Defining Quotes - Page 4

• Comparing objects like cars, houses, clothes, and defining life according to those comparisons, instead of trying to discover the real reason for being alive.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Real, Clothes

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• I'd love for my ambition and will and intellect and sense of humour to define me as well. I'm definitely responsible for the image that I put out there. But it does become frustrating, because I don't want 'sexy' to be my defining characteristic.

  Eva Mendes

  Sexy, Ambition, Doe

  "Eva Mendes Doesn't Want to Just Be 'Sexy'" by Gillian Koenig, people.com. July 13, 2010.

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• We all yearn to fly. We are creatures of longing. We do not need to [physically fly] to be airborne. What I call the aerial instinct-the drive to transcend our present condition- is the defining characteristic of a human being. We are restless animals, eternal travelers who are forever in the process of becoming. Consciousness itself is a flight from the here and now to the beyond. Our reach always exceeds our grasp, which is what Heaven is for.

  Sam Keen

  Animal, Forever, Heaven

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• To me, love, spirituality and life are all the same thing. To me they're all about honoring the circle, and they're just different ways of defining the same understanding. Our society as a whole, because we have placed our love for money above our love for life, has devalued the sacred and devalued love.

  Julia Hill

  Love, God, Circles

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• I want to find that defining moment that you're satisfied and you've done what you want to do in your life.

  Tyson Gay

  Athlete, Done, Want

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• Evolution in the biosphere is therefore a necessarily irreversible process defining a direction in time; a direction which is the same as that enjoined by the law of increasing entropy, that is to say, the second law of thermodynamics. This is far more than a mere comparison: the second law is founded upon considerations identical to those which establish the irreversibility of evolution. Indeed, it is legitimate to view the irreversibility of evolution as an expression of the second law in the biosphere.

  Jacques Monod

  Science, Views, Expression

  Jacques Monod (1971). “Chance and necessity: an essay on the natural philosophy of modern biology”

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• The Bible does say, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Preaching, music, the reading of the Word-these things are fine-but they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God's dwelling.

  Jim Cymbala

  Prayer, Reading, Dwelling

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• Are people the best judges of their own happiness, or outsiders? In defining happiness, should we think of entire lives or of shorter periods such as moments, days, or years? And to what extent are virtue and happiness linked?

  Sissela Bok

  Happiness, Thinking, Years

  Sissela Bok (2010). “Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science”, p.38, Yale University Press

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• I think it's very important that we protect marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. I proposed a constitutional amendment. The reason I did so was because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage. And the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution.

  George W. Bush

  Faith, Men, Thinking

  Presidential debate in Tempe, Arizona, www.cnn.com. October 13, 2004.

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• I would probably list myself as mostly straight. I've met guys all the time that I'm like, Damn, that's a good-looking guy, you know? I've never been, like, Oh, I want to kiss that guy. I really love women. But I think defining yourself as 100% anything is kind of near-sighted and close-minded.

  Josh Hutcherson

  Gay, Kissing, Thinking

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• What I know for sure: Often we don't even realize who we're meant to be because we're so busy trying to live out someone else's ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Destiny, Ideas, People

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• The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe that bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe that defeat is just a temporary setback or a challenge, that its causes are just confined to this one case.

  Martin Seligman

  Believe, Thinking, Opposites

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• I have a little sister, and I'm constantly annoyed [by] how terribly written most females are in most everything - and especially in comedy. Their anatomy seems to be the only defining aspect of their character, and I just find that untrustful and it straight-up offends me.

  Jay Baruchel

  Character, Profound, Annoyed

  "Jay Baruchel on His Hockey Comedy, Goon, Meeting James Franco, and Writing for Women". Interview With Jennifer Vineyard, www.vulture.com. March 26, 2012.

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• In fashion, general people will look to the piece itself. [Some designers] concentrate on, 'How can I make this seam look special?' or 'What am I going to do with that button so it looks interesting?' I am not interested in that. At the moment, I am more interested in the shape and the form. I have a big desire to make clothes without defining them.

  Raf Simons

  Fashion, Clothes, People

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• Woven into our lives is the very fire from the stars and the genes from the sea creatures, and everyone, utterly everyone, is kin in the radiant tapestry of being. This relationship is not external or extrinsic to our identity but wells up as the defining truth from our deepest being.

  Elizabeth A. Johnson

  Stars, Integrity, Fire

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• Very often design is the most immediate way of defining what products become in people's minds.

  Jonathan Ive

  Philosophical, People, Design

  "Jonathan Ive: Apple of the iMac". Interview with Caroline Frost, news.bbc.co.uk. January 18, 2002.

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• I never use the word "drug" without defining it. I define it exactly the way the DEA defines it, "a chemical compound capable of reproduction in standardized dosages." I explain that marijuana is a plant with many drugs in it, just like any other plant.

  Carl E. Olson

  War, Marijuana, Drug

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• The transition to a low-carbon economy will be one of the defining issues of the 21st century. This plan sets out a route-map for the UK's transition from here to 2020...every business, every community will need to be involved. Together we can create a more secure, more prosperous low carbon Britain and a world which is sustainable for future generations.

  Ed Miliband

  Together We Can, Issues, Community

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• Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail.

  Malcolm Bradbury

  Details, Culture, World

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• The word, and the concept of feminism, was a gift because it gave me a sense of identity and a way of defining how I wished to live my life.

  Betty Buckley

  Feminist, Feminism, Identity

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• It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters.

  Stephen King

  Character, Writing, Voice

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.178, Simon and Schuster

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• Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

  Benjamin Lee Whorf

  Writing, Language, Framework

  'Thinking in Primitive Communities' in Hoyer (ed.) 'New Directions in the Study of Language' 1964

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• ...the truer measure of sacrifice isn't so much what one gives to sacrifice as what one sacrifices to give. Faith isn't tested so much when the cupboard is full as when it is bare. In these defining moments, the crisis doesn't create one's characterit reveals it.

  Lynn G. Robbins

  Sacrifice, Giving, Defining Moments

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• The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.

  Jeffrey Sachs

  Fate, Reality, Challenges

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• Terrorism drives out all normal human activity before it, defining life in its own sick terms, if it can. So, a baseball game on a sultry Texas night before a huge crowd, with everyone feeling perfectly safe, is exactly what terrorists hate. Which is why it is so important to resume such athletic rituals - which symbolize stability, confidence and order - as soon as is reasonably possible.

  Thomas Boswell

  Sports, Baseball, Hate

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