Illiterate Quotes - Page 3

• God often works more by the life of the illiterate seeking the things that are God's, than by the ability of the learned seeking the things that are their own.

  Anselm of Canterbury

  Ability, Seeking

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p.123, 1895.

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• In American terms, the accomplishment of Genghis Khan might be understood if the United States, instead of being created by a group of educated merchants or wealthy planters, had been founded by one of its illiterate slaves, who, by sheer force of personality, charisma, and determination, liberated America from foreign rule, united the people, created an alphabet, wrote the constitution, established universal religious freedom, invented a new system of warfare, marched an army from Canada to Brazil, and opened roads of commerce in a free-trade zone that stretched across the continents.

  Jack Weatherford

  Religious, Determination, Army

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• I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Wise, Mother, Fighting

  Mahatma Gandhi (1994). “The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Supplementary volume”

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• Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Writing, Hands

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• All through the short afternoon they kept coming, the people who counted themselves Father's friends. Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls—only to Father did it seem that they were all alike. That was Father's secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn't know they were there.

  Corrie Ten Boom

  Girl, Father, Differences

  Corrie ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, John Sherrill (2006). “The Hiding Place”, p.29, Chosen Books

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• The effects of illegal immigration aren't that different from those of legal immigration —an illiterate Central American farmer with a green card is just as unsuited for a 21st-century economy as an illiterate Central American farmer without a green card.

  Mark Krikorian

  Immigration, Different, Cards

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• You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.

  William Faulkner

  Baptists, Old Testament, Ulysses

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

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• I founded Grameen Bank to provide loans to those considered traditionally unbankable. Grameen Bank works with the poorest and often illiterate, providing uncollateralized micro-loans for tiny business enterprises by which they can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

  Muhammad Yunus

  Tiny, Poverty, Loan

  "Access to Quality Education" by Muhammad Yunus, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 26, 2013.

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• You can't have people making decisions about the future of the world who are scientifically illiterate. That's a recipe for disaster. And I don't mean just whether a politician is scientifically literate, but people who vote politicians into office.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Mean, People, Office

  "Neil deGrasse Tyson On Literacy, Curiosity, Education, And Being 'In Your Face'". Interview with Linda Holmes, www.npr.org. February 25, 2010.

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• Socialism may be worthless as a scheme, but it is not meaningless as a symptom. Rousseau's theory of the origin of society, of the social contract, and of a cure for all the social evils by a return to a state of nature, had, as we all know now, no more relation to fact than the dreams of an illiterate drunkard; but they were not without value as a vague and symbolical expression of certain evils from which the France of his day was suffering.

  William Hurrell Mallock

  Dream, Expression, Evil

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• The world's urban poor and the illiterate are going to be increasingly disadvantaged and are in danger of being left behind. The web has added a new dimension to the gap between the first world and the developing world. We have to start talking about a human right to connect.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Talking, World, Gaps

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• I attacked Dawkins's book on God because I think he is theologically illiterate.

  Terry Eagleton

  Book, Thinking

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• Normally if I met a guy who was unemployed and illiterate who hadn't bathed in a couple of weeks, I'd be standing in a puddle with excitement, but I'm sort of in a bad mood tonight, so take this bag and give me the fu**ing paper before I pop your head like a zit. He said, you're a lesbian, aren't you?

  Christopher Moore

  Couple, Giving, Guy

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• No one else understands us 7th sense people. They regard us as freaks. When we point out illiterate mistakes, we are often aggressively instructed to 'get a life' by people who, interestingly, display no evidence of having lives themselves.

  Lynne Truss

  Mistake, People, Freak

  Lynne Truss (2011). “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”, p.4, HarperCollins UK

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• Oh noes, kitteh haz major angriez!” I said. I turned around to share a laugh with my companions and found them glaring at me. “What?” I asked. Leif shook a finger and said in a low, menacing tone, “If you tell me I have to talk like an illiterate halfwit to fit into this society, I will punch you.” “And I’ll pull out your goatee,” Gunnar added. “Lolcat iz new happeh wai 2 talk,” I explained to them. “U doan haz 2 be kitteh 2 speek it.

  Kevin Hearne

  Laughing, Tone, Fit

  Kevin Hearne (2011). “Hammered (with bonus short story): The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Three”, p.150, Del Rey

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• In a sense the U.S. is climate illiterate. If you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change even in Brazil, China you have more people who know about the problem and think deep cuts in emission are needed.

  Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

  Cutting, Thinking, People

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• Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Clever, Memories, Our Memories

  'The Rivals' (1775) act 1, sc. 2

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• I think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them and find secret joy.

  John Steinbeck

  Children, Thinking, Joy

  John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.25, Penguin

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• In the year 2000 an illiterate person will not be someone who can't read or write, but someone who is not able to learn, unlearn and learn again.

  Alvin Toffler

  Writing, Learning, Illiterate Person

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• Four thousand years ago, we, the people of the Indus River basin, had cities that were laid out on grids and boasted underground sewers, while the ancestors of those who would invade and colonize America were illiterate barbarians.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Years, Cities, Rivers

  Mohsin Hamid (2007). “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, p.34, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Love is blind,” Harriet quipped. “But not illiterate,” Elizabeth retorted.

  Julia Quinn

  Love Is, Love Is Blind, Blind

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• I always wondered if the good people who send us bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate.

  Abraham Verghese

  Thinking, People, Scripture

  Abraham Verghese (2012). “Cutting for Stone”, p.113, Random House India

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• TRUTHFUL, adj. Dumb and illiterate.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Dumb, Truthful

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.372, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In effect, I feel like a blind, deaf, and illiterate person working through the sensibilities and multiple, real talents of other people. Everything I do is collaborative.

  Godfrey Reggio

  Real, Illiterate Person, People

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• Here's where I luck out: I'm really computer illiterate.

  Jennifer Aniston

  Luck, Computer

  "Jennifer Aniston: Screens Goddess". Interview with Lynn Hirschberg, www.nytimes.com. October 24, 2008.

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