Dull Quotes - Page 20

• Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Zealous, Determined

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.621, Chicago Review Press

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• You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.

  David Ogilvy

  Fire, People, Attention

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• The good were worthy of note because they battled and that battle was a great story, whereas the evil were evil because of moral laziness, or weakness, and that was ultimately a dull and uninteresting affair.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Evil, Battle, Weakness

  Alexander McCall Smith (2005). “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate”, Pantheon

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• Why the hell are we conditioned into the smooth strawberry-and-cream Mother-Goose-world, Alice-in-Wonderland fable, only to be broken on the wheel as we grow older and become aware of ourselves as individuals with a dull responsibility in life?

  Sylvia Plath

  Inspirational, Mother, Responsibility

  Sylvia Plath (2007). “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.35, Anchor

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• There’s this thing called progress. But it doesn’t progress. It doesn’t go anywhere. Because as progress progresses the world can slip away. It’s progress if you can stop the world slipping away. My humble model for progress I the reclamation of land. Which is repeatedly, never-ending retrieving what it lost. A dogged and vigilant business. A dull yet valuable business. A hard, inglorious business. But you shouldn’t go mistaking the reclamation of land for the building of empires.

  Graham Swift

  Humble, Land, Progress

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• This is what it is to love an artist: The moon is always rising above your house. The houses of your neighbors look dull and lacking in moonlight. But he is always going away from you. Inside his head there is always something more beautiful.

  Sarah Ruhl

  Love, Beautiful, Artist

  Sarah Ruhl (2010). “The Clean House and Other Plays”, p.488, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Apollo without Dionysus may indeed be a well-informed, good citizen but he's a dull fellow. He may even be 'cultured,' in the sense one often gets from traditionalist writings in education. . . . But without Dionysus he will never make and remake a culture.

  Jerome Bruner

  Writing, Apollo, Culture

  Jerome S. Bruner (1996). “The Culture of Education”, p.50, Harvard University Press

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• The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference.

  David Riesman

  Media, People, Empathy

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• I find daily life not always joyous, but always interesting. I have some sad days and nights, but none that are dull. As I advance deeper into the vale of years, I live with constantly increasing gusto and excitement. I am sure it all means something; in the last analysis, I am an optimist because I believe in God. Those who have no faith are quite naturally pessimists and I do not blame them.

  William Lyon Phelps

  Life, Believe, Mean

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• Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily course of duty run. Cast off dull sloth, and joyful rise to pay thy morning sacrifice. All praise to thee, who safe hast kept and hast refreshed me while I slept! Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake, I may of endless life partake. All praise to thee, my God, this night for all the blessings of the light. Keep me, oh keep me, King of Kings, beneath Thine own almighty wings. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

  Thomas Ken

  Life, Running, Morning

  "Awake my soul, and with the sun" (hymn) (1695)

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• London, black as crows and noisy as ducks, prudish with all the vices in evidence, everlastingly drunk, in spite of ridiculous laws about drunkenness, immense, though it is really basically only a collection of scandal-mongering boroughs, vying with each other, ugly and dull, without any monuments except interminable docks.

  Paul Verlaine

  Law, Ducks, Drunk

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• I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Effort, Ornaments, Pandas

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas”, p.21, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The business community wants remarkable advertising, but turns a cold shoulder to the kind of people who can produce it. That is why most advertisements are so infernally dull.... our business needs massive transfusions of talent. And talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.

  David Ogilvy

  Believe, People, Community

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• If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.

  Xunzi

  Motivational, Achievement, Effort

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• Dull witted brooding people love to stuff themselves with quantities of heavy food, just like animals for fattening. Bubbly intellectual people love foods which stimulate the taste buds without overloading the belly. Profound, meditative people prefer neutral foods which do not have an assertive flavor and are not difficult to digest, and therefore do not demand too much attention.

  Carl Friedrich von Rumohr

  Animal, People, Profound

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• It is the way with half the truth amidst which we live, that it only haunts us and makes dull pulsations that are never born into sound.

  George Eliot

  Truth, Sound, Half

  George Eliot (1863). “Romola”, p.25

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• Perhaps it is this theory of all work and no play that has made the Marxist such a very dull boy.

  Herbert Read

  Boys, Play, Anarchy

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• Quick music sounds dull unless every note is articulated.

  Herbert von Karajan

  Sound, Notes

  Herbert von Karajan, Richard Osborne (1989). “Conversations with Karajan”

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• He that comes to Christ cannot, it is true, always get on as fast as he would. Poor coming soul, thou art like the man that would ride full gallop whose horse will hardly trot. Now the desire of his mind is not to be judged of by the slow pace of the dull jade he rides on, but by the hitching and kicking and spurring as he sits on his back. Thy flesh is like this dull jade, it will not gallop after Christ, it will be backward though thy soul and heaven lie at stake.

  John Bunyan

  Art, Horse, Lying

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• Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock. Yet he bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.

  J. C. Ryle

  Christian, Children, School

  J.C. Ryle (2015). “Bible commentary - The gospel of John”, p.356, Editora Dracaena

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• Are you tempted? Look unto Jesus. Are you afflicted? Look unto Jesus. Do all speak evil of you? Look unto Jesus. Do you feel cold, dull, and backsliding? Look unto Jesus.

  J. C. Ryle

  Jesus, Evil, Looks

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• If you want a little fear and terror because your life is dull, get a future. Terrifying!

  Byron Katie

  Littles, Want, Life Is

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• If a man devotes himself to the instructions of his own unconscious, it can bestow this gift [of renewal], so that suddenly life, which has been stale and dull, turns into a rich unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities

  Marie-Louise von Franz

  Inspirational, Life, Adventure

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• The artist brain is the sensory brain: sight and sound, smell and taste, touch.  These are the elements of magic, and magic is the elemental stuff of art.  In filling the well, think magic.  Think delight.  Think fun.  Do not think duty.  Do not do what you should do-spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text.  Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.

  Julia Cameron

  Spiritual, Art, Fun

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• Baseball is a dull game only for those with dull minds.

  Red Smith

  Baseball, Games, Mind

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