Axioms Quotes - Page 4

• It is an old psychological axiom that constant exposure to the object of fear immunizes against the fear.

  Maxwell Maltz

  Fear, Cybernetics, Psychological

  Maxwell Maltz (2015). “Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded”, p.88, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The axiom of conditioned repetition, like the binomial theorem, is nothing but a piece of insolence.

  Edward Abbey

  Pieces, Insolence, Repetition

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.10, RosettaBooks

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Based on the considerations of history, ancient history, and international axioms, the logic of following up a citizen with his shadow for the purpose of the demarcation of political frontiers of any state has been discounted for international conventions. For example the Arabs cannot ask Spain just because they were there some time in the past nor can they ask for any other area outside the frontiers of the Arab homeland

  Saddam Hussein

  Past, Political, Shadow

  8 Copy quote

• Freedom can be manifested only in the void of beliefs, in the absence of axioms, and only where the laws have no more authority than a hypothesis.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Law, Void, Belief

  "History and Utopia". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1960.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• At root, vulgar just means popular on a mass scale. It is the semantic opposite of pretentious or snobby. It is humility with a comb-over. It is Nielsen ratings and Barnum's axiom and the real bottom line. It is big, big business.

  David Foster Wallace

  Real, Mean, Humility

  4 Copy quote

• It is not enough merely to memorize and spout vocal axioms good singing is infinitely more than much talk and head-knowledge.

  Jerome Hines

  Singing, Enough, Vocal

  Jerome Hines (1997). “The Four Voices of Man”, p.2, Hal Leonard Corporation

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only thing that might have annoyed some mathematicians was the presumption of assuming that maybe the axiom of choice could fail, and that we should look into contrary assumptions.

  Alonzo Church

  Choices, Annoyed, Looks

  8 Copy quote

• I do not see why the axiom of Prudence should not be questioned, when it conflicts with present inclination, on a ground similar to that on which Egoists refuse to admit the axiom of Rational Benevolence. If the Utilitarian has to answer the question, 'Why should I sacrifice my own happiness for the greater happiness of another?' it must surely be admissible to ask the Egoist 'Why should I sacrifice a present pleasure for a greater one in the future? Why should I concern myself about my own future feelings any more than about the feelings of other persons?'

  Henry Sidgwick

  Sacrifice, Psychology, Feelings

  11 Copy quote

• We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; an equal quantity of matter exists both before and after the experiment; the quality and quantity of the elements remain precisely the same; and nothing takes place beyond changes and modifications in the combination of these elements. Upon this principle the whole art of performing chemical experiments depends: We must always suppose an exact equality between the elements of the body examined and those of the products of its analysis.

  Antoine Lavoisier

  Art, Science, Quality

  Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1802). “Elements of chemistry, tr. by R. Kerr”, p.226

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Life, Wisdom, Past

  Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) "Case of Identity"

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Work, Eye, Men

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.297, e-artnow

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Art, Views, Style

  9 Copy quote

• A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Eight, Two, Twenties

  Jonathan Stroud (2005). “Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Three: Ptolemy's Gate”, Disney-Hyperion

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is practically an axiom in psychiatry that precocious intellect combined with physical weakness can give rise to many unpleasant character traits - avarice, delusions of grandeur , and obsessive masturbation, to name just a few.

  Sam Savage

  Character, Names, Giving

  7 Copy quote

• In one day I had altered my life; my life, therefore, was alterable. This simple axiom did not call out for exegesis; no, it entered my bloodstream directly, as powerful as heroin. I could feel it pump and surge, the way it brightened my veins to a kind of glass. I had wakened that morning to narrowness and predestination and now I was falling asleep in the storm of my own free will.

  Carol Shields

  Morning, Powerful, Fall

  17 Copy quote

• I tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.

  Henry Adams

  Doctrine, Physics, Accepting

  Henry Adams (2015). “Esther”, p.94, Sheba Blake Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Axiom of Choice is necessary to select a set from an infinite number of socks, but not an infinite number of shoes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Shoes, Numbers, Choices

  7 Copy quote

• There is an ancient Celtic axiom that says 'Good people drink good beer.' Which is true, then as now. Just look around you in any public barroom and you will quickly see: Bad people drink bad beer. Think about it.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Funny, Drinking, Beer

  15 Copy quote

• There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for the crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have.

  Harry S. Truman

  Country, Men, Liberty

  Harry S. Truman (2014). “1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope”, p.345, New Word City

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the proof starts from axioms, distinguishes several cases, and takes thirteen lines in the text book ... it may give the youngsters the impression that mathematics consists in proving the most obvious things in the least obvious way.

  George Polya

  Book, Obvious Things, Giving

  George Pólya (1968). “Mathematical discovery: on understanding, learning, and teaching problem solving”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• AXIOM. — Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over any thing which he has stamped as his own.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Increase, Property

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2016). “What is Property?”, p.90, Cosimo Classics

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can go through your whole life telling yourself that life is logical, life is prosaic, life is sane. Above all sane. And I think it is. I've had a lot of time to think about that. And what I keep coming back to is [her] dying declaration: 'So you understand that when we increase the number of variables, the axioms themselves never change.'

  Stephen King

  Life, Thinking, Numbers

  "Rage". Book by Stephen King, 1977.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is an axiom of political life that you never raise expectations, whether in a political or military campaign, because your defeats are then magnified and your victories discounted.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Military, Interesting, Expectations

  4 Copy quote

• The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Principles, Definitions, Free Society

  Ulysses S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephen Crane, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Modern Library Civil War Bookshelf 5-Book Bundle: Personal Memoirs, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings, The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln”, p.2600, Modern Library

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The maxim is, that whatever can be affirmed (or denied) of a class, may be affirmed (or denied) of everything included in the class. This axiom, supposed to be the basis of the syllogistic theory, is termed by logicians the dictum de omni et nullo.

  John Stuart Mill

  Science, Class, Nomenclature

  John Stuart Mill (1858). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.117

  4 Copy quote

  Show source