Average Quotes - Page 39

As part of my research for An Anthology of Authors' Atrocity Stories About Publishers, I conducted a study (employing my usual controls) that showed the average shelf life of a trade book to be somewhere between milk and yoghurt.

Calvin Trillin

Book, Milk, Usual

Calvin Trillin (1987). “Uncivil liberties”, Penguin Group USA

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The man with the average mentality, but with control, with a definite goal, and a clear conception of how it can be gained, and above all, with the power of application and labor, wins in the end.

William Howard Taft

Winning, Men, Goal

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... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality.

Mary McCarthy

Catholic, Religion, Connections

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Today the average inhabitant of the western hemisphere knows a little of everything. He has the newspaper on his breakfast table and wireless within reach. For the evening there is the film, cards, or a meeting to complete a day spent in the office or factory where nothing that is essential has been learnt. With slight variation this picture of a low cultural average holds good over the entire range from factory-hand of clerk to manager or director. Only the personal will to culture, in whatever field and however pursued raises modern man above this level.

Johan Huizinga

Men, Hands, Office

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What a weak, credulous, incredulous, unbelieving, superstitious, bold, frightened, what a ridiculous world ours is, as far as concerns the mind of man. How full of inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities it is. I declare that taking the average of many minds that have recently come before me ... I should prefer the obedience, affections and instinct of a dog before it.

Michael Faraday

Dog, Men, Mind

Michael Faraday, F. James (1999). “The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, Volume 4: 1849-1855”, p.542, IET

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So I cradle this average violin that knows
Only forgotten showtunes, but argues
The possibility of free declamation anchored
To a dull refrain.

John Ashbery

Music, Dull, Violin

John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

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Captivating the spirit of the age is a matter of great talent; being swept away by it characterizes an average mind. The two are as different from one another as activity and passivity.

Franz Grillparzer

Two, Mind, Different

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As much as I'd like to think I'm an expert in quarterbacks I'm probably not. But, I think college quarterbacks are put in positions where they have to do a lot of the things that are done at the professional level. The collegiate quarterback probably does on average a little more running than a pro quarterback. But outside of that, I think they're faced with some of the same difficult decisions and choices.

Ted Thompson

Running, College, Thinking

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Make your melodies simple enough so that the average person can hum them.

Tom T. Hall

Simple, Enough, Melody

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Up off your knees now and shatter the average.

Buck 65

Knees

Song: Le 65isme, 2005

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I would be the last to deny that the greatest scientific pioneers belonged to an aristocracy of the spirit and were exceptionally intelligent, something that we as modest investigators will never attain, no matter how much we exert ourselves. Nevertheless ... I continue to believe that there is always room for anyone with average intelligence ... to utilize his energy and ... any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain, and that even the least gifted may, like the poorest land that has been well-cultivated and fertilized, produce an abundant harvest.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Believe, Intelligent, Men

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I love a glass of champagne. It can make even the most average Monday seem like a Saturday night. I always say there's happiness in every bubble!

Cat Deeley

Monday, Night, Glasses

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Without seeing any reason to believe that women are, on the average, so strong physically, intellectually, or morally, as men, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that many women are much better endowed in all these respects than many men, and I am at a loss to understand on what grounds of justice or public policy a career which is open to the weakest and most foolish of the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of vigor and capacity.

Thomas Huxley

Strong, Sex, Women

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I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I've viewed myself as slightly above average in talent. And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy's sleeping? I'm working. While the other guy's eatin'? I'm working. While the other guy's making love, I mean, I'm making love, too. But I'm working really hard at it.

Will Smith

Mean, Sleep, Work Ethic

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It's great to be in a room full of young people...The average age of the Senate, I think, is death.

Aaron Schock

Thinking, People, Rooms

"The week in one-liners" by Patrick Gavin, www.politico.com. April 8, 2011.

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The important point there is that when people talk about a mean temperature rise of say two, three or four degrees that's a sort of global average which really is a signature of large scale change in climatic patterns.

Martin Rees

Mean, Two, People

"Lord Martin Rees, eminent British scientist". "Sunday Profile" with Monica Attard, www.abc.net.au. March 28, 2010.

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A lot of dyslexic kids are actually more intelligent than average and are very good, because they've got very good memories, at disguising the fact that they can't read or have got problems in reading and literacy.

Jackie French

Memories, Reading, Kids

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I do believe if one keeps busy it's very good for a person. In fact, people are always rushing into retirement and we read in Europe that people there are talking about their retirement age and moving it to 67 or something. Well, back when they started retirement funds and everything, the average age was 70 or 60, and then all of a sudden now it's 80, and so. [...] And so you keep in shape, you keep yourself mentally in shape. And if you keep yourself mentally in shape, chances are physically it will follow suit.

Clint Eastwood

Retirement, Moving, Believe

"Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio Interview, J Edgar". www.moviesonline.ca.

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To become the founder of a new religion one must be psychologically infallible in one's knowledge of a certain average type of souls who have not yet recognized that they belong together.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Soul, Together, Type

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1974). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, Vintage

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Reporting the extreme things as if they were the average things will start you on the art of fiction.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Art, Fiction, Extremes

F. Scott Fitzgerald (2009). “The Crack-Up”, p.178, New Directions Publishing

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It's not the genius who is 100 years ahead of his time but average man who is 100 years behind it.

Robert Musil

Men, Years, Genius

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Listening to as many guitar solos as possible is the best method for someone in the early stages. But saxophone solos can be helpful. They're interesting because they are all single notes, and therefore can be repeated on the guitar. If you can copy a sax solo you're playing very well, because the average saxophonist can play much better than the average guitarist.

Ritchie Blackmore

Guitar, Play, Interesting

Guitar Player, Volume 7, 1973.

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In Washington, if you're a congressman or a senator or the President, you make much more money than the average American, but you'd think that if you were the leader of the free world you'd be making major bank, and you don't.

Beau Willimon

Thinking, Leader, President

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I DECLARE I am special and extraordinary. I am not average! I have been custom-made. I am one of a kind. Of all the things God created, what He is the most proud of is me. I am His masterpiece, his most prized possession. I will keep my head held high, knowing I am a child of the most high God, made in his very image. This is my declaration.

Joel Osteen

Children, Knowing, Special

Joel Osteen (2012). “I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life”, p.40, Hachette UK

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The United States Congress, acting with large bipartisan majorities, at the urging of the President, enacted as the law of the land that all children are to be above average.

Charles A. Murray

Children, Law, Land

"The Age of Educational Romanticism". The New Criterion, May 01, 2008.

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