Elements Quotes - Page 23

• It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction.

  Charles Darwin

  Light, Origin Of Life, Essence

  Charles Darwin (2003). “The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition”, p.452, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
  With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

  Hugh MacDiarmid

  Optimism, Here And There, Earth

  Hugh MacDiarmid (2006). “Hugh MacDiarmid: Selected Poetry”, p.169, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Reflection, Trying, Fit

  Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.3, Grove Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Only the rare expands our minds, only as we shudder in the face of a new force do our feelings increase. Therefore the extraordinary is always the measure of all greatness. And the creative element always remains the value superior to all others and the mind superior to our minds.

  Stefan Zweig

  Creativity, Greatness, Creative

  6 Copy quote

• Hearing, seeing and understanding each other, humanity from one end of the earth to the other now lives simultaneously, omnipresent like a god thanks to its own creative ability. And, thanks to its victory over space and time, it would now be splendidly united for all time, if it were not confused again and again by that fatal delusion which causes humankind to keep on destroying this grandiose unity and to destroy itself with the same resources which gave it power over the elements.

  Stefan Zweig

  Confused, Space, Creative

  4 Copy quote

• Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion?... Let us show that we can temper together those opposite elements of liberty and restraint into one consistent whole. Let us set an example for the world of a law-abiding America glorying in its freedom as well as its respect for law.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Freedom, Sacrifice, Compassion

  Gerald R. Ford's Address at Yale Law School's 150th anniversary, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. April 25, 1975.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is generally admitted that the cultural values (humanization) and the existing institutions and policies of society are rarely,if ever, in harmony. This opinion has found expression in the distinction between culture and civilization, according to which "culture" refers to some higher dimension of human autonomy and fulfillment, while "civilization" designates the realm of necessity, of socially necessary work and behavior, where man is not really himself and in his own element but is subject to heteronomy, to external conditions and needs.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Men, Civilization, Expression

  4 Copy quote

• It is shocking that young people should be addling their brains over mere logical subtleties in Euclid's Elements, trying to understand the proof of one obvious fact in terms of something equally .. obvious.

  Oliver Heaviside

  Science, People, Brain

  13 Copy quote

• What happens in a strike happens not to one person alone.... It is a crisis with meaning and potency for all and prophetic of a future. The elements in crisis are the same, there is a fermentation that is identical. The elements are these: a body of men, women and children, hungry; an organization of feudal employers out to break the back of unionization; and the government Labor Board sent to "negotiate" between this hunger and this greed.

  Meridel Le Sueur

  Children, Men, Organization

  Meridel Le Sueur (1990). “Harvest song: collected essays and stories”, West End Pr

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Freud, Jung thought, had been a great discoverer of facts about the mind, but far too inclined to leave the solid ground of "critical reason and common sense." Freud for his part criticized Jung for being gullible about occult phenomena and infatuated with Oriental religions; he viewed with sardonic and unmitigated skepticism Jung's defense of religious feelings as an integral element in mental health. For Freud, religion was a psychological need projected onto culture, the child's feeling of helplessness surviving in adults, to be analyzed rather than admired.

  Peter Gay

  Religious, Children, Psychological Needs

  6 Copy quote

• What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is the preaching that I should attend on it, while I hear nothing but what I knew before? What are these beggarly elements of water, bread, and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints the means of grace?

  William Gurnall

  Reading, Mean, Wine

  7 Copy quote

• There is a glacier in Iceland, Solheimar, which has retreated a great deal, and every time I go back there and see what's not there any more, it does something to the heart. It makes you realise it's possible for a gigantic natural element to just disappear.

  James Balog

  Heart, Iceland, Doe

  14 Copy quote

• One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens.

  Janet Napolitano

  America, Plot, Citizens

  "Terror Threat 'Most Heightened' Since 9/11, Napolitano Says" by Jason Ryan and Devin Dwyer, abcnews.go.com. February 9, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Women, more than all, are the element and kingdom of illusion. Being fascinated, they fascinate.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Women, Kingdoms, Illusion

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860). “Power, Wealth, Illusions”, p.96

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Taking people on a journey is the fundamental element of underground dance music. I don't sell records.

  Seth Troxler

  Journey, People, Fundamentals

  13 Copy quote

• A book is a fragile creature. It suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands.

  Umberto Eco

  Book, Hands, Suffering

  Umberto Eco (1994). “The Name of the Rose”, p.42, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nature confounds her summer distinctions at this season. The heavens seem to be nearer the earth. The elements are less reserved and distinct. Water turns to ice, rain to snow. The day is but a Scandinavian night. The winter is an arctic summer.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Summer, Nature, Rain

  Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.108, Rowman & Littlefield

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the last lesson of modern science, that the highest simplicity of structure is produced, not by few elements, but by the highest complexity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Science, Simplicity, Lessons

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1659, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think we left out one of the really important elements contributing to the dynamism of society, and that is the right to privacy. I mean something more than the right to shave in private. I mean the right to join what I want to join, to do what I want to do, or not to do what I might do without giving anyone a reason, either in advance or afterwards. That does not mean that I am seeking for irresponsibility socially.

  Chester Barnard

  Mean, Thinking, Rights

  16 Copy quote

• The principle of fashion is . . . the principle of the kaleidoscope. A new year can only bring us a new combination of the same elements; and about once in so often we go back and begin again.

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould

  New Year, Fashion, Years

  5 Copy quote

• Nothing suffers annihilation, but at dissolution there is a change, and things fall back to the essential element in which they were before.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Fall, Suffering, Essentials

  "The Ten Books On Architecture". Book VII. Introduction, Sec. 1, 15BC.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The larch... is not only preserved from decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it cannot be kindled with fire nor ignite of itself, unless like stone in a limekiln it is burned with other wood... This is because there is a very small proportion of the elements of fire and air in its composition, which is a dense and solid mass of moisture and the earthy, so that it has no open pores through which fire can find its way... Further, its weight will not let it float in water.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Fire, Air, Water

  "De architectura (Ten Books on Architecture)". Book by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Book II, Chapter IX, Section 14), circa 15 BC.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a tyrannical element in all fanaticism, an element which makes opposition a torment.

  Mary Augusta Ward

  Torment, Opposition, Fanaticism

  4 Copy quote

• While, politically, a mixed economy preserves the semblance of an organized society with a semblance of law and order, economically it is the equivalent of the chaos that had ruled China for centuries: a chaos of robber gangs looting-and draining-the productive elements of the country.

  Ayn Rand

  Country, Order, Law

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.197, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The spirit of a government must be that of the country. The form of a government must come from the makeup of the country. Government is nothing but the balance of the natural elements of a country.

  Jose Marti

  Country, Makeup, Government

  "Our America". Essay by Jose Marti, 1891.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source