Defying Quotes

• Our nation is being led astray by ungodly judges, mayors and governors, who are given to change, defying the Constitution and substituting their own wicked agendas.

  David Wilkerson

  Change, Judging, Wicked

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• The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Uplifting, Hope, Sky

  "The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts & Strange Stories". Book by Varla Ventura (p. 46), 2008.

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• It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

  Voltaire

  Bravery, Coward, Vain

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• I keep defying the odds, you know.

  Bubba Watson

  Odds, Bubba, Knows

  "Bubba Watson eyes the White House" by Darius Dixon, www.politico.com. April 11, 2012.

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• The key to every man is his thought.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Keys, Sturdy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.177, Penguin

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• The analytical geometry of Descartes and the calculus of Newton and Leibniz have expanded into the marvelous mathematical method

  Nicholas Murray Butler

  Math, Newton, Method

  Nicholas Murray Butler (1895). “What Knowledge is of Most Worth? ...”

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• The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

  Quentin Crisp

  Teenage, Parent, Copying

  The Naked Civil Servant ch. 19 (1968)

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• Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.

  Camille Paglia

  Sports, Art, Nature

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays”, p.82, Vintage

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• To exist is to defy all that threatens you. To be a rebel is not to accumulate a library of subversive books or to dream of fantastic conspiracies or of taking to the hills. It is to make yourself your own law. To find in yourself what counts. To make sure that you’re never “cured” of your youth. To prefer to put everyone up against the wall rather than to remain supine. To pillage whatever can be converted to your law, without concern for appearance.

  Dominique Venner

  Inspirational, Life, Dream

  "The Rebel: An Interview with Dominique Venner". www.counter-currents.com. June 29, 2010.

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• All is amiss. Love is dying, faith's defying, heart's denying.

  Richard Barnfield

  Heart, Love Is, Dying

  'England's Helicon' (1600) 'The Unknown Shepherd's Complaint' (renying ?reneging)

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• Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Literature, Virtue

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• So if you care to find me/ Look to the western sky/ As someone told me lately/ Everyone deserves the chance to fly!/ And if I'm flying solo/ At least I'm flying free/ Tell those who'd ground me/ Take a message back from me/ Tell them how I am defying gravity!/ I'm flying high defying gravity/ And soon I'll match them in renown./ And nobody in all of Oz/ No Wizard that there is or was/ Is ever gonna bring me down!/

  Stephen Schwartz

  Flying High, Sky, Messages

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• I like the idea of defying the convention of what it is to be in your 40s, or 50s, or 60s.

  Anthony Kiedis

  Ideas, Conventions

  Q Magazine interview, anthonykiedis.net. September 2011.

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• The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Attitude, Men, Keys

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.177, Penguin

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• I'm healthy, have a loving and adorable family, great hunting dogs, a gravity defying musical career and most importantly, fuzzy-headed idiots hate me.

  Ted Nugent

  Dog, Hate, Hunting

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• Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.

  Anne Frank

  Inspirational, Dark, Looks

  As quoted in "7 Laws of Human Nature: The Oneness of Universal Love" by Conrad Spainhower, 2017.

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• You become strong by defying defeat and by turning loss into gain and failure to success.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Inspirational, Strong, Loss

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• Life is a death-defying experience.

  Edna Buchanan

  Life Is

  Edna Buchanan (2014). “The Britt Montero Series (Omnibus Edition)”, p.618, Diversion Books

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• For more than 50 years, men and women around the world have reported sights in the sky that are strange to their experience and understanding. Inasmuch as many of these sights appeared to be solid objects having impressive performance, they have become known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or, colloquially, flying saucers. Their positive identification is one of the major public scientific challenges of the era, with a significant number of these sights so far defying all reasonable efforts at classification.

  Don Berliner

  Men, Sight, Years

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• As such, I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Bears, Neurology

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.99, Beacon Press

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• To hurry through the rise and fall of a fine, full sentence is like defying the role of time in human life.

  Kenneth Clark

  Fall, Roles, Human Life

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• Like psychoanalysis, constitutional jurisprudence has become a game without rules. By defying the plain meaning of words, ignoring context and history, and using a little ingenuity, you can make the Constitution mean anything you like.

  Joseph Sobran

  Mean, Games, Jurisprudence

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• Margaret Thatcher has shown that there is power and dignity to be won by defying the status quo and the majority rather than by adapting to them. If the British left, which she froze into immobility like Medusa, could bring itself to learn from this, then we might not have to look upon her like again.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Power, Majority, Medusa

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• Suddenly the nickel-clad horse takes the bit in its mouth and goes slanting for the curbstone defying all prayers and all your powers to change its mind - your heart stands still, your breath hangs fire, your legs forget to work.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Horse, Prayer

  Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.3132, GENERAL PRESS

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• Revisiting the Revolutionary War is a bracing reminder that the fate of a continent, and the shape of the modern world, turned on the free choices of remarkably few Americans defying an empire.

  George Will

  War, Fate, Choices

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