Calamity Quotes - Page 14

• Some writers maintain arithmetic to be only the only sure guide in political economy; for my part, I see so many detestable systems built upon arithmetical statements, that I am rather inclined to regard that science as the instrument of national calamity.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Political, Economy, Guides

  Jean Baptiste Say, Clement Cornell Biddle (1851). “A treatise on political economy”, p.188

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• It is a melancholy but an undoubted fact, that, even in the most thriving countries, part of the population annually dies of mere want. Not that all who perish from want absolutely die of hunger; though this calamity is of more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Country, Population, Want

  Jean Baptiste Say (1827). “A treatise on political economy: or, The production, distribution and consumption of wealth”, p.331

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• Good biology without good philosophy will be a calamity.

  George Will

  Philosophy, Biology, Good Philosophy

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• Kyoto costs a lot, does nothing to prevent calamity, and pays no compensation in the event of loss. If my insurance broker offered that sort of policy, I would not carry insurance. Instead what my broker offers is a policy that costs a little and pays full compensation in the event of loss. If someone wants to propose that as a policy on global warming, I'm all in favour.

  Ross McKitrick

  Loss, Kyoto Protocol, Want

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• Few things are as stimulating as other people's calamities observed from a safe distance.

  George Will

  Distance, Destiny, People

  George F. Will (1978). “The pursuit of happiness, and other sobering thoughts”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• These bible people remind me of another calamity similar to this missionary scheme, when our people, or any christian power would go to Africa for the pious purpose of kidnapping negroes, the mother would cry out to her children "run, run, the christians are coming," so when ever you hear "bibles," run for your life, if you do not want your pockets picked, or to be insulted and slandered as I was... and if you hear "hopeful conversions" or the "gospel," don't stop to look behind you.

  Anne Royall

  Christian, Mother, Running

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• The very secret of life for mewas to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquility. I had picked a life that dealt with excitement, tragedy, mass calamities, human triumphs and suffering. To throw my whole self into recording and attempting to understand these things, I needed an inner serenity as a kind of balance.

  Margaret Bourke-White

  Self, Rushing, Serenity

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• Among environmentalists sharing two or three beers, the notion is quite common that if only some calamity could wipe out the entire human race, other species might once again have a chance.

  Richard Conniff

  Beer, Race, Two

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• In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity; and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort; as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.

  Samuel Johnson

  Lying, Flower, Grief

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.33

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• The most notorious swindler has not assumed so many names as self-love, nor is so much ashamed of his own. She calls herself patriotism, when at the same time she is rejoicing at just as much calamity to her native country as will introduce herself into power, and expel her rivals.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Country, Self, Names

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.76

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• There are few states, I suppose, which exact so severe a toll from one's nervous system as the anticipation of calamity.

  Sax Rohmer

  Tolls, Anticipation, Nervous

  Sax Rohmer (2013). “The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu”, p.56, Courier Corporation

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• The worst calamity: 'To have eyes and fail to see.'

  Helen Keller

  Eye, Failing, Worst

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• Low minded people are fraudulent, wicked and chaeat. They shouldnot be trusted. To h ave faith in low minded ones is mistake in policy and useless because they are not trustworthy. An administrator should not invited calamity by trusting the low minded ones.

  Chanakya

  Mistake, People, Political

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• Overcome the Empyrean; hurl
  Heaven and Earth out of their places,
  That in the same calamity
  Brother and brother, friend and friend,
  Family and family,
  City and city may contend.

  William Butler Yeats

  Brother, Struggle, Cities

  William Butler Yeats (2012). “The Winding Stair and Other Poems: A Facsimile Edition”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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• Men naturally sympathize with the calamities of individuals; but they are inclined to look on a fallen party with contempt rather than with pity.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Party, Men, Looks

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• In the days of peace every precaution should be taken to insure that there are no forces making for war. Just as we now forbid the trafficking in certain drugs, in the sale of poisons, just as we forbid the making of any imprint that suggests a coin or currency, just as experience has demonstrated that men may not make profit out of certain things because of the danger of abuse, so in the gravest of all dangers laws should be passed taking from those who might gain from war or preparations for war every hope that advantage could come to them by such a calamity.

  Frederic C. Howe

  War, Taken, Men

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• Which class is happiest, the rich, the middle class or the poor? A very successful executive of a large organization touches upon this vital subject in a long letter to all his salesmen. He uses as his text a passage from Robinson Crusoe which included this: ""My Father bid me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and were not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind.

  B. C. Forbes

  Father, Successful, Class

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• When a man has calamity upon calamity the world generally concludes that he must be a very wicked man to deserve them. Perhaps the world is right; but it is also just possible that the world ... may be wrong.

  Amelia Barr

  Men, Wicked, World

  Amelia Barr (2017). “Jan Vedder's Wife”, p.67, Litres

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• By flying, men often rush into the midst of calamities.

  Livy

  Men, Flying, Midst

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• If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering .

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Uplifting, Christian, Mean

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• Words may be either the servants or masters. If the former they may safely guide us in the way of truth. If the latter they intoxicate the brain and lead into swamps of thought where there is no solid footing. Among the sources of those innumerable calamities which from age to age have overwhelmed mankind, may be reckoned as one of the principal, the abuse of words.

  George Horne

  Abuse, Brain, Age

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• The polls demonstrate that 50 percent of Americans who get their news from TV think Saddam Hussein was behind the Twin Towers attack. Man, have they got ways for getting half-truths out right away now, thanks to TV! I think TV is a calamity in a democracy.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Men, Thinking, Democracy

  Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. June 12, 2003.

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• The pre-history of our species is hag-ridden with episodes of nightmarish ignorance and calamity, for which religion used to identify, not just the wrong explanation, but the wrong culprit. Human sacrifices were made preeminently in times of epidemics, useless prayers were uttered, bogus miracles attested to, and scapegoats - such as Jews or heretics or witches - hunted down and burned.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Prayer, Ignorance, Sacrifice

  Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.9, Da Capo Press

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• Are we aware of our obligations to a mob? It is the mob that labor in your fields and serve in your houses - that man your navy, and recruit your army - that have enabled you to defy the world, and can also defy you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair. You may call the people a mob; but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people.

  Lord Byron

  Army, Men, People

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.3042, Delphi Classics

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• We only have one dog now. Calamity Jane had to be put down. She was very old, and her medicine no longer controlled her seizures. Dilly is five now, I think. He's a neutered American Pit Bull Terrier, very gentle, about the color of buckskin.

  Gene Wolfe

  Dog, Thinking, Color

  "Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe". Book by Gene Wolfe, 2007.

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