Characteristics Quotes

• Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.

  Alfred Korzybski

  Two, Important, Maps

  Alfred Korzybski (1958). “Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics”, p.58, Institute of GS

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• Alfred Nobel's discoveries are characteristic; powerful explosives can help men perform admirable tasks. They are also a means to terrible destruction in the hands of the great criminals who lead peoples to war.

  Pierre Curie

  Powerful, War, Mean

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• Industrialization based on machinery, already referred to as a characteristic of our age, is but one aspect of the revolution that is being wrought by technology.

  Emily Greene Balch

  Technology, Age, Industrialization

  Emily Greene Balch (1972). “Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch”, New York : Twayne Publishers

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• The point of departure of the process to which we wish to contribute is the fact that war is the natural reaction of human nature in the savage state, while peace is the result of acquired characteristics.

  Elihu Root

  War, Wish, Facts

  Elihu Root (1916). “Addresses on International Subjects”

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• The medieval hall house was very primitive when it became the characteristic form of dwelling of the landowner of the Middle Ages.

  Stephen Gardiner

  Dwelling, House, Age

  Stephen Gardiner (2002). “The House: Its Origins and Evolution”, Ivan R Dee

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• At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features.

  Roman Jakobson

  Numbers, Sound, Different

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• Fidelity to the subject's thought and to his characteristic way of expressing himself is the sine qua non of journalistic quotation.

  Janet Malcolm

  Way, Fidelity, Subjects

  Janet Malcolm (2011). “The Journalist And The Murderer”, p.146, Granta Books

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• Identity in the form of continuity of personality is an extremely important characteristic of the individual.

  Kenneth Lee Pike

  Personality, Important, Identity

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• The children are taught more of the meanest state in Europe than of the country they are born and bred in, despite the singularity of its characteristics, the interest of its history, the rapidity of its advance, and the stupendous promise of its future.

  Henry Lawson

  Country, Children, Europe

  Henry Lawson, Colin Arthur Roderick (1972). “Collected Prose: Autobiographical and other writings, 1887-1922”, Angus & Robertson

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• A second characteristic of our time is the prevalence of nationalism. This is still spreading, affecting new communities, more peripheral regions and so-called backward peoples.

  Emily Greene Balch

  Community, Stills, Regions

  Emily Greene Balch (1972). “Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch”, New York : Twayne Publishers

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• A characteristic of older folksongs, in most cases, is that we don't know their composers or authors. Older folksongs were written often with no commercial purpose in mind. They were passed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation.

  Tom Glazer

  Mind, Generations, Purpose

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• For under certain conditions the chemical atoms emit light waves of a specific length or oscillation frequency - their familiar characteristic spectra - and these can come in the form of electromagnetic waves only from accelerated electric quanta.

  Johannes Stark

  Light, Atoms, Wave

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• For in 1900 all electromagnetic radiation of longer wavelengths was already known at least to the extent that one could not seek in it the more striking characteristics of X-rays such as, for example, the strong penetrating power.

  Max von Laue

  Strong, Rays, Example

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• It is no accident that I made Cartoon Town a simple little village - in many ways it mirrored my home town. And, yes, many of my puppet characters took on some of the more eccentric characteristics of people I knew there.

  William Jackson

  Home, Character, Simple

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• In order to fully realise our aspirations, we must create in the masses of the people the sense of sacrifice and responsibility that has been the characteristic of the anarchist movement throughout its historic development in Spain.

  Federica Montseny

  Responsibility, Sacrifice, Order

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• The age of automation is going to be the age of "do it yourself".

  Marshall McLuhan

  Age, Automation, Do It Yourself

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• Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

  Aristophanes

  Voice, Politician, Breeding

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• An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own.

  Walter Bagehot

  Sacrifice, Giving, Political

  Walter Bagehot (1974). “The collected works of Walter Bagehot”

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• The information encoded in your DNA determines your unique biological characteristics, such as sex, eye color, age and Social Security number.

  Dave Barry

  Birthday, Sex, Eye

  Dave Barry (2009). “Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus”, p.146, Ballantine Books

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• There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

  Warren Buffett

  Life, Nature, War

  "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville". Essay by Warren Buffett published in Hermes, the Columbia Business School Magazine (1984), later quoted in "31 years ago, Warren Buffett revealed the secret to investing and correctly predicted nobody would listen" by Myles Udland, www.businessinsider.com. August 24, 2015.

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• I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Stupidity, Fool, Honest

  Giacomo Casanova “The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt”, Library of Alexandria

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• Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Happiness, Laughter, Joy

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.72, Oxford University Press

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• When I think about the world I would like to leave to my daughter and the grandchildren I hope to have, it is a world that moves away from unequal, unstable, unsustainable interdependence to integrated communities - locally, nationally and globally - that share the characteristics of all successful communities.

  William J. Clinton

  Success, Daughter, Moving

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• One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.

  Jean Cocteau

  Dream, Regret, Cutting

  "La Difficulté d'Etre ('The Difficulty of Being')". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1947.

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• A child's learning is a function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher.

  James S. Coleman

  Teacher, Children, Function

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