Characteristics Quotes - Page 6

• If I had to define life in a single phrase, I should clearly express my thought of throwing into relief one characteristic which, in my opinion, sharply differentiates biological science. I should say: life is creation.

  Claude Bernard

  Life, Science, Relief

  Claude Bernard “Experimental Medicine”, Transaction Publishers

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The basic thesis of gestalt theory might be formulated thus: there are contexts in which what is happening in the whole cannot be deduced from the characteristics of the separate pieces, but conversely; what happens to a part of the whole is, in clearcut cases, determined by the laws of the inner structure of its whole.

  Max Wertheimer

  Science, Law, Pieces

  "Productive thinking". Book by Max Wertheimer, p. 84, 1959.

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• Another characteristic of mathematical thought is that it can have no success where it cannot generalize.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Success, Science, Thinking

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1933). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce: Exact logic (Published papers).. The Simplest mathematics”, Harvard University Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human beings never think for themselves. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

  Michael Crichton

  Fear, Thinking, Self

  "The Lost World". Book by Michael Crichton, 1995.

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Of the many smells of Athens two seem to me the most characteristic - that of garlic, bold and deadly like acetylene gas. and that of dust, soft and warm and caressing like tweed.

  Evelyn Waugh

  Food, Two, Smell

  Evelyn Waugh (1930). “Labels: A Mediterranean Journal”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its urgency, 'here and now' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Inspirational, Life, Motivation

  "'Misión de la Universidad' ('Mission of the University')". Book by Jose Ortega y Gasset, translated by Howard Lee Nostrand, p. 73, 1946.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The characteristic of the first sort of religion is imitation. It insists on imitation: imitate Buddha, imitate Christ, imitate Mahavir, but imitate. Imitate somebody. Don`t be yourself, be somebody else. And if you are very stubborn you can force yourself to be somebody else. You will never be somebody else. Deep down you cannot be. You will remain yourself, but you can force so much that you almost start looking like somebody else.

  Rajneesh

  Being Yourself, Stubborn, Firsts

  8 Copy quote

• And by anarchist spirit I mean that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people; which is not an exclusive characteristic only of self-declared anarchists, but inspires all people who have a generous heart and an open mind.

  Errico Malatesta

  Heart, Mean, Justice For All

  Errico Malatesta (2015). “Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta”, p.110, PM Press

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• Perhaps the most extraordinary characteristic of current America is the attempt to reduce life to buying and selling. Life is not love unless love is sex and bought and sold. Life is not knowledge save knowledge of technique, of science for destruction. Life is not beauty except beauty for sale. Life is not art unless its price is high and it is sold for profit. All life is production for profit, and for what is profit but for buying and selling again?

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Art, Sex, Love Is

  83 Copy quote

• You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way. You simply show it and shut up.

  Gene Wolfe

  Writing, Character, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• Men's ideas about what women are have been formed from their ruling caste position, and have assigned women characteristics that would most advantage their masters, as well as justify men's rule over them. They do not represent 'truth' but have been promoted as if they were, with the backing of science and patriarchal views of biology.

  Sheila Jeffreys

  Men, Views, Ideas

  Sheila Jeffreys (2014). “Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism”, p.7, Routledge

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• Like every living thing its prime characteristic is a blind, unreasoned instinct to survive.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Blind, Instinct, Stranger In A Strange Land

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.42, Hachette UK

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.

  W. H. Auden

  Hair, Self, Hands

  9 Copy quote

• That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity – that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Essentials, Astonishment, Unexpected

  Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.41, Courier Corporation

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sadly, at a time when so much sophisticated cultural criticism by hip intellectuals from diverse locations extols a vision of cultural hybridity, border crossing, subjectivity constructed out of plurality, the vast majority of folks in this society still believe in a notion of identity that is rooted in a sense of essential traits and characteristics that are fixed and static.

  Bell Hooks

  Believe, Vision, Criticism

  13 Copy quote

• Our life of contemplation shall retain the following characteristics: —missionary: by going out physically or in spirit in search of souls all over the universe. —contemplative: by gathering the whole universe at the very center of our hearts where the Lord of the universe abides, and allowing the pure water of divine grace to flow plentifully and unceasingly from the source itself, on the whole of his creation. —universal: by praying and contemplating with all and for all, especially with and for the spiritually poorest of the poor.

  Mother Teresa

  Heart, Water, Grace

  Mother Teresa (1985). “Mother Teresa: Contemplative in the Heart of the World”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Edward Smith: What do you think is the characteristic of a really nice person? Some people you obviously do like more than others. Andy Warhol: Ummm, well, if they talk a lot. ES: What, and don't make you talk? AW: Yeah, yes, that's a really nice person.

  Andy Warhol

  Nice, Thinking, People

  8 Copy quote

• That night we made love "the real way" which we had not yet attempted although married six months. Big mystery. No one knew where to put their leg and to this day I'm not sure we got it right. He seemed happy. You're like Venice he said beautifully. Early next day I wrote a short talk ("On Defloration") which he stole and had published in a small quarterly magazine. Overall this was a characteristic interaction between us. Or should I say ideal. Neither of us had ever seen Venice.

  Anne Carson

  Real, Night, Next Day

  7 Copy quote

• Nobody believes in magicians any more, nobody believes that anyone can come along and wave a wand and turn you into a frog. But if you read in the paper that by injecting certain glands scientists can alter your vital tissues and you'll develop froglike characteristics, well, everybody would believe that.

  Agatha Christie

  Believe, Paper, Frogs

  Agatha Christie (1993). “A Caribbean Mystery ; A Pocket Full of Rye ; The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side ; They Do it with Mirrors”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete.

  Malcolm X

  Religious, Political, Religion

  25 Copy quote

• Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men

  George S. Patton

  Inspirational, Veterans Day, Military

  49 Copy quote

• Offence is so easily given. And where the 'minority' issue is involved, the rules seem to shift about: most of the time a person who is female/black/disabled/gay wants this not to be their defining characteristic; you are supposed to be blind to it. But then, on other occasions, you are supposed to observe special sensitivity, or show special respect.

  Lynne Truss

  Gay, Issues, Black

  8 Copy quote

• A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also a schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain - in short, a man.

  Robertson Davies

  Boys, Men, Self

  Robertson Davies (1996). “Fifth business”, Penguin, 1996

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I’m not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they’re wearing… I can always get a J. Crew catalogue… …So spare me, if you please, the hero’s ‘sharply intelligent blue eyes’ and ‘outthrust determined chin’.

  Stephen King

  Hero, Writing, Eye

  4 Copy quote

• Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, Humanity, Philanthropy

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.45, First Avenue Editions

  7 Copy quote

  Show source