Defining Quotes - Page 16

• Our understanding of what constitutes intelligence is utterly relative. If an aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, for example, all of Western civilization would probably flunk. We have a very convenient and self-serving way of defining intelligence. If an animal does something, we call it instinct. If we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence.

  John Robbins

  Animal, Self, Civilization

  John Robbins (2011). “Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth”, p.38, H J Kramer

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• Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable.

  Louis Untermeyer

  Unforgettable, Term, Poetry Is

  Louis Untermeyer (1969). “The pursuit of poetry: a guide to its understanding and appreciation with an explanation of its forms and a dictionary of poetic terms”, Simon & Schuster

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• We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

  Nelson Mandela

  Reality, Years, Achievement

  "Foes pay tribute as Mandela begins long goodbye" by Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com. March 26, 1999.

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• Opportunity could be defined in so many ways. There's one way of defining it, equality of opportunity, which is in fact the equality of capability, but the libertarians got there first and they have - like the Americans getting onto the moon, naming every crater after something like an astronaut - they have got there and named "opportunity" in a way that we cannot get ownership of now.

  Amartya Sen

  Moon, Opportunity, Libertarian

  "Interview: Amartya Sen on power to our citizens". Interview with Liam Byrne, liambyrne.co.uk. 2009.

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• The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.

  Henry Petroski

  Book, Home, Mean

  Henry Petroski (2010). “The Book on the Bookshelf”, p.11, Vintage

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• I've learned when to get out. I've never wasted too much time with the wrong person, and that's one thing I'm proud of. The longer you're with the wrong person, you could be completely overlooking or not having the chance to meet the right person. And if it doesn't feel right, it isn't right. How do you know if something feels right? I think the great defining factor for me is whether I want more. When they drive away, do I wish they would turn around at the end of the street and come back? Or am I fine that they're going home?

  Taylor Swift

  Home, Thinking, Wish

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• When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Morning, Bed, Remember

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.103, Modern Library

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• This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Retirement, Home

  "Obama evokes Roosevelt rhetoric". "The World Today with Eleanor Hall", www.abc.net.au. December 7, 2011.

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• Creativity is the foundation of wealth. All progress comes from the creative minority. Under capitalism, wealth is less a stock of goods than a flow of ideas, the defining characteristic of which is surprise. If it were not surprising, we could plan it, and socialism would work.

  George Gilder

  Creativity, Ideas, Creative

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• You've no idea how wonderful toilet paper is until it's taken away from you by an unfeeling universe. I think it's the defining characteristic of human civilization, the ability to manufacture something decent to wipe your ass on.

  Peter F. Hamilton

  Taken, Thinking, Civilization

  Peter F. Hamilton (2009). “Judas Unchained”, p.906, Pan Macmillan

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• It's a weird feeling when people are defining you, and you haven't even defined yourself.

  Leonardo DiCaprio

  People, Feelings, Weird Feeling

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• I'm in my 30's, and I'm still struggling with defining myself. I'm working every day to take control of things that are out of my control, and not letting them bring me down or frustrate me, to the point of paralysis.

  Lauren Iungerich

  Struggle, Take Control, Paralysis

  Source: collider.com

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• The Latin American photographer has the possibility, and the means, for naming the things of our world, for demonstrating that there is another kind of beauty, that the faces of the First World are not the only ones. These Indian, black, plundered white and mestizo faces are the first element defining the demographic content of our photography.

  Edmundo Desnoes

  Photography, Latin, Mean

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• The Golden Straitjacket is the defining political-economic garment of globalization. [...] The tighter you wear it, the more gold it produces.

  Thomas Friedman

  Political, Gold, Economic

  "The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization". Book by Thomas Friedman, "The Golden Straitjacket", 2000.

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• The Berlin Wall is the defining achievement of socialism.

  George Will

  Wall, Achievement, Berlin

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• There is an inherent dissonancebetween the quasi-formal world of computer programs - defining the programmed machine in each system - and the non-formal problem world of the system requirements.

  Michael Jackson

  Machines, World, Requirements

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• I grew up in a Christian home. The strictness comes with religion in general. Whether you grew up Jewish or Orthodox Jewish or Muslim, there are certain rules and regulations. But my parents instilled in me the importance of defining God for yourself.

  Vera Farmiga

  Christian, Home, Parent

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• I believe water will be the defining crisis of our century — from droughts, storms, and floods to degrading water quality. We'll see major conflicts over water and the proliferation of water refugees. We inhabit a water planet, and unless we protect, manage, and restore that resource, the future will be a very different place from the one we imagine today.

  Alexandra Cousteau

  Believe, Water, Storm

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• The question of the right to privacy must be one of the defining issues of our time.

  Salil Shetty

  Issues, Privacy, Our Time

  "Davos 2014: Top 10 Quotes of the Day". www.weforum.org. January 22, 2014.

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• Choose to be pro-active, assertive and self-defining.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Self, Assertive, Active

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• Children and scientists share an outlook on life. If I do this, what will happen? is both the motto of the child at play and the defining refrain of the physical scientist. ... The unfamiliar and the strange - these are the domain of all children and scientists.

  James Gleick

  Children, Play, Outlook On Life

  James Gleick (1992). “Genius: the life and science of Richard Feynman”, Pantheon

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• Fashion is not just about trends. It's about political history. You can trace it from the ancient Romans to probably until the '80s, and you can see defining moments that were due either to revolutions or changes in politics.

  Daphne Guinness

  Fashion, Political, Revolution

  Interview with Peter Brant II, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 23, 2011.

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• I am defining leadership in terms of the role, not the position.

  Edgar Schein

  Roles, Term, Position

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• Mads has a terrifying subtlety and as the episodes go on, you start seeing the way a person can command other people by doing practically nothing and terrifying the sh*t out of you. He is the most astonishingly subtle performer with the most incredibly keen sense of what his face can do and how his words can form. He has a mission. Nothing is by chance. I truly believe as long as we have success in seasons that Mads will become the defining face of Hannibal Lecter.

  David Slade

  Believe, Long, People

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• The more people participate in the process of their own education, and the more people participate in defining what kind of production to produce, and for what and why, the more people participate in the development of their selves. The more people become themselves, the better the democracy.

  Paulo Freire

  Self, People, Democracy

  Myles Horton, Paulo Freire, Brenda Bell, John Gaventa (1990). “We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change”, p.145, Temple University Press

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