Left Quotes - Page 26

• A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Style, Poet

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 22 June 1776)

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• The problems of the real world are primarily those you are left with when you refuse to apply their effective solutions.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Real, World, Problem

  "On the cruelty of really teaching computing science" by Edsger Dijkstra, www.cs.utexas.edu. December 2, 1988.

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• Bad herdsmen waste the flocks which thou hast left behind.

  Homer

  Waste, Flocks, Left Behind

  Homer, William Shakespeare (2015). “Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems”, p.66, Delphi Classics

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• All's well that ends well; which is the epitaph I should put on my tombstone if I were the last man left alive.

  Bertrand Russell

  Tombstone, Men, Alive

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.190, Routledge

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• I think people are always looking for gurus. It's the easiest thing in the world to become a guru. It's quite terrifying. I once saw something fascinating here in New York. It must have been in the early seventies--guru time. A man used to go and sit in Central Park, wearing elaborate golden robes. He never once opened his mouth, he just sat. He'd appear at lunchtime. People appeared from everywhere, because he was obviously a holy man, and this went on for months. They just sat around him in reverent silence. Eventually he got fed up with it and left. Yes. It's as easy as that.

  Doris Lessing

  New York, Men, Thinking

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• There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.

  William S. Burroughs

  Government, Law, Cities

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.416, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• On Bill Clinton: "If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili. But the man is so constantly subjected to such hideous and unfair abuse that I wind up standing up for him on the general principle that some fairness should be applied. Besides, no one but a fool or a Republican ever took him for a liberal.

  Molly Ivins

  Men, Wind, Abuse

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• I think Miss Moore was right to cut "The Steeple-Jack" - the poem seems plainer and clearer in its shortened state but she has cut too much... The reader may feel like saying, "Let her do as she pleases with the poem; it's hers, isn't it?" No; it's much too good a poem for that, it long ago became everybody's, and we can protest just as we could if Donatello cut off David's left leg.

  Randall Jarrell

  Cutting, Thinking, Long Ago

  "Poetry and the Age". Book by Randall Jarrell. Chapter: "Her Shield", p. 177, 1953.

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• What plethora of material goods can possibly atone for a waking life so humanly belittling, if not degrading, as the push-button tasks left to human performers?

  Lewis Mumford

  Buttons, Waking Life, Tasks

  Lewis Mumford (1970). “The myth of the machine”

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• After paying for the wedding, about the only thing a father has left to give away is the bride.

  Evan Esar

  Father, Giving, Brides

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• Combine a left-leaning upbringing with a family with direct experience of the Holocaust and someone with aspirations to write and I guess, sooner or later, that person will have a stab at writing something about the Holocaust.

  Elliot Perlman

  Writing, Holocaust, Aspiration

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• So long as we judge ourselves by human comparisons, there is plenty of room for self-satisfaction, and self-satisfaction kills faith, for faith is born of the sense of need. But when we compare ourselves with Jesus Christ, and through Him, with God, we are humbled to the dust, and then faith is born, for there is nothing left to do but to trust to the mercy of God.

  William Barclay

  Jesus, Mercy Of God, Self

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• I'm so hard on myself that when I'm in the studio, I'll write 10 songs and only use one. So those nine songs that are left over, I always think, 'Where could these go? Who could they be for?'

  Jessie J

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• When I was young I wanted to be the greatest blues singer of all time. I wrecked my education and left home for it.

  Felix Dennis

  Home, Singers, Young

  "This much I know: Felix Dennis". Interview with Alice Fisher, www.theguardian.com. September 4, 2010.

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• A history of listening to Top 40 radio had left me with a ridiculous and clichéd notion of love. I had never entertained the feeling myself but knew that it meant never having to say you're sorry. It was a many-splendored thing. Love was a rose and a hammer. Both blind and all-seeing, it made the world go round.

  David Sedaris

  Love, Sorry, Rose

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• A man in Georgia was arrested for burglary after he left his Facebook account open on the victim's computer. But this is nice: He's only been in jail a few hours, and his status already says "In a Relationship!

  Jimmy Fallon

  Nice, Men, Jail

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• If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.

  Samuel Smiles

  Character, Saving, Lost

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.30

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• That's one of the things about being married to a couple of musicians, I have got great iPods. That's what I was left with -- an iPod each.

  Pamela Anderson

  Couple, Ipods, Musician

  "Pamela Anderson: 'I'm not talking about my boobs - that's very 1999'" by Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. December 17, 2010.

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• I see not a step before me as I tread on another year;But I've left the Past in God's keeping,-the FutureHis mercy shall clear;And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.

  Mary Gardiner Brainard

  Distance, Dark, Past

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• The idea that God may be approached and understood through intellectual analysis is uniquely Christian... It is probably not an accident that modern science grew explosively in Christian Europe and left the rest of the world behind.

  Freeman Dyson

  Christian, Europe, Ideas

  "The Scientist As Rebel". Book by Freeman Dyson, 2006.

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• Once the record was mine, I had to use it like a Louisville Slugger. I believed, and still do, that there was a reason why I was chosen to break the record. I feel it's my task to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off, and I only know of one way to go about it. It's the only way I've ever had of dealing with things like fastballs and bigotry -- keep swinging at them.

  Hank Aaron

  Louisville, Use, Records

  Hank Aaron (2009). “I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story”, p.18, Harper Collins

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• Now, what is the left's worldview in general? What is it? If you had to attach not a philosophy but an attitude to a leftist worldview, it's one of pessimism and darkness, sadness. They're never happy, are they? They're always angry about something. No matter what they get, they're always angry.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Attitude, Philosophy, Sadness

  "Robin Williams and the Pop Culture Media". www.rushlimbaugh.com. August 12, 2014.

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• Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, our dealings with reality undermined by a range of minor yet critical psychological flaws (a little too much optimism, an unprocessed rebelliousness, a fatal impatience or sentimentality). We are like an exquisite high-speed aircraft which for lack of a tiny part is left stranded beside the runway, rendered slower than a tractor or bicycle.

  Alain de Botton

  Reality, Optimism, Lines

  "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2008.

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• The pre-scientific age, whatever its deficiencies, had at least offered its members the peace of mind that follows from knowing all man-made achievements to be nothing next to the grandeur of the universe. We, more blessed in our gadgetry but less humble in our outlook, have been left... having no more compelling repository of veneration than our brilliant, precise, blinkered and morally troubling fellow human beings.

  Alain de Botton

  Blessed, Humble, Men

  "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2008.

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• We mustn't fear to adopt the advanced management methods applied in capitalist countries. The very essence of socialism is the liberation and development of the productive systems. Socialism and market economy are not incompatible. We should be concerned about right-wing deviations, but most of all, we must be concerned about left-wing deviations.

  Deng Xiaoping

  Country, Essence, Wings

  "Pela China Dentro". Book by António Caeiro. Published by Dom Quixote, Lisboa, 2004.

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