Concepts Quotes

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

  James Bryant Conant

  Science, Development, Facts

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  22 Copy quote

• Concepts antedate facts.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Ideas, Facts

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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Without goals the very concept of intelligence is meaningless

  Steven Pinker

  Goal, Meaningless

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Distance, May, Unreachable

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  70 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Gary Shapiro

  Ideas, Innovation, Way

  Source: skift.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Sam Lake

  Dream, Crazy, Needs

  2 Copy quote

• 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

  2 Copy quote

• 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”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not up to us to particularize, but rather to deduce that the concepts of human rights originated from the divine influence because, as far as we are concerned, we are compelled to recognize our slow individual evolution from fierce selfishness toward a universal love, from the iniquity toward true justice.

  Chico Xavier

  Rights, Justice, Selfishness

  20 Copy quote

• The concept of time shuts off eternity.

  Joseph Campbell

  Eternity, Concept Of Time

  2 Copy quote

• There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of idle thoughts. What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought we have either contributes to truth or to illusion.

  Gautama Buddha

  Self, Giving, Perception

  3 Copy quote

• It is not true that people who accomplish things don't waste time and that people who waste time don't accomplish things. The very concept is ill-informed. You can't waste time and you can't save time; you can only choose what you do at any given moment.

  James Gleick

  People, Waste, Wasting Time

  "James Gleick's survival lessons" by David Diamond, www.wired.com. August 1, 1999.

  0 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think one has to understand, not as a theory, not as a speculative, entertaining concept, but rather as an actual fact - that we are the world and the world is us. The world is each one of us; to feel that, to be really committed to it and to nothing else, brings about a feeling of great responsibility and an action that must not be fragmentary, but whole.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Responsibility, Thinking, Feelings

  5 Copy quote

• Science is better paid than at any time in the past. The results of this pay have been to attract into science many of those for whom the pay is the first consideration, and who scorn to sacrifice immediate profit for the freedom of development of their own concept. Moreover, this inner development, important and indispensable as it may be to the world of science in the future, generally does not have the tendency to put a single cent into the pockets of their employers.

  Norbert Wiener

  Sacrifice, Past, Important

  5 Copy quote

• People whose concept of ancient history is the first series of Star Trek may be treated with patience, because it's usually not their fault they were reduced to getting their education from school.

  Terry Pratchett

  Stars, School, People

  3 Copy quote

• ‎When you meet anyone, treat the event as a holy encounter. It's through others that we either find or love our self. For you see, nothing is accomplished without others. When you eliminate the concept of separation from your thoughts and your behavior, you begin to feel your connection to everything and everyone.

  Wayne Dyer

  Self, Encounters, Events

  FaceBook post by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer from Mar 30, 2011

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• In spite of the great advances which have been made in our knowledge, some fundamental gaps remain. Matter, life and mind still remain utter disparate phenomena, yet the concepts of all three arise in experience; and in the human all three meet and intermingle.

  Jan Smuts

  Mind, Three, Fundamentals

  29 Copy quote