Counterproductive Quotes - Page 3

• You know, very often, if you look at the kinds of communications that they're getting in an ISIS recruiting video, the videos that, you know, that one hears of as radicalizing them, these are like action movies. And so in the sense, it's that by closing off the idea that young Muslims and particularly young Muslim men can be American heroes, it increases the chance that they'll try to be some other kind of hero. And that, I think, is entirely counterproductive.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Communication, Hero, Men

  Source: www.npr.org

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• The efficiency of a President at the beginning of his term depends on their capacity to get everything under control. That was my case. But once the institutions have been put in place, and the responsibilities delegated, the leader becomes a reference, a referee, a symbol and unifying figure for the nation. The issue is how and when to recognize the moment when staying in power becomes counterproductive.

  Paul Kagame

  Responsibility, Issues, Leader

  "Paul Kagame Interview in Jeune Afrique: 'Rwanda is a democracy not a monarchy'". Interview with Jeune Afrique, umuvugizi.wordpress.com. April 9, 2016.

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• The new Rwanda is about building an economy that delivers prosperity and opportunity for our citizens based on a robust private sector. Foreign adventures would be costly and counterproductive distractions from these challenging objectives.

  Paul Kagame

  Adventure, Opportunity, Challenges

  "Exclusive interview: Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda". Interview with Tony Metcalf, www.metro.us. August 29, 2012.

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• Poets should speak out against what we see as the assault against our Constitution and the warmongering that's going on. I'm perfectly willing to lay down my life for my Constitution, but I am not willing to take a life for it or any other reason because I think killing people is counterproductive.

  Sam Hamill

  Thinking, Speaks Out, People

  Interview with Anne-Marie Cusac, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. March 31, 2003.

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• Every passing year brings us more past futures. Here in Europe they had a Dark Age so extensive, radical and obliterative that everyone forgot how to speak Latin. It's counterproductive to blither on about "the" future. It's always somebody's future, and we're not who we used to be.

  Bruce Sterling

  Latin, Dark, Past

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• I never really got into any records purely thinking of them as a breakup record. I mean, honestly, for me, listening to a breakup record whilst dealing with one seems counterproductive!

  Michael Benjamin Lerner

  Breakup, Mean, Thinking

  "Michael Benjamin Lerner of Telekinesis". Interview With Cory Casciato, music.avclub.com. March 17, 2011.

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• Everything that the administration has done has been counterproductive.

  Bill McKibben

  Done, Administration, Has Beens

  Source: theotherjournal.com

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• I think the core problem is much closer to recognizing where force is of value, where it is useful, and to distinguish that from situations in which war is not useful or is indeed counterproductive.

  James Mattis

  War, Thinking, Problem

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• I think, broadly speaking, the US military's role - US military activism in various parts of the Islamic world over the past several decades has been counterproductive.

  James Mattis

  Military, Islamic, Past

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• States began to realize how much money they were spending on incarceration and how much money they were spending fighting this ludicrous war on drugs that was actually counterproductive.

  Ayelet Waldman

  War, Fighting, Drug

  Source: m.motherjones.com

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• Lobbying, protesting, letter-writing, American media, civil disobedience, and preaching pacifism ad nauseum, along with EDUCATION is the most effective way to enlighten the masses. Welfare concessions/campaigns, are counterproductive and simply ineffective in this day and age.

  Gary Yourofsky

  Writing, Media, Age

  Source: www.all-creatures.org

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• I believe that the boycott that we have against Cuba is counterproductive, and it also makes the twelve million or so Cuban people suffer unnecessarily just because of a foolish policy of the United States.

  Jimmy Carter

  Believe, People, Suffering

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• My father was a forest entomologist, which means he was aware that spraying forests for spruce budworm was counterproductive in that it didn't really work, and it killed everything else in the forests, and it wasn't good for the people who were exposed to it, either. So he was an early proponent of not doing that, but, of course, nobody listened.

  Margaret Atwood

  Father, Mean, People

  Source: progressive.org

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• The habit of going to your congressman's town hall and asking questions, that's powerful in a way that shouting slogans or getting arrested is not, that is completely counterproductive.

  David Frum

  Powerful, Asking Questions, Way

  Source: www.cbc.ca

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• I want to compliment the fraternity and sorority organizations for taking the time to meet with us and then removing their support from the legislation that would have been so counterproductive for a goal that I think we all share - and that is making campuses safer and the successful prosecution of people who commit serious crimes. So, good on them that they backed off, and we don't have to fight them.

  Claire McCaskill

  Fighting, Successful, Thinking

  Source: www.elle.com

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• The resources you happen to accumulate, what do you do with them? You can spend the money and buy some houses or whatever, and people do some of that and that's fine. You can give the money to other people, your family, but usually when you do that you screw them up and it ends up counterproductive. Or, you take those resources and reinvest them in things that you believe in, and that could be reinvesting in a philanthropic cause.

  Steve Case

  Believe, People, Giving

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• With respect to some of the specific legislation or initiatives that I've made, it's true that Republicans often opposed these things. Sometimes they opposed them because I proposed them. Now that they are responsible for governing, I think they'll find that reversing them would be counterproductive.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Would Be, Sometimes

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• One of the unwritten rules in a presidential news conference is that he'll answer questions. If he chooses not to, there's not much you can do about it other than make yourself look like an idiot screaming, which to me is counterproductive.

  Gwen Ifill

  Presidential, Looks, News

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I would like to see more control and more criticism coming from Europe. The constant expressions of friendship for former President Eduard Shevardnadze, who made some contribution to German unity, were counterproductive for our country.

  Irakli Okruashvili

  Country, Expression, Europe

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one's back is counterproductive.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Eye, Hands, Feet

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• When your victimhood is your empowerment, recovery is the enemy, and working on 'individual change' becomes counterproductive, even dangerous to your identity.

  Tammy Bruce

  Recovery, Empowerment, Enemy

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• The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white - who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behavior.

  Thomas Sowell

  Attitude, Self, White

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• When President Nixon declared war on drugs on June 17, 1971, about 110 people per 100,000 in the population were incarcerated. Today, we have 2-3 million prisoners: 743 people per 100,000 in the population. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of its prisoners. As Senator Jim Webb once put it, Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different and vastly counterproductive.

  Maia Szalavitz

  War, Home, June

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• I'm not going to shoot seven days a week. I think it's counterproductive. I think you're going to have people stumbling around after a couple of weeks.

  Roger Corman

  Couple, Thinking, People

  Source: collider.com

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• We've observed that people who stall in their personal growth work often have counterproductive soft addictions that stand in their way of growth and having the life they say they want. It can be a simple thing, such as watching TV instead of finishing a project.

  Judith Wright

  Life, Simple, People

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