Definite Quotes - Page 14

• It is so often on the name of a misdeed that a life goes to pieces, not the nameless and personal action itself, which was perhaps a perfectly definite necessity of that life and would have been absorbed by it without effort.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Names, Effort, Pieces

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• Chance acquaintances are sometimes the most memorable, for brief friendships have such definite starting and stopping points that they take on a quality of art, of a whole thing, which cannot be broken or spoiled.

  William Saroyan

  Art, Memorable, Broken

  William Saroyan (1984). “The New Saroyan Reader: A Connoisseur's Anthology of the Writings of William Saroyan”, Creative Arts Book Company

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• Based on mixtures of the three primary colours, along with black and white, I come up with a certain number of possible colours and, by multiplying these by two or four, I obtain a definite number of colour fields that I multiply yet again by two, etc. But the complete realization of this project demands a great deal of time and work.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Black And White, Two

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• Look at airport security now. What started out as definite racial profiling is now where the computer picks a name. That's why you get a seven-month-old getting a pat down. [Imitates a security officer.] "Check the diapers. They're full."

  Robin Williams

  Funny, Humorous, Food

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed.

  Adolf Hitler

  Inspirational, Lying, Size

  "Mein Kampf". Book by Adolf Hitler, www.theguardian.com. 1925.

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• The most startling result of Faraday's Law is perhaps this. If we accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are composed of atoms, we cannot avoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well as negative, is divided into definite elementary portions, which behave like atoms of electricity.

  Hermann von Helmholtz

  Science, Law, Negative

  Hermann von Helmholtz (1971). “Selected writings of Hermann von Helmholtz”, Wesleyan Univ Pr

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• We have now got what seems to be definite proof that an X ray which spreads out in a spherical form from a source as a wave through the aether can when it meets an atom collect up all its energy from all round and concentrate it on the atom. It is as if when a circular wave on water met an obstacle, the wave were all suddenly to travel round the circle and disappear all round and concentrate its energy on attacking the obstacle. Mechanically of course this is absurd, but mechanics have in this direction been for some time a broken reed.

  Henry Moseley

  Science, Circles, Broken

  Henry Moseley's letter to Margery Moseley (February 2, 1913), as quoted in "H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist 1887-1915" edited by J. L. Heilbron (p. 201), 1974.

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• The youthful brain should in general not be burdened with things ninety-five percent of which it cannot use and hence forgets again... In many cases, the material to be learned in the various subjects is so swollen that only a fraction of it remains in the head of the individual pupil, and only a fraction of this abundance can find application, while on the other hand it is not adequate for the man working and earning his living in a definite field.

  Adolf Hitler

  Education, Science, Men

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• We have spoken of beings so low in the scale that the individuals throughout their whole existence are not sufficiently specialized to be distinctively plant or animal: yet these are definite life in simpler shape.

  Asa Gray

  Animal, Shapes, Individual

  Asa Gray (1880). “Natural Science and Religion”

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• The central conception of Man in the Gospels is that he is an unfinished creation capable of reaching a higher level by a definite evolution which must begin by his own efforts.

  Maurice Nicoll

  Men, Effort, Levels

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• I have tried to make all my acts and commercial moves the result of definite consideration and sound judgment. There were never any great ventures or risks. I practiced honest, slow-growing business methods, and tried to back them with energy and good system.

  Marshall Field

  Moving, Risk, Energy

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• How can there be methods and systems to arrive at something that is living? To that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path, but not to that which is living. Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it. ...Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put-together form, through stylized movement.

  Bruce Lee

  Philosophy, Reality, Together

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• It will be a vast boon to mankind when we learn to prophesy the precise dates when cycles of various kinds will reach definite stages.

  Ellsworth Huntington

  Kind, Stage, Boon

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• You may read any quantity of books, and you may almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don't have, at the back of yourminds, the change for words in definite images which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature.

  Thomas Huxley

  Book, Ignorant, May

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1877). “American Addresses: With a Lecture on the Study of Biology”, p.153

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• It is to be remembered that the origin of all the arts-music, painting and writing-is magical and evocative; and that magic is always used to obtain some definite result.

  William S. Burroughs

  Art, Writing, Magic

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• Every company has room for the man who has a definite plan of action which is to the advantage of that company.

  Napoleon Hill

  Men, Rooms, Action

  Napoleon Hill (2007). “The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time on the Secrets to Wealth and Prosperity”, p.108, Penguin

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• There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.

  Mason Cooley

  Lines, Affirmation, Yeah

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• Aristocracy is an atmosphere; it is sometimes a healthy atmosphere; but it is very hard to say when it becomes an unhealthy atmosphere. You can prove that a man is not the son of a king, or that he is not the delegate of a definite number of people. But you cannot prove that a man is not a gentleman.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Kings, Son, Men

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• I came then to a conviction that has never left me: that there is too much for me to attend to in this mortal life without overspeculation on the immortal, that it is not necessary to my peace of mind or to my effort to be a decent and useful person, to have a definite assurance about the affairs of the next world.

  Ida Tarbell

  Afterlife, Effort, Mind

  Ida M. Tarbell (2015). “All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography”, p.23, Ravenio Books

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• Man is a free moral agent and can be magnanimous and deal disinterestedly, humanity is a definite goal, social justice is desirable and possible, individual lives may be gloriously diversified, uniquely individualized, and yet socially useful; or, these are mere phrases, snares to catch gulls, soothing syrup for our troubled souls.

  George Amos Dorsey

  Men, Justice, Goal

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• the distinction between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines and uses; genius combines and creates.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Genius, Use, Talent

  Anna Brownell Jameson (1877). “A commonplace book of thoughts, memories and fancies, original and selected”, p.73

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• We should not be afraid, when praying to God, to give expression to a definite desire, even though we are in doubt at the time we are praying whether it is really the right thing to pray for or not.

  Ole Hallesby

  Expression, Giving, Doubt

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• The peculiar fascination which the speeding train has for us comes from the evident progress it is making toward its definite goal ahead.

  Roderick E. Stevens

  Goal, Progress, Fascination

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• Every individual should have a purpose in life which is worthy of intense effort-and constantly work toward the definite goal ahead.

  Roderick E. Stevens

  Should Have, Goal, Effort

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• Many writers lay very great stress upon some definite moral purpose, at which they profess to aim their works.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Stress, Purpose, Moral

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Illustrated)”, p.308, Delphi Classics

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