Commonplace Quotes - Page 12

• It seems to be a general rule that sciences begin their development with the unusual. They have to develop considerable sophistication before they interest themselves in the commonplace.

  Ralph Linton

  Science, Development, Unusual

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• In today’s interconnected and globalized world, it is now commonplace for people of dissimilar world views, faiths and races to live side by side. It is a matter of great urgency, therefore, that we find ways to cooperate with one another in a spirit of mutual acceptance and respect.

  Dalai Lama

  Respect, Buddhist, Buddhism

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• It is a commonplace that the League of Nations is not yet-what its most enthusiastic protagonists intended it to be

  Hjalmar Branting

  League, Corny, Enthusiastic

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• Wine has lit up for me the pages of literature, and revealed in life romance lurking in the commonplace.

  Duff Cooper

  Wine, Romance, Literature

  Duff Cooper (2011). “Old Men Forget”, p.56, Faber & Faber

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• Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.

  Robert Adams

  Art, Thinking, Goal

  Robert Adams (1989). “Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values”

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• It was just the sort of yatch you'd expect a rock promoter to have. Mirrored ceilings, marble, Jacuzzis and leopard-skin everything, it made the merely vulgar seem commonplace.

  Pamela Anderson

  Funny, Rocks, Sailing

  Pamela Anderson (2008). “Star Struck”, p.95, Simon and Schuster

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• The commonplace needs no defence,Dullness is in the critic's eyes,Without a licence life evolvesFrom some dim phase its own surprise;Under these yellow-twinkling elms,Behind these hedges trimly shorn,As in a stable once, so hereIt may be born, it may be born.

  William Plomer

  Eye, Yellow, Needs

  William Plomer (1973). “Collected poems”

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• Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.

  Solomon

  Kings, Work, Men

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• 'Haunted by the past' is a commonplace phrase because it's a commonplace experience. Even if one is not, strictly speaking, 'haunted', the past is perpetually with one in the present, and the longer it grows and the further it recedes the stronger its presence seems to become.

  Philip Roth

  Past, Stronger, Phrases

  Source: www.theguardian.com

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• Women are networkers, women hate hierarchy and especially entrepreneurs hate hierarchy because when they see hierarchy structured in they see rules and regulations are commonplace, and they want to tear it down.

  Anita Roddick

  Hate, Entrepreneur, Tears

  Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

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• I wonder how many parents realize that by the so-called education they are giving their children, they are only driving them into the commonplace, and depriving them of any chance of doing anything beautiful or original.

  Isadora Duncan

  Beautiful, Children, Giving

  Isadora Duncan (1927). “My life”

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• We do not hug our miracles close. We put them hastily away, preferring the commonplace to live with.

  Fulton Oursler

  Miracle, Hug

  Fulton Oursler (1997). “The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Timeless Story of the Life of Jesus Christ”, Wings

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• It has become a commonplace that aggressiveness also often has its roots in fear. I am inclined to think that this theory has been pushed too far. [...] The type of aggressiveness that is the outcome of timidity is not, I think, that which inspires great leaders; the great leaders, I should say, have an exceptional self-confidence which is not only on the surface, but penetrates deep into the subconscious.

  Bertrand Russell

  Self Confidence, Thinking, Roots

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.32, Routledge

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• The whole story of human history is: The blasphemy of today is the commonplace of tomorrow.

  Ralph Nader

  Stories, Today, Tomorrow

  "A Portrait of the Crusader as a Young Man". Interview with Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell, www.motherjones.com. March 14, 2007.

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• People used to think I was so strange because my toiletry bag used to contain so many grooming items and cosmetics and stuff. But I think it's more acceptable these day for guys to take care of themselves. I think it's becoming more commonplace, not just for sportsmen, but for all guys to take care of themselves. Taking care of yourself is a nice thing to do. It's not seen as just a girl thing anymore. You see a lot more guys at the gym taking care of themselves, and I think it's going to continue to grow.

  Nick Youngquest

  Girl, Nice, Thinking

  Interview with Jamie Watt, au.askmen.com.

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• Critical sobriety is out of the question so long as this master of terror-in-the-commonplace exerts his spell.

  Anthony Boucher

  Long, Sobriety, Masters

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• The concrete is better than the abstract. The detail is better than the commonplace. The sensual [through the senses] is better than the intellectual. The visual is better than the mental.

  Ellen Hunnicutt

  Intellectual, Sensual, Details

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• I think it's becoming more commonplace, not just for sportsmen, but for all guys to take care of themselves. You can see in the marketplace that's the case as well, with more male products out there all the time.

  Nick Youngquest

  Thinking, Guy, Males

  Source: in.askmen.com

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• The Library didn't only contain magical books, the ones which are chained to their shelves and are very dangerous. It also contained perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren't also dangerous, just because reading them didn't make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangeous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader's brain.

  Terry Pratchett

  Mistake, Book, Reading

  Terry Pratchett (2009). “Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)”, p.152, Random House

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• They made small effort to cover their raw souls with the mantle of commonplace words.

  Susan Glaspell

  Effort, Soul, Made

  Susan Glaspell, Eric S. Rabkin (1912). “Lifted Masks, and Other Works”, p.93, University of Michigan Press

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• My imagination would never have served me as it has, but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention

  Charles Dickens

  Humble, Science, Imagination

  Charles Dickens, Georgina Hogarth, Mamie Dickens, Laurence Hutton, Richard Herne Shepherd (1908). “Letters and Speeches”

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• If to be interesting is to be uncommonplace, it is becoming a question, with me, if there are any commonplace people

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, People, Interesting

  Mark Twain, John S. Tuckey (1972). “Mark Twain's Fables of Man”, p.196, Univ of California Press

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• Dreams or illusions, call them what you will, they lift us from the commonplace of life to better things.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Inspirational, Dream, Illusion

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2008). “Michael Angelo and Translations”, p.18, Wildside Press LLC

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• Be commonplace and creeping and you'll be a success.

  Pierre Beaumarchais

  Success

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• I ask the reader to remember that what is most obvious may be most worthy of analysis. Fertile vistas may open out when commonplace facts are examined from a fresh point of view.

  Lancelot Law Whyte

  Views, Analysis, May

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