Lowest Common Denominator Quotes

• If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

  Jimmy Carter

  Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

  1978 Address to the Future Farmers of America, Kansas City, 9 Nov.

  87 Copy quote

  Show source

• Radio football is football reduced to its lowest common denominator.

  Nick Hornby

  Football, Radio, Common

  24 Copy quote

• Simply put, I believe we should not seek the lowest common denominator when it comes to wilderness and saddle a wilderness designation with exceptions, exclusions, and exemptions.

  Nick Rahall

  Believe, Exclusion, Common

  84 Copy quote

• Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Adversity, Common, Conflict

  23 Copy quote

• Gangsta rap often reaches higher than its ugliest, lowest common denominator, misogyny, violence, materialism and sexual transgression are not its exclusive domain. At its best, this music draws attention to complex dimensions of ghetto life ignored by most Americans. Indeed, gangsta rap's in-your-face style may do more to force America to confront crucial social problems than a million sermons or political speeches.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Rap, Ghetto, Gangsta

  69 Copy quote

• I'm an anarchist. I'm implacably opposed to heirarchical systems of power and control. I also mistrust crowds, as they often operate according to their lowest common denominator. In terms of evolutionary psychology, the crowd is very close to a herd of stampeding wildebeest.

  Will Self

  Psychology, Crowds, Common

  24 Copy quote

• The British media is sinking down, as the American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator.

  John Oliver

  Media, Humanity, Trying

  Interview with Jason Zabel, www.avclub.com. September 22, 2011.

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

  Carl Sagan

  Ignorance, Media, Sound

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.49, Ballantine Books

  76 Copy quote

  Show source

• The thing is to be brave and move the audience with you, instead of cater to the lowest common denominator, you know, slipping on a banana peel and falling on your ass. You got to move the audience a little further ahead in terms of their appreciation of what is comedy. It's complicated.

  Mel Brooks

  Appreciation, Moving, Fall

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.

  Hyman Rickover

  Ambition, Limits, Common

  Hyman Rickover's address to US Naval Postgraduate School, March 16, 1954.

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• In organizations where nothing much happens regardless of whether you do something exceptional or just show up in the morning, the best people lose heart and motivation is reduced near the lowest common denominator.

  Judith M Bardwick

  Morning, Motivation, Heart

  Judith M. Bardwick (1995). “Danger in the Comfort Zone: From Boardroom to Mailroom--how to Break the Entitlement Habit That's Killing American Business”, p.5, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is an institution always a man's shadow shortened in the sun, the lowest common denominator of everybody in it?

  Randall Jarrell

  Men, Shadow, Sun

  1954 Pictures from an Institution, pt.5, ch.9.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It must not be true when the left tell us what they really want is to help and assist and elevate the little guy, 'cause they don't elevate anybody. The people I'm talking about try to make things fair by punishing and penalizing people at the top. They seek equality and fairness by reaching for the lowest common denominator they can find. Equally shared misery seems to be what their utopia is.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Talking, People, Guy

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

  Spike Lee

  Trying, Common, Audience

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Obama is playing to the lowest common denominator of everybody, and he is telling them that if anybody's got more money than you do, it's not fair and it's unjustified and somehow you have been ripped off or screwed, and that is his message.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Messages, Common, More Money

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that, regardless of our culture, age, or even personal handicaps, we can still strive for something exceptional. Why not expand our sights instead of restricting our lives and accepting the lowest common denominator of a dormant existence? Faith. . . will permit us to take a chance on a new path, perhaps different from the one we now follow. It may be surprising where it leads.

  Jimmy Carter

  Faith, Thinking, Sight

  4 Copy quote

• To me, elitism means a love of excellence and superiority, but America has declared war on both and developed a sick love of the lowest common denominator to make sure no-one becomes too fine for our touted democracy. We are almost at the point of regarding every virtue as elitist.

  Florence King

  War, Mean, America

  21 Copy quote

• The lowest common denominator of the universe is both low and common.

  R. A. Lafferty

  Common, Lows, Lowest

  4 Copy quote

• Think of it: the lowest common denominator in being digital is not your operating system, modem, or model of computer. It's a tiny piece of plastic, designed decades ago by Bell Labs' Charles Krumreich, Edwin Hardesty, and company, who thought they were making an inconspicuous plug for a few telephone handsets. Not in their wildest dreams was Registered Jack 11 - a modular connector more commonly known as the RJ-11 - meant to be plugged and unplugged so many times, by so many people, for so many reasons, all over the world.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Dream, Thinking, People

  "RJ-11". Nicholas Negroponte's letter to WIRED Ventures Ltd., web.media.mit.edu. April 1, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

  Peter O'Toole

  Common, My Friends, Common Denominator

  "Peter O’Toole: An Enduring and Endearing Star Against All Odds" by Scott Foundas, variety.com. December 15, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dyer's Hand (1963) "Notes on the Comic"

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• The more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. But too often sarcasm passes for irony, name-calling passes for insight, bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit, and lowest-common-denominator jokes pass for analysis. Satire should have a point of view. It doesn't have to get a belly laugh. It does have to present criticism.

  Paul Krassner

  Humor, Sarcasm, Views

  "In The Jester's Court". Interview with David Kupfer, thesunmagazine.org. February 2009.

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some people say Larry the Cable Guy's only successful because he's pandering to the lowest common denominator, blatantly and not ironically exploiting people's racist and homophobic tendencies. Don't listen to these people, Larry. They're just bitter and jealous and right.

  Greg Giraldo

  Funny, Jealous, Successful

  9 Copy quote

• We have a lowest-common-denominator Christianity being taught in so many denominations that has produced a people who simply do not know some of the most basic Christian truths.

  Albert Mohler

  Christian, People, Taught

  10 Copy quote

• Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.

  C. Wright Mills

  Technology, Media, Fiction

  C. Wright Mills (2002). “White Collar: The American Middle Classes”, p.333, Oxford University Press

  13 Copy quote

  Show source