Defects Quotes - Page 9

• We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Imagination, Reform, Should

  Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.49

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• A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents. A transcendent talent draws so largely on his forces as tolame him; a defect pays him revenues on the other side.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Pay, Sides

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.333

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• If a lack of empirical foundations is a defect of the theory of logical probability, it is also a defect of deductive logic.

  David Stove

  Foundation, Logic, Theory

  "The Rationality of Induction". Book by David Stove, Oxford: Clarendon, p. 176, 1986.

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• It may be a mere patriotic bias, though I do not think so, but it seems to me that the English aristocracy is not only the type, but is the crown and flower of all actual aristocracies; it has all the oligarchical virtues as well as all the defects. It is casual, it is kind, it is courageous in obvious matters; but it has one great merit that overlaps even these. The great and very obvious merit of the English aristocracy is that nobody could possibly take it seriously.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Flower, Patriotic, Thinking

  "Orthodoxy". Book by G. K. Chesterton, Chapter VI. "The Paradoxes of Christianity", 1908.

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• Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Men, Contemporary Fiction

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• Man is a robot with defects.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Men, Robots

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Among the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects and effects, a defect of which we become more sensible by every attempt to supply it. Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things when they are shown their form or told their use; but the speculatist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity, and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.

  Samuel Johnson

  Education, Peace, Truth

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• Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to cover the defects of the mind.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Mind, Body, Mysterious

  Francois duc de La-Rochefoucauld (1828). “Maximes Et Reflexions Morales Traduites en Grec Moderne Par Wladimir Brunet; Avec Une Traduction Anglaise en Regard”, p.145

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• The factory of love encompasses all, but on some days, does it seem to be one of suffocation, squeezing its target too tightly? And on other days not tight enough? Or maybe that is the breath of a living love knowing when to protect, when to release, and when to protect again. For we are the products of an active love - the Father the creator, the Son the perfecter, the Spirit the supervisor - but just like in a factory, to deny the process is to ultimately create a defect of oneself.

  Criss Jami

  Father, Son, Knowing

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.19, Criss Jami

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• The real primary diseases of man are such defects as pride, cruelty, hate, self- love, ignorance, instability and greed; and each of these, if considered, will be found to be adverse to Unity.

  Edward Bach

  Real, Hate, Ignorance

  Edward Bach, F. J. Wheeler (1998). “The Bach Flower Remedies”, p.15, McGraw Hill Professional

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• Great virtues may draw attention from defects, they cannot sanctify them. A pebble surrounded by diamonds remains a common stone, and a diamond surrounded by pebbles is still a gem.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Attention, May, Stones

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.770, Library of Alexandria

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• In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Age, Levity

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• Rarest of all things on earth is the union in which both, by their contrasts, make harmonious their blending; each supplying the defects of the helpmate, and completing, by fusion, one strong human soul.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Strong, Soul, Fusion

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• Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race - the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

  Mark Twain

  Country, Eye, Heart

  Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.1338, GENERAL PRESS

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• As long as you cling to your self, you will wander right and left, day and night, for thousands of years; and when, after all that effort, you finally open your eyes, you will see your self, through inherent defects, wandering round itself like the ox in a mill; but, if, once freed of your self, you finally get down to work, this door will open to you within two minutes.

  Sanai

  Powerful, Eye, Night

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• Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in the jar that it is kept in. One man sees clearly but does not see straight: consequently he sees what is good but fails to follow it; he sees knowledge and does not use it.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Powerful, Educational, Men

  Michel de Montaigne (1991). “The essays of Michel de Montaigne”, Lane, Allen

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• Therein lies the defect of revenge: it's all in the anticipation; the thing itself is a pain, not a pleasure; at least the pain is the biggest end of it.

  Mark Twain

  Pain, Revenge, Lying

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.57, St. Martin's Press

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• By practicing the virtues we cultivate the soil from which healthy emotions sprout; by letting go of our character defects we drain the swamp in which diseased emotions breed.

  Ray Allen

  Letting Go, Character, Emotional

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• In England, more than in any other country, science is felt rather than thought. ... A defect of the English is their almost complete lack of systematic thinking. Science to them consists of a number of successful raids into the unknown.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Country, Successful, Science

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• Indeed envy is a defect; worse than any other.

  Rumi

  Character, Envy

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• Faults and defects every work of man must have.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Humanity, Faults

  John Milton, Elijah Fenton, Samuel Johnson (1821). “Paradise lost”, p.33

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• In fact, we will have to give up taking things for granted, even the apparently simple things. We have to learn to understand nature and not merely to observe it and endure what it imposes on us. Stupidity, from being an amiable individual defect, has become a social crime.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Giving Up, Science, Simple

  John Desmond Bernal (1967). “The origin of life”

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• Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.

  Seth Godin

  Art, Talking, Free Things

  Seth Godin (2010). “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future”, p.63, Hachette UK

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• So you see,' said Stepan Arkadyich, 'you're a very wholesome man. That is your virtue and your defect. You have a wholesome character, and you want all of life to be made up of wholesome phenomena, but that doesn't happen. So you despise the activity of public service because you want things always to correspond to their aim, and that doesn't happen. You also want the activity of the individual man always to have an aim, that love and family life always be one. And that doesn't happen. All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Character, Men, Light

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• Let us stay at home: there we are decent. Let us not go out: our defects wait for us at the door, like flies.

  Jules Renard

  Home, Doors, Waiting

  Jules Renard, Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Roget (2008). “The Journal of Jules Renard”, p.130, Tin House Books

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