Average Quotes - Page 31

• Under the natural course of things each citizen tends towards his fittest function. Those who are competent to the kind of work they undertake, succeed, and, in the average of cases, are advanced in proportion to their efficiency; while the incompetent, society soon finds out, ceases to employ, forces to try something easier, and eventually turns to use.

  Herbert Spencer

  Trying, Citizens, Use

  Herbert Spencer (1858). “Essays--scientific, political and speculative”, p.324

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unlike private enterprise which quickly modifies its actions to meet emergencies - unlike the shopkeeper who promptly finds the wherewith to satisfy a sudden demand - unlike the railway company which doubles its trains to carry a special influx of passengers; the law-made instrumentality lumbers on under all varieties of circumstances at its habitual rate. By its very nature it is fitted only for average requirements, and inevitably fails under unusual requirements.

  Herbert Spencer

  Law, Special, Demand

  Herbert Spencer (1858). “Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative”, p.326

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the laws of nature," Gordon said, "is that half the people have got to be below average.""For a Gaussian distribution, yeah," Cooper said. "Sad, though.

  Gregory Benford

  Law, People, Half

  Gregory Benford (2010). “Timescape”, p.234, Spectra

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Study after study shows that the very best designers produce structures that are faster, smaller, simpler, clearer, and produced with less effort. The differences between the great and the average approach an order of magnitude.

  Fred Brooks

  Order, Differences, Effort

  "No Silver Bullet". Book by Fred Brooks, 1986.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man convicted of murder is twenty times more likely than a woman convicted of murder to receive the death penalty. Since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty, 120 men and only 1 woman have actually been executed. The woman, from North Carolina, said she preferred to be executed. In North Carolina, a man who commits second-degree murder receives a sentence on average of 12.6 years longer than a woman who commits second-degree murder.

  Warren Farrell

  Men, Years, Twenties

  "The Myth of Male Power". Book by Warren Farrell, 1993.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A person working 45 hours per week averages 44% more income than someone working 40 hours per week. That's 44% more income for 13% more time.

  Warren Farrell

  Income, Week, Hours

  4 Copy quote

• Every day, almost as many men are killed at work as were killed during the average day in Vietnam. For men, there are, in essence, three male-only drafts: the draft of men to all the wars; the draft of Everyman to unpaid bodyguard; the draft of men to all the hazardous jobs or 'death professions.

  Warren Farrell

  Jobs, War, Men

  Warren Farrell (1994). “The myth of male power: why men are the disposable sex”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The average, vague understanding of being can be permeated by traditional theories and opinions about being in such a way that these theories, as the sources of the prevailing understanding, remain hidden.

  Martin Heidegger

  Understanding, Way, Opinion

  Martin Heidegger, Joan Stambaugh, Dennis J. Schmidt (2010). “Being and Time”, p.5, SUNY Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I recently learned that in an average lifetime a person walks about sixty-five thousand miles. That's two and a half times around the world. I wonder where your steps will take you. I wonder how you'll use the rest of the miles you're given.

  Fred Rogers

  Two, Use, Half Time

  Fred Rogers (1995). “You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor”, p.125, Penguin

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you are challenging the young, they can come back at you with language of tremendous power and they are no respecters of sacred cows, you know, the young. There's nothing politically correct about the average young Australian when it comes to use of language.

  Tony Abbott

  Challenges, Use, Cows

  "Live from the Melbourne Writers Festival". "Q&A" with Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au. August 27, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a limited elite that understands the secrets of their own techniques, but not necessarily of all techniques. These men are close to the seat of modern governmental power. The state is no longer founded on the 'average citizen', but on the ability and knowledge of this elite. The average man is altogether unable to penetrate technical secrets or governmental organization and consequently can exert no influence at all on the state.

  Jacques Ellul

  Men, Organization, Secret

  "The Technological Society" by Jacques Ellul, translated by John Wilkinson, (p. 274), 1964.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good managements produce a good average market price, and bad managements produce bad market prices.

  Benjamin Graham

  Good Man, Management, Produce

  Benjamin Graham (1959). “The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In most cases the favorable price performance will be accompanied by a well-defined improvement in the average earnings, in the dividend, and in the balance-sheet position. Thus in the long run the market test and the ordinary business test of a successful equity commitment tend to be largely identical.

  Benjamin Graham

  Running, Commitment, Successful

  Benjamin Graham (1959). “The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was doing all the coaching schools so that I'd be able to stay in the game, and I gave myself a chance by doing that. I was only an average player, could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn't a Bobby Charlton or a Messi, or Ronaldo. There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches.

  Alex Ferguson

  School, Player, Games

  "Fergie reveals all: Why I turned down Abramovich, Moyes IS the right man for United... and you'll be throwing your money down the drain betting on me coming back (I'll be at the Kentucky Derby!)". Interview with Charlie Rose, www.dailymail.co.uk. October 2, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I guess I am handsome - in certain parts of the world. If I was, like, in Mongolia, living on a mountain and in my village, I could be the hottest guy. In L.A., I'm ... average?

  Bobby Lee

  Guy, Mountain, World

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unfortunately, in rich-world health, innovation is both your friend and your enemy. Innovation is inventing organ replacement, joint replacement. We're inventing ways of doing new things that cost $300,000 and take people in their 70s and, on average, give them an extra, say, two or three years of life. And then you have to say, given finite resources, should we fire two or three teachers to do this operation?

  Bill Gates

  Teacher, Years, Two

  "Bill Gates: ‘Death is something we really understand extremely well’". Interview with Ezra Klein, www.washingtonpost.com. May 17, 2013.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would harm it! And woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man loses the fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should arise!

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Fighting, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (2006). “History as Literature and Other Essays”, p.131, Cosimo, Inc.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Mars Polar Lander cost the average American the price of half a cheeseburger. A human lander would cost the average American more - perhaps even ten cheeseburgers! So be it. That is no great sacrifice.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Sacrifice, Cost, Mars

  "A Continent Bleeds" by Jonah Goldberg, www.nationalreview.com. May 3, 2000.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most people, I suspect, still have in their minds an image of America as the great land of college education, unique in the extent to which higher learning is offered to the population at large. That image used to correspond to reality. But these days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that's slightly below the average across all advanced economies.

  Paul Krugman

  Country, Unique, Reality

  6 Copy quote

• The Joker is a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.

  Heath Ledger

  Zero, Thinking, Night

  "In Stetson or Wig, He’s Hard to Pin Down". Interview with Sarah Lyall, www.nytimes.com. November 4, 2007.

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our economy is a hundred times better, than the average African economy. Outside South Africa, what country is [as good as] Zimbabwe?.. What is lacking now are goods on the shelves - that is all.

  Robert Mugabe

  Country, Zimbabwe, Economy

  Interview with Heidi Holland, December 2007.

  1498 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have not long to live. I have lasted more than a man's average allotted span, and while I still am hale and hearty, I know full well the hand of time , while it may miss a man at one reaping, will get him at the next.

  Clifford D. Simak

  Men, Hands, Long

  Clifford D. Simak (2015). “Time and Again”, p.84, Open Road Media

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Average people seldom talked about anything interesting and often hurt each other savagely.

  Robert Charles Wilson

  Hurt, People, Interesting

  Robert Charles Wilson (2007). “Axis”, p.107, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving protective shields allow us to believe that each of us is above average on any test of self-integrity. Too often we look to the stars through the thick lens of personal invulnerability when we should also look down to the slippery slope beneath our feet.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Stars, Integrity, Believe

  26 Copy quote

• Don't cross a river if it is four feet deep on average.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Rivers, Feet, Four

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.161, Random House

  26 Copy quote

  Show source