Christian, Spiritual, Animal

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• Dogs love us not only because we feed them, walk them, or groom them, or protect them, but because we are fun. How astonishing!

  Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

  Dog, Fun, Protect

  Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (1998). “Dogs Never Lie about Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs”, Broadway Books

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• Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be, but truth cannot be crafted. Truth is, and truth has a way of astonishing us to our knees. Reminding us, that the universe does not exist to fulfill our expectations. Because we are imperfect beings who are self-blinded to the truth of the world’s stunning complexity, we shave reality to paper thin theories and ideologies that we can easily grasp – and we call them truths. But the truth of a sea in all it’s immensity cannot be embodied in one tidewashed pebble.

  Dean Koontz

  Reality, Self, Sea

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• It is astonishing how sociable I feel myself compared with him.

  Emily Bronte

  Feels, Sociable

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.373, Penguin

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• During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.

  Tahir Shah

  Suicide, Work Out, Mind

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• Love." She looked at me with those blue eyes. "Isn't it astonishing how confused and complicated such a small,simple word is? It attracts so many other things, doesn't it, that stick to it like barnacles on rock...fear, guilt. Need. You can't even see the rock anymore. I imagine love in its purest form is a rare thing.

  Deb Caletti

  Confused, Eye, Simple

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• It is an astonishing fact about the current era that in the most powerful country in world history, with a high level of education and privilege, one of the two political parties virtually denies the well-established facts about anthropogenic climate change.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Powerful, Party

  "Global Warming and the Future of Humanity: An Interview With Noam Chomsky and Graciela Chichilnisky". Interview with C.J. Polychroniou, www.truth-out.org. September 17, 2016.

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• I moistened my lips. His gaze fixed on them. I think I stopped breathing. He jerked so sharply away that his long dark coat sliced air, and turned his back to me. “Was that an invitation, Ms.Lane?” “If it was?” I asked, astonishing myself. What did I think I was doing? “I don’t do hypotheticals. Little girl.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Girl, Dark, Thinking

  Karen Marie Moning (2016). “The Fever Series 7-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever, Iced, Burned”, p.619, Dell

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• [In the late 80's] that's the first time I heard about that astonishing idea [that most photographs would be taken on telephones]. And now I've been watching the tsunami of images.

  Sam Abell

  Taken, Ideas, Would Be

  Source: aphotoeditor.com

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• We have undocumented immigrants in America who are paying more federal income tax than a billionaire. I find that just astonishing.

  Hillary Clinton

  America, Income, Undocumented Immigrants

  The third presidential debate between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump, www.nytimes.com. October 20, 2016.

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• I was in a fascinating meeting where one man had been in China recently. A Chinese professor has found evidence that Christians reached Western China before 90 AD. Before 90 AD! The idea isn't all that astonishing when we think about it. That's what the disciples thought they were supposed to do! And, I'm sure, the disciples just said, "That's it. Let's go!" And they all wound up dead. But everyone else did too!

  Dallas Willard

  Christian, Thinking, Men

  Source: renovare.org

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• That's exactly how I felt. So getting to suddenly know this young [princess] Margaret, who had this extraordinary life - it was sad and tragic and difficult and sort of astonishing and getting to know her young self was amazing because it completely defied all my expectations.

  Vanessa Kirby

  Princess, Self, Expectations

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• The fact that I've managed to find a husband who understands and respects everything I do is astonishing.

  Kelly Clarkson

  Husband, Facts

  Source: www.goodhousekeeping.com

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• But hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand.

  Kathleen Norris

  Heart, Persistence, Resilience

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• I feel vulnerable to the astonishing beauty of being alive and to Mother Nature.

  Brad Willis

  Mother, Alive, Vulnerable

  "Warrior Pose: A Conversation with Bhava Ram". Interview with Zoë Kors, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Miracle, World, Admiration

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1845). “Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments”, p.55

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