Benign Quotes - Page 7

• There are times when telling lies are not a bad thing. It can be a compassionate thing. But to make it benign, you have to be aware of your compassionate reasons for telling that lie.

  Richard Gere

  Lying, Reason, Compassionate

  "The Hoax - Richard Gere interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Whereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion holds its member to the high standards of moral responsibility that the secular world of science and medicine does!

  Daniel Dennett

  Responsibility, Medicine, People

  "Thank Goodness!" by Daniel C. Dennett, www.edge.org. November 2, 2006.

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• I take a benign view of digital connectedness. I notice in most young people's lives, Facebook and such doesn't replace normal dating or hanging out, it just facilitates it.

  David Brooks

  Views, People, Dating

  "Ask the Author Live: David Brooks on the Composure Class". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. January 7, 2011.

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• When the animal becomes human, the effect is pleasingly benign and we laugh outloud, "Okay come clean now. This isn't really about hunting, is it?" But when the human becomes animal, the effect is disgusting, and if we laugh at all, then it is what Beckett calls the "mirthless laugh", which laughs at that which is unhappy.

  Simon Critchley

  Animal, Hunting, Laughing

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• O admirable Mother of God! How many sins have I committed for which thou hast obtained pardon for me, and how many others would I have committed if thou hadst not preserved me? How often have I seen myself on the brink of Hell in obvious danger of falling into it but for thy most benign hand which saved me? How often would the Roaring Lion of Hell have devoured and swallowed up my soul had not the charity of thy heart opposed him? Alas! Without thee, my dearest and my all-good Mother, where should I be today? I should be in the fiery furnace of Hell from which I would never emerge!

  John Eudes

  Mother, Fall, Heart

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• Benign environmentalists are opposed to pollution, as all sensible people are; malign environmentalists are opposed to energy and most of what it enables.

  Kevin D. Williamson

  People, Energy, Pollution

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• Orders can be benign or malign, but the habit of obeying them can become ingrained.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Order, Habit, Obeying

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• Rule by the statist elite is not benign or simply a matter of who happens to be in office: it is rule by a growing army of leeches and parasites battening off the income and wealth of hard-working Americans, destroying their property, corrupting their customs and institutions, sneering at their religion.

  Murray Rothbard

  Hard Work, Army, Office

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• If one insists on calling all unsuccessful efforts failures the meaning of failure is really quite benign. When trying anything new or taking on any challenge, unsuccessful efforts are an essential aspect of skill building.

  Michael Josephson

  Skills, Effort, Challenges

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• Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap.

  Roger Ebert

  Children, Kids, Fighting

  "My Neighbor Totoro Movie Review" by Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com. December 23, 2001.

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• Inflation is not a benign element in the economy's operation. It is, as it has always been, the most dangerous and destructive form of taxation.

  Robert Higgs

  Elements, Taxation, Economy

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• Sure, integrating schools may sound benign. But whats the use of living in a gated community if my kids go to school and get poor all over them?

  Stephen Colbert

  School, Kids, Community

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• I would say, as far as heckling, there's benign and there's malignant; like tumors man. Sometimes you get really nice hecklers. I'd say percentage-wise it's only about 10 to 20 percent the whole year.

  Godfrey

  Wise, Nice, Men

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• I shall take my present leave - but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication [prayer] that since he has been pleased to favour the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparellelled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

  George Washington

  Wise, Prayer, Humble

  "How Will Trump's Inauguration Speech Stack Up Against History?" by Scott Martelle, www.latimes.com. January 20, 2017.

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• Yes, we have been visited and it appears that our visitors are prepared to help us if we allow them. It is a benign contact, however there are those who think that we also have been visited by those who do not wish us well, but I can't speak to that. I just know we have been visited, and I believe that we're being observed, and perhaps we can be helped in a crucial time if we're ready for that.

  Edgar Mitchell

  Believe, Thinking, Wish

  Source: www.edgemagazine.net

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• Some Harvard guy said that acid would open our minds, pot wouldn't hurt us, and cocaine was benign.

  Chevy Chase

  Hurt, Guy, Mind

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• Empathy is a human trait. But lots of humans exercise some traits more energetically than others. By "the usefulness of empathy" I mean the way in which a progressive might claim that empathy is a crucial aspect of any benign political system, and the way a conservative might argue that not only is it not necessary, but it might not even be all that helpful, in that regard.

  Jim Shepard

  Mean, Exercise, Empathy

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Italians in particular are seen as either benign and child-like (the sweet old nonna with her meatballs), menacing mobsters, or hyper-sexualized housewives and gigolos; the kind of nourishment I'm looking for doesn't lie in any of these stereotypes.

  Christopher Castellani

  Sweet, Children, Lying

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Lying is common in social life, often done for benign purposes, seldom draws severe sanctions, and many of the most notable leaders, including the late Steve Jobs, were consummate prevaricators. Told with enough persistence and conviction, what was once untrue can become true, in a self-fulfilling prophecy sort of way.

  Jeffrey Pfeffer

  Jobs, Lying, Persistence

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• Working anti-social shifts in a difficult environment is undoubtedly challenging. But even militant staff may privately concede that some of the working conditions they enjoy are unusually benign.

  Simon Calder

  Challenges, May, Working Conditions

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

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• Where the heart is full of kindness which seeks no injury to another, either in act or thought or wish, this full love creates an atmosphere of harmony, whose benign power touches with healing all who come within its influence. Peace in the heart radiates peace to other hearts, even more surely than contention breeds contention.

  Patanjali

  Kindness, Healing, Heart

  Patanjali (2015). “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”, p.63, Simon and Schuster

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• [But] they can't kill music. God knows, they've tried. But music always wins. As long as there's kids coming up that have a passion. All the bean counters in the world can't kill that. You know? You just can't. They can try, of course, to feed you the most puerile, benign horse manure, but some kid's going to come along and demand something more than that.

  John Hiatt

  Horse, Passion, Kids

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• My tumour is a benign pituitary tumour, in the pituitary gland - which is the main hormone centre of the body. It's in the centre of the brain. (Fun fact, [Rene] Descartes thought our consciousness was to be found in the pituitary gland.) And the thing is, there aren't really many symptoms that show until it's too late.

  John Newman

  Fun, Brain, Too Late

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

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• The social media not only become new platforms for the invasion of privacy, but further legitimate a culture in which monitoring functions are viewed as benign while the state-sponsored society of hyper-fear increasingly defines everyone as either a snitch or a terrorist.

  Henry Giroux

  Media, Culture, Invasion

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Dynamic benign neglect.

  Bob Weir

  Neglect

  Source: medium.com

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