Literal Quotes - Page 3

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  The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.

  Jacques Yves Cousteau

  Ocean, Men, Sea

  Speech by Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas on the occasion of the signing of the Belém Statement, Lisbon, europa.eu. July 13, 2017.

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• I've always felt writing a song was a bit like going on location. That's true in an almost literal sense. Where you are seeps in somehow.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Location

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• In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom - along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

  Noam Chomsky

  Rights, Illustration, Justice

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• I believe the Scriptures teach that there's a literal heaven and a literal hell, just like Jesus said. And without forgiveness of sins that, yeah, the place of punishment is called hell.

  Kirk Cameron

  Jesus, Believe, Punishment

  "Kirk Cameron, From Sitcom Star to Evangelist" by Martin Bashir, abcnews.go.com. March 17, 2006.

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• Until I read Anne Frank's diary, I had found books a literal escape from what could be the harsh reality around me. After I read the diary, I had a fresh way of viewing the both literature and the world. From then on, I found I was impatient with books that were not honest or that were trivial and frivolous.

  Alexandra Fuller

  Book, Reality, Diaries

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• There is a thing called the death wish, a literal thing. It doesn't mean you want to die. It just means however we're built, as we get into these years, some inner part of you does begin to accept the fact that you're heading towards the end, and there's a peace that comes with that.

  Frank Langella

  Mean, Years, Wish

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• One of the reasons I love to jump back and forth between mediums is that film does allow me to be more literal. I can go to the real place. I can go to the Coliseum, and I don't have to fake it.

  Julie Taymor

  Real, Fake, Doe

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• When our intellect has shaken off its many opinions about created things, then the inner principle of truth appears clearly to it, providing it with a foundation of real knowledge and removing its former preconceptions as though removing scales from eyes, as happened in the case of St. Paul (cf. Acts 9:18). For an understanding of Scripture that does not go beyond the literal meaning, and a view of the sensible world that relies exclusively on sense perception, are indeed scales, blinding the soul's visionary faculty and preventing access to the pure Logos of truth.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Real, Eye

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• When we talk about how movies used to be made, it was over 100 years of film, literal, physical film, with emulsion, that we would expose to light and we would get pictures.

  Keanu Reeves

  Light, Years, Film

  "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. August 22, 2012.

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• Everyone knows that a lot of memoirs have made-up scenes; it's obvious. And everyone knows that half the time at least fictions contain literal autobiographical truths. So how do we decide what's what, and does it even matter?

  Lauren Slater

  Doe, Fiction, Half

  Lauren Slater (2000). “Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir”, Random House Incorporated

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• However, displayed right alongside all the Confederate flag paraphernalia is a bunch of American flag merch – American flag place mats, patriotic “body crystals,” flag stickers you attach to your skin. Personally, I’m small-minded and literal enough that I see the two symbols as contradictory, especially in a time of war. But I fear that the consumer who buys a Confederate flag coffee cup, which she will then put on her American flag place mat, is the sort of sophisticated thinker who is open-minded enough that she is capable of hating blacks and Arabs at the same time.

  Sarah Vowell

  Hate, War, Coffee

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• Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?

  Carl Sagan

  Inspirational, Life, Truth

  Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.145, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: "Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant... God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.

  Tracy Kidder

  Men, Giving, Needs

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• The camera would miss it all. A magnificent picture is never worth a thousand perfect words. Ansel Adams can be a great artist, but he can never be Shakespeare. His tools are too literal.

  John Dunning

  Artist, Perfect, Missing

  John Dunning (2012). “The Bookman's Wake”, p.188, Simon and Schuster

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• All religions are true but none are literal.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Hero Journey, Religion

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• It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

  Brian Friel

  Past, Shapes, Facts

  Brian Friel, Paul Delaney (2000). “Brian Friel in conversation”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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• So the greatest source of happiness is other people- and what does money do? It isolates us from other people. It enables us to build walls, literal and figurative, around ourselves. We move from a teeming college dorm to an apartment to a house, and if we're really wealthy, to an estate. We think we're moving up, but really we're walling off ourselves.

  Eric Weiner

  Wall, Moving, College

  Eric Weiner (2014). “The Geography of Bliss”, p.151, Random House

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• I've never had any intentions about anything. That's why I am where I am today, which is neither here nor there, in a literal sense.

  Edward Gorey

  Today, Intention

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• Metaphor is one of a group of problem-solving medicines known as figures of speech which are normally used to treat literal thinking and other diseases.

  Grant Morrison

  Thinking, Medicine, Groups

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• I believe in the literal rising of the body of Christ. It's the cornerstone of my Christian faith.

  Francis Collins

  Christian, Believe, Rising

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• I do not consider myself a literal genius.

  Lil Wayne

  Genius

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• Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

  Voltaire

  Giving, Letters, Woe

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• I think people's perception of a rich girl is literal, but metaphorically I embrace it as being rich in love, spirit, joy and religion. So it's not about money.

  Angie Stone

  Girl, Thinking, People

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• Whenever you have dynamic interactions between 300 million people and the American economy acting in really complex ways, that introduces a degree of almost chaos theory to the system, in a literal sense.

  Nate Silver

  People, Acting, Degrees

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• The literal meaning of the Chinese characters for revolution is elimination of life

  Ma Jian

  Character, Chinese, Revolution

  Ma Jian (2008). “Beijing Coma: A Novel”, p.66, Macmillan

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