Doubtful Quotes - Page 7

• We ought not to be over-anxious to encourage innovation in cases of doubtful improvement, for an old system must ever have two advantages over a new one; it is established, and it is understood.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Inspirational, Two, Innovation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.218

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• The only use for an atomic bomb is to keep somebody else from using one. It can give us no protection - only the doubtful satisfaction of retaliation...

  George Wald

  Giving, Use, Bombs

  "A Generation in Search of a Future". George Wald's speech at an anti-war teach-in at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (March 4, 1969); published in Chicago Journalism Review by Ron Dorfman, May 1969.

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• The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that will always be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful.

  Mark Twain

  Learning, Cat, Men

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• The members of the department became like the Athenians who, according to the Apostle Paul, "spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Anyone who thought he had a bright idea rushed out to try it out on a colleague. Groups of two or more could be seen every day in offices, before blackboards or even in corridors, arguing vehemently about these 'brain storms.' It is doubtful whether any paper ever emerged for publication that had not run the gauntlet of such criticism. The whole department thus became far greater than the sum of its individual members.

  Joel Henry Hildebrand

  Running, Science, Ideas

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• O Love! thou bane of the most generous souls! Thou doubtful pleasure, and thou certain pain.

  George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne

  Love, Pain, Generosity

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• But, you may ask, if the two departments [i.e., federal and state] should claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable ground; but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of the States must be called to ascribe the doubtful power to that department which they may think best.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Thinking, Umpires

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• I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whether you got anything out of geometry. To have disliked or failed to get on with other [mathematical] subjects need mean nothing; much drill and drudgery is unavoidable before they can get started, and bad teaching can make them unintelligible even to a born mathematician.

  John Edensor Littlewood

  Teaching, Failure, Mean

  "Littlewood's Miscellany".

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• Once (says an Author; where I need not say)
  Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way;
  Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew stong;
  While Scale in Hand Dame Justice pass'd along
  Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws.
  Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause,
  Dame Justice wighing long the doubtful Right
  Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight.
  The cause of strife remov'd so rarely well,
  "There take" (says Justice), "take ye each a shell.
  We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you:
  'Twas a fat oyster - live in peace - Adieu."

  Pope Alexander VI

  Winning, Sight, Hands

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• The recognized achievements of some Negroes, despite rigid racial barriers, indicate that society by its prejudices may be depriving itself of valuable contributions from many others. It is now doubtful whether America can afford the luxury of such a waste of human resources.

  Kenneth Clark

  Luxury, America, Justice

  Kenneth B. Clark (1988). “Prejudice and Your Child”, p.61, Wesleyan University Press

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• Man-hating is everywhere, but everywhere it is twisted and transformed, disguised, tranquilized, and qualified. It coexists, never peacefully, with the love, desire, respect, and need women also feel for men. Always man-hating is shadowed by its milder, more diplomatic and doubtful twin, ambivalence.

  Judith Levine

  Hate, Men, Feminist

  Judith Levine (1993). “My Enemy, My Love: Women, Men, and the Dilemmas of Gender”, Anchor Books

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• Is it not lack of faith that leads men to fear the scrutiny of reason? If the destination is doubtful, then the path must be fraught with fear. A robust faith need not fear, for if God exists, then reason cannot help but lead us to Him. 'Cogito, ergo Deus est,' argues St. Augustine, 'I think, therefore God is.'

  Donna Woolfolk Cross

  Men, Thinking, Needs

  "Pope Joan". Book by Donna Woolfolk Cross, www.e-reading.club. 1996.

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• In a Republican district I was a Republican. In a Democratic district I was a Democrat. And in a doubtful district, I was Doubtful. But I was always for Erie.

  Jay Gould

  Political, Politics, Republican

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• By the same right under which France took Flanders, Lorraine and Alsace, and will sooner or later take Belgium — by that same right Germany takes over Schleswig; it is the right of civilisation as against barbarism, of progress as against stability.

  Friedrich Engels

  Agreement, Civilization, Historical

  "Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works".

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• Since peace is alone the gift of God, and as it is He who gives it, why should we be afraid? His unspeakable gift in His beloved Son is the ground of no doubtful hope.

  Michael Faraday

  Son, Giving, Beloved

  Michael Faraday's letter to Auguste de la Rive, 1861.

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• It is doubtful that anyone has contributed more in a lifetime to the overall coverage of cricket.

  Jonathan Agnew

  Lifetime, Cricket, Coverage

  "RIP CMJ: Cricket mourns Christopher Martin-Jenkins, the commentator who made Test matches special" by Simon Boyle, www.mirror.co.uk. January 1, 2013.

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• It is doubtful we can be Christian in anything unless we are Christian in everything.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Christian

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• Be not held back by fear's insane insistence that sureness lies in doubt. I am not doubtful, but certain. The miracle is always there. I will see them in the light.

  Helen Schucman

  Lying, Light, Miracle

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• People who are lazy, careless, doubtful-minded or arrogant need not expect God to reveal His secret or covenant to them.

  Watchman Nee

  People, Secret, Lazy

  Watchman Nee (1982). “The Better Covenant”, p.40, Christian Fellowship Publishers

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• The entire force of the Conciliar revolt comes from the fact that it has apparently been imposed by the authority of the Church. How many bishops, priests, religious, and laymen, would have swallowed the lies of the heretics if they had not believed themselves bound to do so by the voice of Christ's Vicar on earth? Questioning the authority of these men renders their revolution of doubtful authenticity.

  John Lane

  Religious, Powerful, Lying

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• Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time. These lines are from a section of doubtful or spurious fragments.

  Aeschylus

  Time, Justice, Voiceless

  Fragment 253. "Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth". Volume 2, p. 513, archive.org. 1926.

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• The first men who set out for Mars had better make sure they leave everything at home in apple-pie order. They won't get back to earth for more than two and a half years. The difficulties of a trip to mars are formidable. . . . What curious information will these first explorers carry back from Mars? Nobody knows-and its extremely doubtful that anyone now living will ever know. All that can be said with certainty today is this: the trip will be made, and will be made . . . someday.

  Wernher von Braun

  Future, Home, Men

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• ... the core of sin is a lack of self-esteem. ... Sin is psychological self-abuse. ... the most serious sin is one that causes me to say, 'I am unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at my worst.' For once a person believes he is an 'unworthy sinner,' it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.

  Robert H. Schuller

  Jesus, Self Esteem, Believe

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• I'm doubtful about the temper of your flamingo. Shall I try the experiment?

  Lewis Carroll

  Trying, Flamingos, Programming

  Lewis Carroll (1869). “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”, p.133

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• I am doubtful of any talent, so whatever I choose to be, will be accomplished only by long study and work

  Jackson Pollock

  Long, Study, Talent

  Jackson Pollock (2011). “American Letters: 1927-1947”, p.16, Polity

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• The Poet's leaves are gathered one by one,
  In the slow process of the doubtful years.

  Bayard Taylor

  Years, Poet, Process

  Bayard Taylor (1863). “The Poet's Journal”, p.122

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