Concepts Quotes

• The concept of progress must be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things are 'status quo' is the catastrophe

  Walter Benjamin

  Ideas, Progress, Status Quo

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings (2003). “Selected Writings: 1938-1940”, p.184, Harvard University Press

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• Coincidence was a concept he did not entirely trust. As someone who had spent his life exploring the hidden interconnectivity of disparate emblems and ideologies, Langdon viewed the world as a web of profoundly intertwined histories and events. The connections may be invisible, he often preached to his symbology classes at Harvard, but they are always there, buried just beneath the surface.

  Dan Brown

  Class, Events, Connections

  Dan Brown (2010). “The Da Vinci Code: (Robert Langdon Book 2)”, p.21, Random House

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• Science advances, not by the accumulation of new facts, but by the continuous development of new concepts.

  James Bryant Conant

  Science, Development, Facts

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• I am sometimes perplexed by people who refer to defensive rifles, or defensive rifle shooting. The defensive arm is the pistol, since you have it at hand to meet situations that you do not anticipate. If you have the luxury of anticipating a lethal encounter, you pick up a long arm, either a rifle or a shotgun, but in that case you go on to the attack. Thus rifle shooting is offensive, and pistol shooting is defensive. Of course, life does not always duplicate theory, and there are exceptions to everything, but nevertheless the rifle is not a defensive weapon in concept.

  Jeff Cooper

  Gun, Hands, Luxury

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• Without goals the very concept of intelligence is meaningless

  Steven Pinker

  Goal, Meaningless

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• Concepts antedate facts.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Ideas, Facts

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1904). “Human Work”, p.35, Rowman Altamira

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• Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a few days and you'll be thin for life.

  James Surowiecki

  Might, Corporations, Crash

  "The Open Secret of Success". www.newyorker.com. May 12, 2008.

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• Concepts become forces when they resist one another

  Johann Friedrich Herbart

  Force

  Johann Friedrich Herbart, Daniel N. Robinson (1977). “A Text-book in Psychology”, Univ Publications of Amer

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• If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture

  Neil Postman

  Children, Parenting, Childhood

  Neil Postman (2011). “Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future”, p.138, Vintage

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• What is beautiful enchants me. I mean not just physical beauty but a wider concept of beauty. There is beauty in poetry and in great musical or singing performances. There is beauty everywhere if you can just see it.

  Andrea Bocelli

  Beautiful, Mean, Beauty Everywhere

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• If you do not have the concept of distance, you may reach an unreachable place!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Distance, May, Unreachable

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• The concept of minimum wage is crazy, if you really stop to think about it. If $8 an hour seems right, why not $20 an hour? If its coming by order of the government, why stop at any level? Why not just say everyone should get what Gates gets?

  Malcolm Wallop

  Crazy, Thinking, Government

  "[Flashback interview] Retired Senator Malcolm Wallop: 'The Great American Experiment'". Interview With Peter Evans, Helen Evans, www.ff.org. January 6, 2013.

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• Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.

  Chip Kidd

  Falling In Love, Jobs, Technology

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• There needs to be just a little bit of crazy when dreaming up a new concept.

  Sam Lake

  Dream, Crazy, Needs

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• Having 'best friends' is - at least for me - as outdated and small-minded a concept as the idea of 'Sunday best clothes.'

  Julie Burchill

  Sunday, Ideas, Clothes

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• The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.

  Nhat Hanh

  Buddhist, Buddhism, Order

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.36, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Innovation is really the concept of converging disparate ideas in a new way.

  Gary Shapiro

  Ideas, Innovation, Way

  Source: skift.com

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• Above all we have to go beyond words and images and concepts. No imaginative vision or conceptual framework is adequate to the great reality.

  Bede Griffiths

  Reality, Vision, Adequate

  Bede Griffiths (2004). “Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings”

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• We're taught that in life, we should try to look on the bright side. Not in this case. In this case, assume rejection first. Assume you're the rule, not the exception. It's liberating. But we also know it's not an easy concept. -He's not just into you

  Greg Behrendt

  Truth, Dating, Rejection

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• As a young rookie NFL player, you go to the rookie symposium and the one thing they tell you is, "You guys know what the NFL stands for?" Everybody looks around like, "National Football League...?" The guy's like, "Nope - Not For Long." They tell you right there to get prepared for your second life. You take that in, and I've always been one to prepare early, to see ahead and anticipate and believe in great things happening, and they do. I'd already known that concept and appreciated that concept, but for me, I was always going to be here for a while. I just believed in that.

  Russell Wilson

  Football, Believe, Player

  Source: bleacherreport.com

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• The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy offers this definition of the word "Infinite". Infinite: Bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some. Much bigger than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, "wow, that's big", time. Infinity is just so big that by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy. Gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept we're trying to get across here.

  Douglas Adams

  Trying, Facts, Infinity

  Douglas Adams (2008). “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, p.142, Del Rey

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• Atheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purifiy its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery.

  Bede Griffiths

  Atheist, Rejection, Challenges

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• I am now convinced that children should not be subjected to the frightfulness of the Christian religion [...]. If the concept of a father who plots to have his own son put to death is presented to children as beautiful and as worthy of society's admiration, what types of human behavior can be presented to them as reprehensible?

  Ruth Hurmence Green

  Beautiful, Christian, Atheist

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• If we do not do something to help these creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.

  Jane Goodall

  Justice, Helping, Mockery

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• No theory ever benefited by the application of data, Amy. Data kills theories. A theory has no better time than when it's lying there naked, pure, unsullied by facts. Let's just keep it that way for a while." "So you don't really have a theory?" "Clueless." "You lying bag of fish heads." "I can fire you, you know. Even if Clay was the one that hired you, I'm not totally superfluous to this operation yet. I'm kind of in charge. I can fire you. Then how will you live?" "I'm not getting paid." "See, right there. Perfectly good concept ruined by the application of fact.

  Christopher Moore

  Lying, Clueless, Fire

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