Decency Quotes - Page 11

• I'd better get going or Valek will be wondering where I am." "Yes, by all means go. I noticed you and Valek have become close. Tell him, for me, not to kill anybody, will you?" Sarcasm rendered Rand's voice sharp. I lost control and slammed the oven door shut. It echoed in the quiet kitchen. "At least Valek has the decency to inform me when he's poisoning me.

  Maria V. Snyder

  Mean, Sarcasm, Doors

  Maria V. Snyder (2012). “Poison Study”, p.209, Harlequin

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• In other words, it was a struggle with himself. And the product of that struggle: anger, bitterness, resentment, envy or transformation, aspiration, hope, decency..the product of that struggle is the quality of your life and the nature of your soul.

  Emma Forrest

  Struggle, Envy, Soul

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• For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs-as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.

  Charles Darwin

  Dog, Sacrifice, Order

  The Descent of Man ch. 21 (1871)

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• Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Air, Space, Long

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• We entered a synagogue which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. Either these Displaced Persons never had any sense of decency or else they lost it all during their period of internment by the Germans. My personal opinion is that no people could have sunk to the level of degradation these have reached in the short space of four years.

  George S. Patton

  Army, Space, Personal Opinions

  "After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Post War Germany". Book by Michael Brenner, 1997.

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• How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Honesty, Integrity, Lying

  "The Ordeal of Mansart". Book by W. E. B. Du Bois, 1957.

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• Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries - but it is a force stronger than crime.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Success, Stronger, News

  "This I Believe". Book by Robert A. Heinlein, 1952.

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• Said to Mairin; "There's little decency to good loving" Maddie said. "If 'tis decent, it isn't much fun"!

  Maya Banks

  Fun, Littles, Said

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• Yeah," I said, "but you're an artist. You don't believe in decency and honesty and gratitude. Where shall we eat?

  Jack Kerouac

  Gratitude, Honesty, Believe

  William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac (2009). “And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks”, p.100, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.

  John Pilger

  Dream, War, Party

  "Breaking the great Australian silence". John Pilger's speech at the Sydney Opera House to mark his award of the Sydney Peace Prize, johnpilger.com. November 5, 2009.

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• Decency cannot be discussed without indecency!

  George Bernard Shaw

  Morality

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion”, p.3039, e-artnow

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• Rome tolerated every abominable practice, embraced every foul idea in the name of freedom and the rights of the common man. Citizens no longer carried on deviant behavior in private, but pridefully displayed it in public. It was those with moral values who could no longer freely walk in a public park without having to witness a revolting display. What happened to the public censors who protected the majority of citizenry from moral decadence? Did freedom have to mean abolishing common decency? Did freedom mean anyone could do anything they wanted anytime they wanted, without consequences?

  Francine Rivers

  Mean, Men, Rights

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• I'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English; and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have villains at all, I'd give them a chance, Anne--I'd give them a chance. There are some terrible bad men the world, I suppose, but you'd have to go a long piece to find them...But most of us have got a little decency somewhere in us. Keep on writing, Anne.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Writing, Character, Men

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2015). “Anne of Green Gables Collection: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of the Island, and More Anne Shirley Books”, p.541, Xist Publishing

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• silence is not weakness and decency is not pride

  Arthur Machen

  Pride, Silence, Weakness

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• My Lord, I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offense against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fir which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornement for a human face. Is it possible that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat? -Mandorallen

  David Eddings

  Mother, Dog, Past

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• Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Enough, Dare, Decent

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.613, 谷月社

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• The angry men know that this golden age (of fossil fuels) has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings.

  George Monbiot

  Hate, Heart, Men

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• It has been well said that tea is suggestive of a thousand wants, from which spring the decencies and luxuries of civilization.

  Agnes Repplier

  Spring, Civilization, Luxury

  Agnes Repplier (1932). “To Think of Tea!”

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• Until a few months ago we had a code of honor, and even the worst ruffians behaved with decency. You could leave your gold in a tent with no guard and no one would touch it, but now all that has changed. The law of the jungle rules, the only ideology is greed. Don't let yourself be parted from your weapons, and always travel in pairs or groups, because this is a land of thieves.

  Isabel Allende

  Law, Land, Greed

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• I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity.

  Armistead Maupin

  Gay, Like Family, Mama

  Armistead Maupin (1989). “Tales of the city ; More tales of the city ; Further tales of the city: an omnibus”, Vintage

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• Those graceful acts, those thousand decencies, that daily flow from all her words and actions, mixed with love and sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned union of mind, or in us both one soul.

  John Milton

  Love, Sweet, Soul

  John Milton, Thomas Keightley (1859). “Poems”, p.55

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• I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, "Please - a little less love, and a little more common decency."

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Life, Breakup, Fighting

  Kurt Vonnegut (2010). “Slapstick or Lonesome No More”, p.2, Random House

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• At least have the decency in you / To leave me alone, when you freaks see me out / In the streets when I'm eating or feeding my daughter

  Eminem

  Daughter, Leave Me Alone, Freak

  Song: The Way I Am, Album: The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000

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• One of the most important virtues of the American character is our ability to approach the complexities that life presents us with common sense and decency, .. The considered judgment of the American people is not going to rise or fall on the fine distinctions of a legal argument but on straight talk and the truth. It is time for the president and the Congress to follow that common sense for the good of the country.

  Dick Gephardt

  Country, Fall, Character

  "Top Democrats rip Clinton's defense strategy". www.cnn.com. September 14, 1998.

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• I feel lousy about the pain that I've caused my wife and kids. I feel guilty and conscience-stricken, and all of those things you think sentimental, but which my generation calls simple human decency. And I miss my home, because I'm beginning to get scared shitless, because all of a sudden it's closer to the end than the beginning, and death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me, with definable features.

  William Holden

  Pain, Home, Kids

  "Fictional character: Max Schumacher". "Network", www.imdb.com. 1976.

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