Benign Quotes - Page 4

• How come foreign accents are so sexy? If I say, 'I'm going to the store,' it sounds boring, benign and rudimentary. But if it's said with an accent, it sounds fundamentally cool.

  Rachel Nichols

  Sexy, Sound, Boring

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• the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship (angels). Behind the harsh appearance of the world there is a benign power.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Angel, Men

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• So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves.

  Marilyn Ferguson

  Long, People, Giving

  Marilyn Ferguson (1987). “The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s”, Tarcher

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• Some stalkers are quite benign, but finding someone in your garden at three o’clock in the morning with a meat cleaver and a hard-on can’t be much fun.

  Daniel Craig

  Morning, Fun, Garden

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• New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign.

  Alec Baldwin

  New York, Cities, Stupidity

  ABFoundation @ABFalecbaldwin, twitter.com. May 13, 2014.

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• The issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Race, Issues, Benefits

  Memorandum to Richard Nixon on the status of blacks, 16 Jan. 1970. This memo was quoted in an article in the New York Times, 1 Mar. 1970, which reported: "The phrase 'benign neglect,' Mr. Moynihan said in a telephone interview, came from an 1839 report on Canada by the British Earl of Durham. The Durham report, he said, described Canada as having grown more competent and capable of governing herself 'through many years of benign neglect' by Britain, and recommended full self-government."

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• Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution's focus upon the individual. ...To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.

  Antonin Scalia

  Eye, Thinking, Race

  Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200, 239, 1995.

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• Justice-august and pure, the abstract idea of all that would be perfect in the spirits and the inspirations of men!-where the mind rises; where the heart expands; where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where her favorite attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate; to hear their cry and to help them; to rescue and relieve; to succor and save; majestic, from its mercy; venerable, from its Lutility; uplifted, without pride; firm without obduracy; beneficent in each preference; lovely, though in her frown!

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Attitude, Inspiration, Heart

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• I was never the sort of child who believed in "monsters under the bed" or vampires, or who needed a night-light in his bedroom; on the contrary, my father...once laughingly told my mother that he thought I might suffer from a type of benign psychosis called "antiparanoia," in which I seemed to believe that I was the object of an intricate universal conspiracy to make me so happy I could hardly stand it.

  David Foster Wallace

  Mother, Children, Father

  "All That" by David Foster Wallace, www.newyorker.com. December 14, 2009.

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• Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will for seven days appear to you in their benign and peaceful aspect. Their light will shine upon you, ... Wonderful and delightful though they are, The Buddhas may nevertheless frighten you. Do not give in to your fright! Do not run away! Serenely contemplate the spectacle before you! Overcome your fear, and feel no desire! Realize that these are the rays of the grace of the Buddhas, who come to receive you into their Buddha-realms. Pray to them with intense faith and humility.

  Gautama Buddha

  Running, Book, Humility

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• I'm sure it's very obvious . . . how upset I am with incompetence and the lack of common sense in life. If I can sum up the reason . . . it's that these characteristics are not benign. They are responsible for much, if not most, of the great problems, misery, and injustice in the world.

  Vincent Bugliosi

  Common Sense, Upset, World

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• Freedom is messy. In free societies, people will fall through the cracks - drink too much, eat too much, buy unaffordable homes, fail to make prudent provision for health care, and much else. But the price of being relieved of all those tiresome choices by a benign paternal government is far too high. Big Government is the small option: it's the guarantee of smaller freedom, smaller homes, smaller cars, smaller opportunities, smaller lives.

  Mark Steyn

  Fall, Home, Opportunity

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• To be a flamboyant failure, that's better than being any kind of benign success

  Malcolm Mclaren

  Clever, Kind, Flamboyant

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• I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery.

  Brennan Manning

  Jesus, Father, Desire

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• We've gone from thinking the fuels that powered our growth were inexpensive, inexhaustible and benign to understanding they are exhaustible, expensive and toxic. Once you frame the problem that way, people will look at solutions differently.

  Thomas Friedman

  Thinking, People, Understanding

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• Personally I find the democratic chaos of the Internet fascinating, and for the most part really benign.

  Moby

  Chaos, Internet, Democratic

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• I wish for a moment that time would lift me out of this day, and into some more benign one. But then I feel guilty for wanting to avoid the sadness; dead people need us to remember them, even if it eats us, even if all we can do is say "I'm sorry" until it is as meaningless air.

  Audrey Niffenegger

  Sorry, Sadness, Air

  Audrey Niffenegger (2014). “The Time Traveler's Wife”, p.116, Simon and Schuster

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• I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benign Providence; it almost appears a "Divine interposition in our behalf... the hand that destroys our Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.

  Daniel Webster

  Hands, Forever, Unions

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• The process of writing is a little like madness, a kind of possession not altogether benign.

  Joanne Harris

  Writing, Littles, Madness

  Joanne Harris (2010). “Blackberry Wine”, p.210, Random House

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• I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.

  Albert Camus

  Stars, Night, Sky

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• But I got a great deal else from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For a brief, proud period I was slender and fit. I gained a profound respect for the wilderness and nature and the benign dark power of woods. I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world. I found patience and fortitude that I didn't know I had. I discovered an America that millions of people scarcely know exists. I made a friend. I came home.

  Bill Bryson

  Stars, Home, Sleep

  "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail". Book by Bill Bryson, 1997.

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• So shall the world go on, To good malignant, to bad men benign, Under her own weight groaning.

  John Milton

  Men, Goes On, World

  John Milton, Henry John Todd (1801). “The Poetical Works of John Milton”, p.454

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• Hmph," said Sharon . "Did you know that the numbers three and seven are sacred to vampires? There are seven vampire sects." "Seven sacred sects," I repeated. "Say that three times fast." "How about I spank you instead?" asked Patrick in a benign tone that belied the flare of irritation in his gaze. "Only if you tie me to a bed and use a paddle." His silver eyes went molten. Uh-oh. Me and my big smart-aleck mouth. "I… uh, sorry. I didn't mean that. I saw Secretary a few too many times. I'm impressionable.

  Michele Bardsley

  Sorry, Smart, Mean

  Michele Bardsley (2006). “I'm the Vampire, That's Why”, p.68, Penguin

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• Taking away a person's control of her own life - meaning her bank account - is one of the greatest infringements a democracy can impose, especially when it applies to young people. It is an infringement even if the intent may be perceived as benign and socially valid.

  Steig Larsson

  People, Democracy, Meaning Of Life

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• It's sometimes too easy to point fingers when circumstances dramatically go awry, but as an addict, I'm ultimately responsible for my own decisions, no matter how benign or tragic the consequences.

  Moby

  Decision, Matter, Sometimes

  “Amy Winehouse's Death: Moby Remembers Her Final Performance” by Shirley Halperin, www.hollywoodreporter.com. July 25, 2011.

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