Divergence Quotes

• There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.

  J. William Fulbright

  Men, World, Inevitable

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• Debate and divergence of views can only enrich our history and culture.

  Ibrahim Babangida

  Views, Culture, Debate

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• A chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy.

  Veronica Roth

  Bravery, Divergent, Lines

  Veronica Roth (2013). “Divergent Trilogy”, p.40, HarperCollins UK

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• The progress of the human race is effected by the operation of two forces which correspond in most respects to what in physics are often called, for want of better terms, the centripetal and centrifugal forces. These are the forces of convergence and divergence, the one tending to concentration of powers and properties, and the other to their separateness or the independence of parts. Socialism and Individualism are to appearance conflicting, though in reality complemental, in their relations to the societary movement.

  Joshua K. Ingalls

  Reality, Two, Race

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• Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.

  Yehudi Menuhin

  Music, Order, Divergent

  Yehudi Menuhin (1972). “Theme and Variations”, New York : Stein and Day

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• Either over neither, both over either/or, live-and-let-live over stand-or die, high spirits over low, energy over apathy, wit over dullness, jokes over homilies, good humor over jokes, good nature over bad, feeling over sentiment, truth over poetry, consciousness over explanations, tragedy over pathos, comedy over tragedy, entertainment over art, private over public, generosity over meanness, charity over murder, love over charity, irreplaceable over interchangeable, divergence over concurrence, principle over interest, people over principle.

  Marvin Mudrick

  Art, People, Generosity

  Marvin Mudrick (1981). “Nobody Here But Us Chickens”

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• You have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people. This is the core issue. When there is divergence between your policy and the people's beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Issues, People, Vacuums

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• There is always a divergence between our perception and what actually exists.

  George Soros

  Perception

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• The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity; the least divergence from it is the greatest crime.

  Emma Goldman

  Crime, Authority, Strongest

  Alphonso Lingis, Emma Goldman (1996). “Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader”, Humanities Press International

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• [In] every revolution, there is a great divergence between what the revolutionaries expect and what the revolution actually accomplishes.

  Akbar Ganji

  Revolution, Revolutionary, Accomplish

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Splitting and gradual divergence of genera is exemplified very well and in a large variety of organisms.

  George Gaylord Simpson

  Wells, Splitting, Variety

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• Today, the average Korean works a thousand hours more a year than the average German. A thousand. ... That is the end of the Great Divergence.

  Niall Ferguson

  Motivation, Inspiration, Average

  "The 6 killer apps of prosperity". Ted conference, www.ted.com. 2011.

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• It is natural that people should differ most, and most violently, about the unknowable . . . There is all the room in the world for divergence of opinion about something that, so far as we can realistically perceive, does not exist.

  E. Haldeman-Julius

  People, Doe, World

  E. Haldeman-Julius (1995). “The Militant Agnostic”

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• In England, we have a curious institution called the Church of England. Its strength has always been in the fact that on any moral or political issue it can produce such a wide divergence of opinion that nobody -- from the Pope to Mao Tse-tung -- can say with any confidence that he is not an Anglican. Its weaknesses are that nobody pays much attention to it and very few people attend its functions.

  Auberon Waugh

  Issues, People, Political

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• Yet it would be unfair to the generality of our kind to ascribe to their intellectual and moral weakness the gradual divergence of Buddhism and Christianity from their primitive patterns. For it should not be forgotten that by their glorification of poverty and celibacy both these religions struck straight at the root not merely of civil society but of human existence. The blow was parried by the wisdom or the folly of the vast majority of mankind, who refused to purchase a chance of saving their souls with the certainty of extinguishing the species.

  James G. Frazer

  Buddhism, Blow, Roots

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• I think Little Nicky was a divergence from the films Adam Sandler was used to doing, and he was taking a risk. I admire him for doing that.

  Kevin Nealon

  Thinking, Risk, Littles

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The profound divergences of opinion on war and peace had been shown to know no sex.

  Sylvia Pankhurst

  Sex, War, Profound

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• The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Men, Community

  "Heretics". Chapter XIV: "On Certain Modern Writers and the Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Institution of the Family", 1905.

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• How do we give credible hope to the billion poorest people in the world? It requires compassion to get ourselves started, and enlightened self-interest to get serious... If economic divergence continues, combined with global integration, it will build a nightmare for our children.

  Paul Collier

  Children, Compassion, Self

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• This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.

  Charles Darwin

  Character, Fundamentals, Extinction

  Charles Darwin (1870). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.12

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• There's this divergence out there between the very small and the very large with the middle disappearing. There is something paradoxical going on where there is this access and we can seek out things on the fringes, but that doesn't describe the overall reality, because the big are bigger than ever.

  Astra Taylor

  Reality, Fringe, Disappear

  Source: therumpus.net

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• In the nearer term, the likeliest source of risk is a conflict between China and the U.S. These are now the two largest economies in the world, and the combination of their economic interdependence, the sharp differences in their political and economic values, and the growing divergence in their interests makes this relationship potentially dangerous for everyone who might be affected by it - which means pretty much everyone.

  Ian Bremmer

  Mean, Two, Differences

  Source: bigthink.com

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• There is too large a divergence at the moment in the interests and values of the world's most powerful states.

  Ian Bremmer

  Powerful, World, Moments

  "A World Without Leadership: Ten Questions with Ian Bremmer (Part 1)". Interview with Ali Wyne, bigthink.com. May 6, 2012.

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• Whatever class and race divergences exist, top cats are tom cats.

  Elizabeth Janeway

  Cat, Race, Class

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• The lower interest rates fueled housing and consumption booms in countries such as Spain and Ireland. At the same time, Germany, struggling with the burdens of reunification, tightened its belt and became more competitive. All this led to a wide divergence in economic performance. Europe became divided into creditor and debtor countries.

  George Soros

  Country, Struggle, Europe

  "George Soros on the Euro Crisis". Interview with Der Spiegel, www.georgesoros.com. June 26, 2012.

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