Contrary Quotes - Page 29

• Nothing in the Shastra, which is manifestly contrary to universal truths and morals, can stand.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Moral, Universal

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.125, Hackett Publishing

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• The ways of God are entirely different from our ways. To us it seems necessary to employ powerful means in order to produce great effects. This is not God's method; quite the contrary. He likes to choose the weakest instruments that He may confound the strong: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong - Infirma mundi elegit ut confundat fortia".

  Columba Marmion

  Strong, Powerful, Mean

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• I am responsible for my fate, I am the bringer of good unto myself, I am the bringer of evil. I am the Pure and Blessed One. We must reject all thoughts that assert to the contrary.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Strength, Blessed, Fate

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.650, Manonmani Publishers

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• Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out.

  Ethan Canin

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.identitytheory.com

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• It is impossible to keep spiritual peace if we do not take care of the mind, that is if we do not drive out thoughts that are displeasing to God and, on the contrary, keep thoughts which are pleasing to God. It is necessary to look into the heart with mind and see what is done there. Is it peaceful or not? If not, then find out in what you have sinned.

  Silouan the Athonite

  Inspirational, Christian, Spiritual

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• Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

  Voltaire

  Atheist, Common Sense, Religion

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• Everything happens through immutable laws, ...everything is necessary... There are, some persons say, some events which are necessary and others which are not. It would be very comic that one part of the world was arranged, and the other were not; that one part of what happens had to happen and that another part of what happens did not have to happen. If one looks closely at it, one sees that the doctrine contrary to that of destiny is absurd; but there are many people destined to reason badly; others not to reason at all others to persecute those who reason.

  Voltaire

  Destiny, Law, People

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• Contrary to the cliche', genuinely nice guys most often finish first or very near it.

  Steve Forbes

  Inspirational, Kindness, Integrity

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• To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, Come to me and rest. But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too. For them this same invitation is meant. Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, Go, labor on, as perhaps you imagine. On the contrary, it is stop, turn back, Come to me and rest. Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work; never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, Come, come, come.

  Hudson Taylor

  Jesus, Mistake, Sick

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• Enthusiasm is not contrary to reason; it is reason - on fire.

  Peter Marshall

  Fire, Enthusiasm, Reason

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• There is a bizarre notion according to which it is claimed that because men are corrupt, it is necessary to give certain of them all the more power... on the contrary, they must be given less power.

  Benjamin Constant

  Philosophy, Men, Giving

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• Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.

  John Wesley

  Dream, Mean, Men

  John Wesley (1829). “Sermons on Several Occasions”, p.417

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• Despite claims by some to the contrary, we have heard numerous times in hearings and briefings by experts that existing technologies do not fully or effectively detect nuclear material.

  John Linder

  Technology, Hearing, Experts

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• It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of so much suffering, and that therefore, per impossibile, they simply have to be squared with the existence of all this suffering, somehow.

  Walter Kaufmann

  Two, Suffering, Facts

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• God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.

  John Newton

  Heart, Views, Giving

  John Newton (2001). “The Voice of the Heart”, p.87, Sovereign Grace Publishers,

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• The learning we received only tended to obscure our vision. From the day we went to school we learned nothing; on the contrary, we were made obtuse, we were wrapped in a fog of words and abstractions.

  Henry Miller

  School, Fog, Vision

  Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

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• In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.

  John Locke

  Faith, Ideas, Judging

  John Locke (1836). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, p.530

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• Personally, I do not believe that we shall have greater armaments in the future than we have had in the past. On the contrary, I believe there will be a gradual diminution in this respect.

  William Watson

  Respect, Believe, Past

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• A powerful portfolio of physiological and behavioural evidence now exists to support the case that fish feel pain and that this feeling matters. In the face of such evidence, any argument to the contrary based on the claim that fish 'do not have the right sort of brain' can no longer be called scientific. It is just obstinate.

  John Webster

  Pain, Powerful, Support

  John Webster (2008). “Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden”, p.69, John Wiley & Sons

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• Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it: but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report, when, perhaps, they find the contrary within.

  John Locke

  Thinking, Men, Judging

  John Locke (1840*). “The Conduct of the Understanding; By John Locke ... Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political; by Francis Bacon”, p.130

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• The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshiped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers.

  Kenneth Clark

  Men, Order, Giving

  "The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form" by Kenneth Clark, (Ch. I), 1951.

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• Thus the labour of a manufacture adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance, and of his masters profits. The labour of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.

  Adam Smith

  Add, Maintenance, Masters

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond”, p.311, Harriman House Limited

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• And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.

  George Chapman

  Soul, Tragedy, Fiction

  George Chapman (1874). “The Works of George Chapman: Plays”, p.178

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• For men to be tied and led by authority, as it were with a kind of captivity of judgment, and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it, but to follow like beasts the first in the herd, they know not, nor care not whither, this were brutish.

  Richard Hooker

  Men, Firsts, Captivity

  Richard Hooker, Izaak Walton (1839). “The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker: Containing Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and Several Other Treatises”, p.274

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• Science has long been in the value business. Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, scientific validity is not the result of scientists abstaining from making value judgments; rather, scientific validity is the result of scientists making their best efforts to value principles of reasoning that link their beliefs to reality, through reliable chains of evidence and argument.

  Sam Harris

  Reality, Objectivity, Best Effort

  "The Moral Landscape". Book by Sam Harris, 2010.

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