Inability Quotes - Page 7

• The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.

  Albert Allen Bartlett

  Race, Environmental, Exponential Growth

  "Arithmetic, Population and Energy". Documentary, www.imdb.com. 2002.

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• It is of the greatest consequence that the debt should, with the consent of the creditors, be remoulded into such a shape as will bring the expenditure of the nation to a level with its income. Till this shall be accomplished, the finances of the United States will never wear a proper countenance. Arrears of interest, continually accruing, will be as continual a monument, either of inability, or of ill faith and will not cease to have an evil influence on public credit.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Evil, United States, Income

  "The Works of Alexander Hamilton".

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• It is very difficult to reconcile the American ideal of a sovereign people capable of owning and managing their own government with an inability to own and manage their own business.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, People, Sovereign

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• Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

  John C. Maxwell

  Leadership, Decision, Failing

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• All the same, my depression and self-hatred, my desire to mutilate myself with broken bottles, my numbness and crying fits, my inability to get out of bed for days and days, the feeling of the world moving in to crush me, went on and on. But I knew I wouldn't go mad, even if that release, that letting-go, was a freedom I desired. I was waiting for myself to heal.

  Hanif Kureishi

  Depression, Crush, Letting Go

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• We turned onto the last landing. Going out with this guy, I thought, would involve a lot of silly laughter, some wit--the buzz of his whispered wisecracks in my ear. But there would be as well his willingness to reveal, or more his inability to conceal, that he had been silently rehearsing my name as he climbed the stairs behind me. There would be his willingness to bestow upon me the power to reassure him. He would trust me with his happiness.

  Alice McDermott

  Laughter, Silly, Names

  Alice McDermott (2013). “Someone”, p.163, A&C Black

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• Everything is poisoned, and it's all poisoned from greed. I think our inability to communicate with each other and everything that's happening in the world is all a symptom of our greater inability to deal with nature appropriately.

  Woody Harrelson

  Thinking, Greed, World

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• Your inability to see yourself clearly is what's keeping you alive.

  Sarah Silverman

  Alive

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• The corn that is B something 5 corn thats been genetically altered in the United States, it cant reproduce but it has huge kernels, its very sweet and its wonderful but the winds have blown this across into Mexico. And so the Mexican corn is being infected with the inability to reproduce.

  Nick Nolte

  Sweet, Wind, Mexican

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• If I’m a young black man in South Central L.A., where poverty is rampant and unemployment is skyrocketing, I see that Washington’s promises of a year ago have gone unfulfilled, I see that perhaps for a second time, the court’s inability to mete out justice in a blind fashion, why shouldn’t I vent my anger?

  Bryant Gumbel

  Fashion, Men, Years

  "The Race Card as Get Out of Jail Free Card: The 'Why Shouldn’t I?' Defense". "Today", archive.mrc.org. April 15, 1993.

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• I'm a Pisces, and Pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good.

  Billy Corgan

  Our Actions, Way, Pisces

  "Smashing Pumpkins: SPIN’s ‘Mellon Collie’ Cover Story, ‘Zero Worship’". Interview with Craig Marks, www.spin.com. October 23, 2015.

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• I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.

  Barbara Brown Taylor

  Religious, Distance, Ignorance

  Barbara Brown Taylor (2011). “Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith”, p.224, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.

  Haven Kimmel

  Sports, Passion, Athlete

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.127, Broadway Books

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• This inability to engage in debate or handle disagreement is becoming the calling card of the left.

  Kirsten Powers

  Cards, Calling, Becoming

  "Fox News’ evangelical Democrat: An interview with Kirsten Powers". Interview withJonathan Merritt, religionnews.com. April 10, 2013.

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• B*tch: a reflection of people’s lack of creativity & inability to acknowledge & embrace a powerful woman; a woman who won’t comply.

  Kelly Cutrone

  Powerful, Creativity, Reflection

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• There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish; but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief — a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you.

  George Eliot

  Beauty, Crush, Baby

  "Adam Bede".

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• A man of forty today has nothing to worry him but falling hair, inability to button the top button, failing vision, shortness of breath, a tendency of the collar to shut off all breathing, trembling of the kidneys to whatever tune the orchestra is playing, and a general sense of giddiness when the matter of rent is brought up. Forty is Life's Golden Age.

  Robert Benchley

  Birthday, Fall, Men

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• Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, Design, World

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense: and The American Crisis I”, p.16, Penguin

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• This inability to think created the possibility for many ordinary men to commit evil deeds on a gigantic scale, the like of which had never been seen before. The manifestation of the wind of thought is not knowledge but the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. And I hope that thinking gives people the strength to prevent catastrophes in these rare moments when the chips are down.

  Hannah Arendt

  Beautiful, Men, Thinking

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• Children, by nature, are keen, passionate and curious. What was referred to as laziness is often merely an awakening of sensitivity, a psychological inability to submit to certain absurd duties, and a natural result of the distorted, unbalanced education given to them. This laziness, which leads to an insuperable reluctance to learn, is, contrary to appearances, sometimes proof of intellectual superiority and a condemnation of the teacher.

  Octave Mirbeau

  Teacher, Children, Intellectual

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• Remember God is not surprised by your inabilities, your imperfections, or your faults.  He has always known everything about you that you are just now finding out, and he chose you on purpose for himself.

  Joyce Meyer

  Motivational, Imperfection, Purpose

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• Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.

  Aurora Levins Morales

  Integrity, Heart, Self

  Aurora Levins Morales (1998). “Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity”, p.125, South End Press

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• The real stumbling-block of totalitarian regimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is men's inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement, except during a few years of their youth.

  Simone Weil

  Spiritual, Block, Real

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.189, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Finding happiness is not as simple as having good friends or a full social life. The crunch issue is our ability, or inability, to find within ourselves a sense of meaning or deeper purpose, something not found in everyday life.

  Mark Vernon

  Spiritual, Good Friend, Simple

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• Above all, the thrall in which an ideology holds a people is best measured by their collective inability to imagine alternatives.

  Tony Judt

  People, Alternatives, Imagine

  Tony Judt (2010). “The Memory Chalet”, p.96, Penguin

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