Diminish Quotes

• The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them.

  Stephen King

  Important, Ashamed, Hardest

  Stephen King (2016). “Different Seasons”, p.309, Simon and Schuster

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• A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Wisdom, Atheist

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The most important things are the hardest to say

  Stephen King

  I Love You, Valentines Day, Communication

  Stephen King (2016). “Different Seasons”, p.309, Simon and Schuster

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• Any woman's death diminishes me.

  Adrienne Rich

  1974 Poems: Selected and New,'FromanOldHouse inAmerica,16'. See Donne 281:85.

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• Humans, like all other creatures, must make a difference; otherwise, they cannot live. But unlike other creatures, humans must make a choice as to the kind and scale of difference they make. If they choose to make too small a difference, they diminish their humanity. If they choose to make too great a difference, they diminish nature, and narrow their subsequent choices; ultimately, they diminish or destroy themselves. Nature, then, is not only our source but also our limit and measure.

  Wendell Berry

  Differences, Choices, Humanity

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• Postpone joy, it will diminish. Postpone a problem, it will grow.

  Paulo Coelho

  Joy, Problem, Grows

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Nov 01, 2009

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• No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Color, Doe, Tasks

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.87, Modern Library

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• Meditation may also be thought of as a technique by which we diminish the force of old thought habits and develop new ones.

  Dalai Lama

  Meditation, Technique, May

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• Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.

  Dave Ramsey

  Dishonesty, Wealth, Increase

  Twitter post from Aug 13, 2013

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• In daily practice, reflect on the benefits of love, compassion and kindness, then reflect on the disadvantages of anger. Such continuous contemplation, the growing appreciation of love, has the effect of reducing our inclination towards hatred and increasing our respect for love. By this means even anger can be diminished.

  Dalai Lama

  Appreciation, Inspirational Love, Kindness

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• To describe happiness is to diminish it.

  Stendhal

  Happiness, Laughter, Joy

  Stendhal (1955). “The private diaries of Stendhal [pseud.]”

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• But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.

  Tom Robbins

  Running, Soul, Mediocrity

  Tom Robbins (2010). “Half Asleep In Frog Pyjamas”, p.174, Random House

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• Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.

  Audre Lorde

  Accepting, Used

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.146, Crossing Press

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• Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, --will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, --or to diminish something of their pains.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Add, Able

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• The habit of dwelling on the past, has a narrowing as well as a debilitating influence. Behind us, there is a small, - an almost insignificant measure of time; before us, there is an eternity. It is the natural tendency of the mind to magnify the one, and to diminish the other.

  Harriet Martineau

  Past, Dwelling, Perspective

  Harriet Martineau (1836). “Philosophical essays. Essays on the art of thinking. Sabbath musings. Moral essays. Parables. Poetry”, p.221

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• Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.

  William E. Gladstone

  Inspirational, Men, Sorrow

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• When profit diminishes, merchants are very apt to complain that trade decays; though the diminution of profit is the natural effect of its prosperity, or of a greater stock being employed in it than before.

  Adam Smith

  Complaining, Decay, Prosperity

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.60, Harriman House Limited

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• One must not be mean with affections; what is spent of the funds is renewed in the spending itself. Left untouched for too long, they diminish imperceptibly or the lock gets rusty; they are there all right but one cannot make use of them.

  Sigmund Freud

  Mean, Emotional, Long

  Sigmund Freud, Ernst L. Freud (1960). “Letters of Sigmund Freud”, p.28, Courier Corporation

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• Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

  Arthur Ashe

  Fear, Winning, Greatness

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• The fundamental trouble with marriage is that it shakes a man's confidence in himself, and so greatly diminishes his general competence and effectiveness. His habit of mind becomes that of a commander who has lost a decisive and calamitous battle. He quite trusts himself thereafter.

  H. L. Mencken

  Marriage, Wedding, Men

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think of grievances, the more such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you.

  Emmet Fox

  Gratitude, Thinking, Law

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• To those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends.

  John Ashcroft

  America, Giving, People

  "Ashcroft: Critics of new terror measures undermine effort", December 7, 2001.

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• We can be content with simplicity because the deepest most satisfying delights God gives us through creation are free gifts from nature and from loving relationships with people. After your basic needs are met, accumulated money begins to diminish your capacity for these pleasures rather than increase them. Buying things contributes absolutely nothing to the heart's capacity for joy.

  John Piper

  Heart, Free Gifts, Buying Things

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• As relationships progress, the time you spend smooching diminishes. Where kissing was once an enjoyable entree unto itself, it becomes a mere appetizer couples hasten through on the way to the main course.

  Jenna McCarthy

  Couple, Kissing, Progress

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• There is a diabolical trio existing in the natural man, implacable, inextinguishable, co-operative and consentaneous, pride, envy, and hate; pride that makes us fancy we deserve all the goods that others possess; envy that some should be admired while we are overlooked; and hate, because all that is bestowed on others, diminishes the sum we think due to ourselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hate, Pride, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1828). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think”, p.216

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