Destructive Quotes - Page 32

• Nothing is more destructive of individual character than for a man to lose all faith in his own abilities for the prosecution of his work.

  Johann Gottlieb Fichte

  Character, Men, Individual

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• Many young people adopt pleasures for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name.... You mustallow that drunkenness, which is equally destructive to body and mind, is a fine pleasure. Gaming, that draws you into a thousand scraps, leaves you penniless, and gives you the air and manners of an outrageous madman, is another most exquisite pleasure, is it not? As to running after women, the consequences of that vice are only the loss of one's nose, the total destruction of health, and, not unfrequently, the being run through the body.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Running, Drinking, Loss

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• [U]nless a woman is held, by man, safe within the bounds of belief, she becomes inevitably a destructive force.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Women, Safe, Belief

  D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Greenspan, Lindeth Vasey (2003). “Studies in Classic American Literature”, p.89, Cambridge University Press

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• Love is a great thing. It is not by chance that in all times and practically among all cultured peoples love in the general senseand the love of a man for his wife are both called love. If love is often cruel or destructive, the reasons lie not in love itself, but in the inequality between people.

  Anton Chekhov

  Love, Lying, Men

  "Note-Book of Anton Chekhov". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1921.

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• There are those who discover they can leave behind destructive reactions and become patient as the earth, unmoved by fires of anger or fear, unshaken as a pillar, unperturbed as a clear and quiet pool.

  Gautama Buddha

  Fear, Anger, Fire

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• Worry is just about the worst form of mental activity there is-next to hate, which is deeply self destructive. Worry is pointless. It is wasted mental energy. It also creates bio-chemical reactions which harm the body, producing everything from indigestion to coronary arrest, and a multitude of things in between.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Hate

  Neale Donald Walsch (2005). “The Complete Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue”, p.175, Penguin

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• ... we know that productivity suffers when uncertainty is high. But we've failed to realize the equally destructive effects of too little anxiety. ... By protecting people from risk, we destroy their self-esteem. We rob them of the opportunity to become strong, competent people.

  Judith M Bardwick

  Strong, Self Esteem, Opportunity

  Judith M. Bardwick (1995). “Danger in the Comfort Zone: From Boardroom to Mailroom--how to Break the Entitlement Habit That's Killing American Business”, p.32, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

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• I have learned that part of the formula for success is to keep quiet about your objective until you get it. Just as the universe is filled with positive energy waiting to join your own, there is also destructive energy emanating from people who do not like you.

  Sheilah Graham Westbrook

  People, Waiting, Positive Energy

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• The love of solitude, when cultivated in the morn of life, elevates the mind to a noble independence, but to acquire the advantages which solitude is capable of affording, the mind must not be impelled to it by melancholy and discontent, but by a real distaste to the idle pleasures of the world, a rational contempt for the deceitful joys of life, and just apprehensions of being corrupted and seduced by its insinuating and destructive gayeties.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Real, Joy, Solitude

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• Science has only two things to contribute to religion: an analysis of the evolutionary, cultural, and psychological basis for believing things that aren't true, and a scientific disproof of some of faith's claims (e.g., Adam and Eve, the Great Flood). Religion has nothing to contribute to science, and science is best off staying as far away from faith as possible. The "constructive dialogue" between science and faith is, in reality, a destructive monologue, with science making all the good points, tearing down religion in the process.

  Jerry A. Coyne

  Believe, Reality, Two

  "Tania Lombrozo Strokes the Faithful at NPR". "Why Evolution is True" blog by Jerry Coyne, whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com. September 23, 2013.

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• I find nothing healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society. I do not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my conformity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Air, Luxury, Pay

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.280, Harvard University Press

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• It seems to me that we have to draw the line in sibling rivalry whenever rivalry goes out of bounds into destructive behavior of aphysical or verbal kind. The principle needs to be this: Whatever the reasons for your feelings you will have to find civilized solutions.

  Selma Fraiberg

  Sibling, Feelings, Principles

  Selma H. Fraiberg (2015). “The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood”, p.281, Simon and Schuster

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• Marriage is a custom brought about by women who then proceed to live off men and destroy them, completely enveloping the man in a destructive cocoon or eating him away like a poisonous fungus on a tree.

  Richard Harris

  Men, Tree, Cocoons

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

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• If we can find ways to love life and be joyful without being wasteful or destructive--that's what's important.

  Natalie Portman

  Love Life, Important, Way

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• To reduce destructive emotions we need to strengthen constructive emotions. For example, to counter anger we cultivate love and compassion.

  Dalai Lama

  Compassion, Example, Needs

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• I believe that the fundamental alternative for man is the choice between "life" and "death"; between creativity and destructive violence; between reality and illusions; between objectivity
  and intolerance; between brotherhood-independence and dominance-submission.

  Erich Fromm

  Believe, Creativity, Reality

  Erich Fromm (1994). “On Being Human”, Continuum

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• The unconscious can become destructive if it is disregarded and thwarted.

  Anais Nin

  Unconscious, Ifs, Disregarded

  "The Novel of the Future". Book by Anais Nin, 1969.

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• Children of the middle years do not do their learning unaffected by attendant feelings of interest, boredom, success, failure, chagrin, joy, humiliation, pleasure, distress and delight. They are whole children responding in a total way, and what they feel is a constant factor that can be constructive or destructive in any learning situation.

  Dorothy H Cohen

  Children, Learning, Years

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• There's nothing cool about being self-destructive.

  Patti Smith

  Self, Self Destructive, Self Destructive Behavior

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• The French, unfortunately, actually believe what they say, and that has been very destructive.

  Paul Krugman

  Believe, Has Beens

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• Regardless, heterosexual marriage is largely in trouble today because people see it as a selfish means of pleasing self, rather than a committed relationship in which the focus is on meeting the needs of the partner, that sense of selfishness and the redefinition of love as to something that is purely sentimental and emotional, has been destructive.

  Mike Huckabee

  Love, Selfish, Mean

  "Clinton puts squeeze on Dems campaign cash", www.foxnews.com. July 6, 2015.

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• Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole - a creature of ecclesiastical law - is an acceptable adversary, and large fortunes ride on its cases... So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life.

  William O. Douglas

  Party, Technology, Air

  "Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. April 19, 1972.

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• Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation. Not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace - pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity - but the human framework is no longer under man's control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family.

  Pope Paul VI

  Men, Creating, Risk

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• Criticism of growth arose with the discovery that growth beyond a certain point is destructive of the earth. We are already using resources much faster than they can be replenished. We are producing wastes much faster than nature's sinks can process them. The growth economy will end. The only questions are when its end will come, and whether humanity will be able to survive its demise.

  John B. Cobb

  Using Resources, Discovery, Humanity

  John B. Cobb (1994). “Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy”

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• A lot of the Republican rhetoric better than the Democrats'. But when they're in office, it's pretty much the same thing. It's serving their supporters, it's corporate welfare, it's cronyism which is so destructive, particularly to the disadvantaged.

  Charles Koch

  Office, Republican, Welfare

  "Charles Koch on the 2016 race, climate change and whether he has too much power". Interview with Matea Gold, www.washingtonpost.com. August 4, 2015.

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