Ingenious Quotes - Page 6

• It were indeed to be wish'd that our art had been less ingenious, in contriving means destructive to mankind; we mean those instruments of war, which were unknown to the ancients, and have made such havoc among the moderns. But as men have always been bent on seeking each other's destruction by continual wars; and as force, when brought against us, can only be repelled by force; the chief support of war, must, after money, be now sought in chemistry.

  Herman Boerhaave

  Art, War, Mean

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• High tax rates are followed by attempts of ingenious men to beat them as surely as surely as snow is followed by little boys on sleds.

  Arthur Melvin Okun

  Boys, Men, Snow

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• Is mathematics doomed to suffer the same fate as other sciences that have split into separate branches?... Mathematics is, in my opinion, an indivisible whole... May the new century bring with it ingenious champions and many zealous and enthusiastic disciples.

  David Hilbert

  Fate, Champion, Suffering

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• Words mean what they're generally believed to mean. When Charles II saw Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral for the first time, he called it "awful, pompous, and artificial." Meaning roughly: Awesome, majestic, and ingenious.

  S.M. Stirling

  Mean, Wrens, Awful

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• Whoever invented marriage was an ingenious tormentor. It is an institution committed to the dulling of the feelings. The whole point of marriage is repetition. The best it aims for is the creation of strong, mutual dependencies.

  Susan Sontag

  Strong, Feelings, Creation

  Susan Sontag (2009). “Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963”, p.83, Macmillan

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• Science manipulates things and gives up living in them. It makes its own limited models of things; operating upon these indices or variables to effect whatever transformations are permitted by their definition, it comes face to face with the real world only at rare intervals. Science is and always will be that admirably active, ingenious, and bold way of thinking whose fundamental bias is to treat everything as though it were an object-in-general - as though it meant nothing to us and yet was predestined for our own use.

  Maurice Merleau-Ponty

  Giving Up, Real, Thinking

  Maurice Merleau-Ponty, James M. Edie (1964). “The Primacy of Perception: And Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History and Politics”, p.159, Northwestern University Press

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• The Hermit was known to be pretty sniffy about disciples who returned in failure. There was a wall of the institute layered with their skins- an ingenious display that encouraged vigor in his students, as well as nicely keeping out the drafts.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Wall, Skins, Vigor

  Jonathan Stroud (2005). “Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Three: Ptolemy's Gate”, Disney-Hyperion

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• In Tharoor's hands [the story of modern India] is transformed into Mahabharata magic.... Endlessly inventive, irreverent, wise, ingenious,... it takes on at one level or another the entire panorama of modern India....Energetic and eventful.

  M. G. Vassanji

  Wise, Hands, Modern India

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• ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape as "One day a wag - what would the wretch be at? Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT, And said it was a god's name! . . ."

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Father, Names

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.575, Library of America

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• I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes... in a total misapprehension of character at some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge.

  Jane Austen

  Mistake, Stupid, Character

  Jane Austen (2015). “Sense and Sensibility: Ignatius Critical Editions”, p.92, Ignatius Press

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• Those who assume hypotheses as first principles of their speculations.....may indeed form an ingenious romance, but a romance it will still be.

  Roger Cotes

  Romance, Principles, May

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• As is well known, the priests are the most evil enemies—but why? Because they are the most impotent. It is because of their impotence that in them hatred grows to monstrous and uncanny proportions, to the most spiritual and poisonous kind of hatred. The truly great haters in world history have always been priests; likewise the most ingenious haters: other kinds of spirit hardly come into consideration when compared with the spirit of priestly vengefulness.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Spiritual, Atheist, Evil

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo”, p.33, Vintage

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• [M]y work, which I've done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men. And therewithal, whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof.

  Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

  Wisdom, Hard Work, Knowledge

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• What are wanted ...are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes... but one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth ...that for our life one law is valid - the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Life, Powerful, Simple

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• Next time we see you, you’ll be on trial for some ingenious crime!” Dottie said with a laugh. Evie grinned. “Just as long as they know my name.

  Libba Bray

  Names, Long, Laughing

  Libba Bray (2015). “It's Just a Jump to the Left”, p.50, Hachette UK

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• You were probably educated in the conventional economic theories of your period which were magnificent and most ingenious, but--if you will pardon my saying so--all wrong.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Economic, Pardon, Theory

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• One who has not only the four S's, which are required in every good lover, but even the whole alphabet; as for example... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; the X indeed, is too harsh a letter to agree with him, but he is Young and Zealous.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Love, Wise, Faithful

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1854). “The History of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha”, p.165

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• Something about Bekka and Haylee reminded her of Candace's line between ingenious and insane. Ingenuity inspired their dreams, and insanity gave them the courage to pursue them. It was something Melody wanted for herself.

  Lisi Harrison

  Dream, Insanity, Insane

  Lisi Harrison (2010). “Monster High”, p.49, Hachette UK

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• And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?

  Bill Bryson

  Food, Thinking, Knitting Needles

  Bill Bryson (2010). “Notes From A Small Island: Journey Through Britain”, p.145, Random House

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• Taking the line of least resistance, we lump the most different people together under the same heading. Taking the line of least resistance, we ascribe to them collective crimes, collective acts and opinions. "The Serbs have massacred…", "The English have devastated…", "The Jews have confiscated…", "The Blacks have torched", "The Arabs refuse…". We blithely express sweeping judgments on whole peoples, calling them "hardworking" and "ingenious", or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", or "obstinate". And sometimes this ends in bloodshed." – Amin Maalouf "On Identity

  Amin Maalouf

  People, Lazy, Together

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• We may agree, for example, that our societies must provide greater security for the individual; yet if all we succeed in producing is a providing increased anonymity and ever increasing boredom, then we should not wonder if ingenious man turns to such amusements as drugs, housebreaking, vandalism, mayhem, riots, or - at the most harmless - strange haircuts, costumes, standards of cleanliness, and sexual experiments.

  Robert Ardrey

  Men, Boredom, Drug

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• The ingenious slogan that the public debt does not matter because 'we owe it to ourselves' is clearly absurd.

  Murray Rothbard

  Doe, Debt, Matter

  Murray N. Rothbard (2009). “Man, Economy, and State, Scholar's Edition”, p.1027, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Dr. Seuss provided "ingenious and uniquely witty solutions to the standing problem of the juvenile fantasy writer: how to find, not another Alice, but another rabbit hole.

  Clifton Fadiman

  Witty, Rabbits, Drs

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• ADMINISTRATION, n. An ingenious abstraction in politics, designed to receive the kicks and cuffs due to the premier or president. A man of straw, proof against bad-egging and dead-catting.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, President, Cuffs

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.9, 谷月社

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• We are more successfully healed by the vis medicatrix naturae (healing power of nature) than by the most ingenious medical application.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Healing, Conservative, Medical

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