Formidable Quotes - Page 8

• The formidable power of geography determines the character and performance of a people.

  Ethel Wilson

  Character, People, Geography

  Ethel Wilson (1990). “Love and Salt Water”, New Canadian Library

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• Tombs decked by the arts can scarcely represent death as a formidable enemy; we do not, indeed, like the ancients, carve sports and dances in the sarcophagus, but thought is diverted from the bier by works that tell of immortality, even from the altar of death.

  Madame de Stael

  Sports, Art, Enemy

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• Whatever the rest of the world thinks of the English gentleman, the English lady regards him apprehensively as something between God and a goat and equally formidable on both scores.

  Margaret Halsey

  Thinking, Gentleman, World

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• Black women, historically, have been doubly victimized by the twin immoralities of Jim Crow and Jane Crow. ... Black women, faced with these dual barriers, have often found that sex bias is more formidable than racial bias.

  Pauli Murray

  Sex, Black, Crow

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• So many forces and resources would become available if States, aware (or conscious) of their true (or real) mission, would want to get on (or agree) to abolish every politics aiming at ("visant à", Fr.) expansion or hegemony; system that maintain among nations a a perpetual distrust and tension, impose on them (or force or compel, "leur impose", Fr.) formidable armies and crushing war budgets.

  African Spir

  Crush, Real, War

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 54), 1937.

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• Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Animal, Safety, Giving

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet without the knowledge of their indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair; a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit.

  Edward Gibbon

  Kings, Son, History

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.259

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• The superiority...enjoyed by nations that have...perfected a branch of industry, constitutes a...formidable obstacle.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Branches, Obstacles, Enjoyed

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• That enemy warrior appears to be a formidable opponent. I relish the challenge.

  Zhao Yun

  Warrior, Challenges, Enemy

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• We are organising our enemies into a formidable force, we are The US public has turned against the war, the Republicans and Democrats have turned against the war. And so when the American public turns against the war and the Congress turns against the war, it suggests that Americans feel we cannot win that war in those conditions. So the Iraqi Commission says, "Well, we can't win this war militarily, we need to reassess potential allies." There's Syria, there's Iran.

  Jesse Jackson

  War, Winning, Iran

  "Reverend Jesse Jackson". Interview with George Negus, www.sbs.com.au. February 21, 2007.

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• Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.

  Ann Coulter

  Opponents, Emotion, Argument

  "Ann Coulter Defends Controversial Comments About Single Mothers". "The O'Reilly Factor", www.foxnews.com. January 15, 2009.

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• Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred by nature upon few, and the labour of learning those sciences which may, by mere labour, be obtained, is too great to be willingly endured; but every man can exert some judgment as he has upon the works of others; and he whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of critic.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Vanity, Names

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.413

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• Nothing is so important to man as his own state; nothing is so formidable to him as eternity. And thus it is unnatural that thereshould be men indifferent to the loss of their existence and to the perils of everlasting suffering.

  Blaise Pascal

  Death, Loss, Men

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.59, Simon and Schuster

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• Man is an Animal, formidable both from his Passions and his Reason; his Passions often urging him to great Evils, and his Reason furnishing Means to achieve them. To train this Animal, and make him amenable to Order; to inure him to a Sense of Justice and Virtue, to withhold him from ill Courses by Fear, and encourage him in his Duty by Hopes; in short, to fashion and model him for Society, hath been the Aim of civil and religious Institutions; and, in all Times, the Endeavour of good and wise Men. The aptest Method for attaining this End, hath been always judged a proper Education.

  George Berkeley

  Education, Wise, Fashion

  "A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men in Authority: Occasioned by the Enormous License, and Irreligion of the Times". Book by George Berkeley, 1738.

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• Like twentieth-century Iran, the remnant of the Persian Empire, Ethiopia under Haile Selassie attempted to preserve the absolutist state throught an accommodation with modernizing forces in his own terms without completely subduing traditionalists. This was not a strategy of Haile Selassie's own choosing. Instead, he was overtaken by events and forced to deal with contradictions that were from the very beginning too formidable to be managed in the long term.

  Haile Selassie

  Iran, Long, Events

  "Revolutionary Ethiopia : From Empire to People's Republi" by Edmond J. Keller, Indiana University Press, (p. 67), 1991.

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• Every man is actually weak, and apparently strong. To himself, he seems weak; to others, formidable.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Strength, Strong, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1856). “Essays: First Series”, p.216

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• The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy,--more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history. For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sweet, Men, Enemy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.72, Penguin

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• We don't need to reinvent manliness. We only need to will ourselves to wake up from the bad dream of the last few generations and reclaim it, in order to extend and enrich that tradition under the formidable demands of the present.

  Waller R Newell

  Dream, Men, Order

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• When a man holds his tongue it does not signify much. But when a woman dispenses with the office of the mighty member, when she sheathed her natural weapon at a trying moment, it means that she trusts to still more formidable enginery; to tears it may be, a solvent more powerful than that with which Hannibal softened the alpine rocks.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Powerful, Women, Mean

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• In short, the foundation of the Kingdom of God is based upon harmony and love, oneness, relationship and union, not upon differences, especially between husband and wife. If one of these two become the cause of divorce, that one will 392 unquestionably fall into great difficulties, will become the victim of formidable calamities and experience deep remorse.

  Abdu'l-Bahá

  Husband, Fall, Divorce

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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 executive, in our government is not the sole, it is scarcely the principle, object of my jealousy. The tyranny of the legislature is the most formidable dread at present and will be for many years. That of the executive will come in its turn, but it will be at a remote period.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Years, Voting

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph”

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• The most formidable people in the world, and now the most dangerous, people who... lay down the doctrine that every frontier must be the starting out point for invasion.

  Winston Churchill

  Determination, People, Doctrine

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• Laughter can relieve tension, soothe the pain of disappointment, and strengthen the spirit for the formidable tasks that always lie ahead.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Happiness, Laughter, Pain

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• The patriots of 1776 had far more to fear from Benedict Arnold than they did King George. An enemy easily identified is much less formidable than one who marches in the uniform of an ally.

  Chuck Baldwin

  Kings, Enemy, Allies

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