Magnitude Quotes - Page 3

• Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.

  Hannah Arendt

  Discovery, Guilt, Doing Nothing

  Hannah Arendt (1970). “On Violence”, p.71, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• We didn't do anything wrong, but among the lessons learned, given the magnitude of the problems we now face in Afghanistan, a major U.S. force on the ground would convince the world we were in for the long-haul recovery of a country devastated by 21 years of warfare.

  Alexander Haig

  Country, Recovery, Years

  9 Copy quote

• The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Events, Littles, Revolution

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.115

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

  Hal Borland

  Nature, Heart, Autumn

  "Sundial of the Seasons". Book by Hal Borland, 1964.

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• The sheer magnitude of Speaker Pelosis spending spree is mind boggling. Most of us do not use the number 1,000,000,000,000 in our daily lives, so it is difficult to attach tangible value to the figure.

  Geoff Davis

  Numbers, Mind, Use

  7 Copy quote

• Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.

  John Updike

  Government, Peculiar, Madness

  FaceBook post by John Updike from Dec 24, 2014

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are more active volcanoes beneath the sea than on land by two orders of magnitude.

  Robert Ballard

  Ocean Exploration, Volcanoes, Order

  21 Copy quote

• It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

  Thomas Paine

  Taken, Consideration

  8 Copy quote

• At times, we forget the magnitude of the havoc we can wreak by off-loading our minds onto super-intelligent machines, that is, until they run away from us, like mad sorcerers' apprentices, and drag us up to the precipice for a look down into the abyss.

  Richard Dooling

  Running, Intelligent, Mad

  9 Copy quote

• We live in an age where anonymity is growing in magnitude like a bomb going off.

  Jock Sturges

  Birthday, Artist, Age

  "Light & Shadows". Interview with David Steinberg, www.laweekly.com. March 4, 1998.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I suspect there have been a number of conspiracies that never were described or leaked out. But I suspect none of the magnitude and sweep of Watergate.

  Bob Woodward

  Swag, Numbers, Literature

  "Watergate: 25 Years Later". The Washington Post Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. June 17, 1997.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first day I walked into prison, and he slammed that door, I knew the magnitude of the decision that I made, and the poor judgment, and what I allowed to happen to the animals. And, you know, its no way of explaining the hurt and the guilt that I felt. And that was the reason I cried so many nights.

  Michael Vick

  Hurt, Animal, Night

  36 Copy quote

• It is an awesome thing to comprehend that what a human being dreams and imagines can be realized.

  Vanna Bonta

  Dream, Awesome Things, Imagine

  6 Copy quote

• Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Intensity, Intellect

  19 Copy quote

• Our brains have evolved to help us survive within the orders of magnitude of size and speed which our bodies operate at. We never evolved to navigate in the world of atoms.

  Richard Dawkins

  Order, Brain, Size

  4 Copy quote

• Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Struggle, Class, Mind

  37 Copy quote

• She never imagined a scenario in which her love was not returned with the same depth of feeling, for to her it was impossible to believe that a love of such magnitude could have stunned only her. The most elementary logic and justice indicated that somewhere in the city he was suffering the same delicious torment.

  Isabel Allende

  Love, Believe, Cities

  6 Copy quote

• I love you, with a love so great that it simply couldn't keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.

  Anne Frank

  Love You, Heart, Growing

  Anne Frank (2011). “The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition”, p.101, Bantam

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• With the magnitude of the challenges we face right now, what we need in Washington are not more political tactics, we need more good ideas. We don't need more point scoring, we need more problem solving.

  Barack Obama

  Ideas, Political, Challenges

  Barack Obama's remarks on the Federal Budget in Room 350 of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C., www.washingtonpost.com. March 17, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement

  Robert Jordan

  Stupidity, Doubt, Statements

  Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson (2009). “The Gathering Storm: Book Twelve of the Wheel of Time”, p.238, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The times are too difficult and the crisis too severe to indulge in schadenfreude. Looking at it in perspective, the fact that there would be a financial crisis was perfectly predictable: its general nature, if not its magnitude. Markets are always inefficient.

  Noam Chomsky

  Indulge In, Perspective, Would Be

  "The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System". Interview with Gabor Steingart, www.spiegel.de. October 10, 2008.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace.

  Jon Krakauer

  Pain, Climbing, Order

  FaceBook post by Jon Krakauer from Aug 27, 2011

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is an awesome thing to comprehend the magnitude of the fact that what a human being dreams and imagines can be realized. The power of that truth needs to be directed toward our creation of a future that is worthy of true human value and the world civilization.

  Vanna Bonta

  Dream, Civilization, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• Good intentions are not an excuse for maladministration of this magnitude.

  Jean Chretien

  Good Intentions, Excuse, Intention

  27 Copy quote

• Music burst through him, perfect notes he hear rarely. Fire and ice, wind and calm, sky and earth, water and rock all fused together. Joley seemed as wild and turbulent s the sea, yet beneath her fiery passion, at the very core of her, she was as forceful and strong and as constant as the deepest ocean currents. Ilya seemed as calm as a windless sea, yet beneath the surface smoldered a volcano of such explosive magnitude, his power could easily sweep everything from his path. Together they completed each other, his melody and hers merging together into a single, perfect harmony.

  Christine Feehan

  Strong, Ocean, Passion

  6 Copy quote