Dubious Quotes - Page 6

• The invention of film has given our generation the dubious advantage of watching our acting heroes deteriorate before our eyes.

  Robert Brustein

  Hero, Eye, Our Generation

  4 Copy quote

• in a world where only a minor portion of the land is really well suited to agriculture, man is using much of the best land with dubious efficiency.

  Frances Moore Lappé

  Men, Land, Agriculture

  Frances Moore Lappé (1971). “Diet for a Small Planet”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic duties to society and who are compromised by our intellectually dubious commitment to virtue, which can be defined by the perpetual smear-word of French polemic: the bourgeois. (Bourgeois equals humanist.) This word has long been anathema in France where categories are part of the ruling notion of logique. The word cannot be readily matched in England or America.

  V. S. Pritchett

  Commitment, America, Long

  "The Myth Makers: European and Latin American Writers" by V. S. Pritchett, (p. 102), 1979.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man is constantly being assured that he has more power than ever before in history, but his daily experience is one of powerlessness. ... If he is with a business organization, the odds are great that he has sacrificed every other kind of independence in return for that dubious one known as financial.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Men, Odds, Organization

  5 Copy quote

• There's this whole notion of being an Indian - the idea that "warrior" is a positive description of us [Indians as native Americans]. When an Indian guy does well, he's a warrior, even now. He could be a computer salesman, but if he does well, he's a warrior. I'm not a pacifist by any measure, but I'm also fully aware that the reasons I might go to war could be very dubious.

  Sherman Alexie

  War, Native American, Ideas

  "Sherman Alexie: Don’t Call Me Warrior". Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November/December 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Central banks have gotten out of the central banking business and into the central planning business, meaning that they are devoted to raising up-if they can-economic growth and employment through the dubious means of suppressing interest rates and printing money. The nice thing about gold is that you can't print it.

  James Grant

  Money, Nice, Mean

  15 Copy quote

• I'm very suspicious of the idea of a "final theory" in natural science, and the thought of a complete system of ethical rules seems even more dubious.

  Philip Kitcher

  Ideas, Finals, Ethical

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Listen to the stage manager and get on stage when they tell you to. No one has time for the rock star bullshit. None of the techs backstage care if you're David Bowie or the milkman. When you act like a jerk, they are completely unimpressed with the infantile display that you might think comes with your dubious status. They were there hours before you building the stage, and they will be there hours after you leave tearing it down. They should get your salary, and you should get theirs.

  Henry Rollins

  Stars, Thinking, Rocks

  "Black Coffee Blues". Book by Henry Rollins, 1992.

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk ‘his life, his fortune and his sacred honor’ on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Children, Choices, Challenges

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.65, Hachette UK

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• American parents, on the whole, do not want their sons to be artisans or craftsmen, but business or professional people. As a result, millions of youngsters are being prepared for careers they have little aptitude for - and little interest in except for dubious prestige.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Son, Careers, People

  Sydney J. Harris (1964). “ON THE CONTRARY”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I consider the concept of a global mean temperature to be somewhat dubious. A single number cannot adequately capture climate c hange. This number, as I see it, is aimed mostly at politicians and journalists.

  Craig F. Bohren

  Mean, Numbers, Climate

  4 Copy quote

• Those who would assail the Book of Mormon should bear in mind that its veracity is no more dubious than the veracity of the Bible, say, or the Qur'an, or the sacred texts of most other religions. The latter texts simply enjoy the considerable advantage of having made their public debut in the shadowy recesses of the ancient past, and are thus much harder to refute.

  Jon Krakauer

  Book, Past, Mind

  Jon Krakauer (2013). “Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith”, p.79, Pan Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Criticism can never instruct or benefit you. Its chief effect is that of a telegram with dubious news. Praise leaves no glow behind, for it is a writer's habit to remember nothing good of himself. I have usually forgotten those who have admired my work, and seldom anyone who disliked it. Obviously, this is because praise is never enough and censure always too much.

  Ben Hecht

  Criticism, News, Benefits

  Ben Hecht (1954). “A child of the century”, Signet

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was dubious about the effects of the Alexander Technique when I first went in to experience it, but I found out almost immediately that the benefits were total - both physically and mentally - and, happily, have also been long-lasting.

  Joanne Woodward

  Healing, Effectiveness, Long

  56 Copy quote

• Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yes to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects.

  Carl Jung

  Eye, Personality, Serious

  10 Copy quote

• Hiding behind such sacred terms as human rights and distributive justice, politicians and intellectuals alike have perpetrated a gargantuan ruse on humankind: they have convinced us that mass homogeneity is more essential for the betterment of society than is individual initiative, and they have adorned this dubious assumption with assurances that by leveling all distinctions between human beings, collective peace and unity will result as a matter of course, just as water runs downhill or the cart follows the ox.

  Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora

  Running, Rights, Justice

  8 Copy quote

• Despite having been awarded the dubious honor of arthood, all photography is still perceived as having one foot in the real world, a toe in the chilly waters of verisimilitude, no matter how often it is demonstrated that photographs can and do lie.

  Lucy R. Lippard

  Photography, Real, Lying

  Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, Lucy R. Lippard, St. Louis Art Museum (1997). “Defining eye: women photographers of the 20th century : selections from the Helen Kornblum collection”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

  14 Copy quote

  Show source