Magnitude Quotes - Page 5

• Although a man may lose a sense of his own importance when he is a mere unit among a busy throng, all utterly regardless of him, it by no means follows that he can dispossess himself, with equal facility, of a very strong sense of the importance and magnitude of his cares.

  Charles Dickens

  Strong, Mean, Men

  Charles Dickens (1843). “The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”, p.200

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• On Earth Day I made a commitment to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. And I asked for a blueprint on how to achieve this goal. In concert with all other nations, we simply must halt global warming. It is a threat to our health, to our ecology, and to our economy. I know that the precise magnitude and patterns of climate change cannot be fully predicted. But global warming clearly is a growing, long-term threat with profound consequences. And make no mistake about it, it will take decades to reverse.

  William J. Clinton

  Mistake, Commitment, Years

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• All appearances have a determinate magnitude (the relation of which to another assignable). The infinite does not appear as such, likewise not the simple. For the appearances are included between two boundaries (points) and are thus themselves determinate magnitudes.

  Immanuel Kant

  Simple, Two, Doe

  Immanuel Kant (2005). “Notes and Fragments”, p.191, Cambridge University Press

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• The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise, but hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude or to pursue very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ambition, Ambitious, Desire

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Three, Chapter XIX, 1840.

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• One of the first and most difficult steps in a science is to conceive clearly the nature of the magnitudes about which we are arguing.

  William Stanley Jevons

  Firsts, Steps, Arguing

  William Stanley Jevons (1970). “The Theory of Political Economy”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• A possibility is that we see more and more leverage, and credit-to-GDP ratios rise once more to even higher levels; eventually the banking systems of all advanced economies reach magnitudes of 500 percent, 1000 percent or more of GDP, so that every economy starts to have financial systems that resemble recent cases like Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, or Cyprus. That might be a very fragile world to live in.

  Alan M. Taylor

  Iceland, Gdp, Switzerland

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Industrial production, the flow of resources in the economy, the exertion of military effort in a war theater-all are complexes of numerous interrelated activities. Differences may exist in the goals to be achieved, the particular processes involved, and the magnitude of effort. Nevertheless, it is possible to abstract the underlying essential similarities in the management of these seemingly disparate systems.

  George Dantzig

  Military, War, Differences

  George Dantzig (2016). “Linear Programming and Extensions”, p.1, Princeton University Press

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• Some areas near Dallas experienced a 3.5-magnitude earthquake, which some blame on fracking. However, scientists say that it was more likely aftershocks from Chris Christie celebrating at the Cowboys game.

  Jimmy Fallon

  Cowboy, Games, Earthquakes

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• When it began, Christianity was regarded as a system entirely beyond the range and scope of human reason; it was impious to question; it was impious to examine; it was impious to discriminate. On the other hand, it was visibly instinct with the supernatural. Miracles of every order and degree of magnitude were flashing forth incessantly from all its parts.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Hands, Order, Miracle

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1865). “History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe”, p.198

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• I would say the damage here is much more [than the tsunami], the magnitude of the calamity here is much more

  Bill Vaughan

  Damage, Calamity, Tsunami

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• There are many vices which are not believed because of their magnitude.

  Delarivier Manley

  Evil, Vices

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• There may be few instances in which the superstition that only measurable magnitudes can be important has done positive harm in the economic field: but the present inflation and employment problems are a very serious one.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Important, May, Superstitions

  Friedrich August von Hayek's Prize Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1974.

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• Yet the most pervasive error one encounters in contemporary arguments about belief in God-especially, but not exclusively, on the atheist side-is the habit of conceiving of God simply as some very large object or agency within the universe, or perhaps alongside the universe, a being among other beings, who differs from all other beings in magnitude, power, and duration, but not ontologically, and who is related to the world more or less as a craftsman is related to an artifact.

  David Bentley Hart

  Atheist, Errors, Agency

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• Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Animal, Safety, Giving

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• [On Richard M. Nixon:] The Republican nominee would be far worse than another Eisenhower - he is Tricky Dicky of the first magnitude. His entire record is one of opportunism. I cannot feel that there is the remotest sincerity in him, and that clearly he would be the tool of the highest bidder, which is always 'big business.

  Marguerite Rawalt

  Would Be, Tools, Records

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• Incrementalism: In the first generation, the goal of the movement was wholesale social and cultural transformation. Small, incremental victories were too little given the magnitude of America's moral decay. Since 1988, the new leaders have recognized that incrementalism is the surest path to success in political competition. The current movement is committed to securing small victories now, postponing for the long-term more fundamental changes in society and politics.

  Kenneth D. Wald

  America, Goal, Long

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• Songs are pretty easy. They are small, they are modular, they are about as big as a bagel. They are easy to build. Films are overwhelming in their magnitude and scope. By comparison, a lot of film directors wish they were writing songs because you can do it while getting your hair cut.

  Tom Waits

  Song, Writing, Cutting

  Interview with Mark Richardson, pitchfork.com. October 18, 2011.

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• A theory of personal resurrection or reincarnation of the individual is untenable when we but pause to consider the magnitude of the idea. On the contrary, I must believe that rather than the survival of all, we must look for survival only in the spirit of the good we have done in passing through.Once obsolete, an automobile is thrown to the scrap heap. Once here and gone, the human life has likewise served its purpose. If it has been a good life, it has been sufficient. There is no need for another.

  Luther Burbank

  Good Life, Believe, Ideas

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• When you consider the sheer magnitude of investable equities to choose from in the world's emerging markets, you realize that finding one that looks attractive enough to warrant investing your faith and assets in is as formidable a task as finding a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, researching investment opportunities is a lot more interesting than digging for needles in haystacks.

  Mark Mobius

  Opportunity, Interesting, Digging

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• There's such a magnitude of record taking. It's so exhaustive. Bandwidth and hard drive space are able to accommodate limitless capacities to take a record of anything and everything.

  Sufjan Stevens

  Space, Records, Anything And Everything

  "It’s Sufjan Stevens’ Way or the Highway". Interview with Brandon Stosuy, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 30, 2009.

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• Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude. I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.

  John Adams

  Evil, Slavery, Territory

  Letter to William Tudor, Jr., founders.archives.gov. November 20, 1819.

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• Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, History, Mind

  Francis Bacon (1753). “The Works...”, p.42

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• Sometimes people stumble over this vastness in relation to the apparent insignificance of man. It does seem to make us infinitesimally small. But the meaning of this magnitude is not mainly about us. It’s about God… The reason for ‘wasting’ so much space on a universe to house a speck of humanity is to make a point about our maker, not us.

  John Piper

  Men, Space, People

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• Real greatness has nothing to do with a man’s sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little.

  William Ellery Channing

  Real, Lying, Greatness

  William Ellery CHANNING (1839). “Self-Culture. An address introductory to the Franklin lectures, delivered at Boston. 1838”, p.4

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• Therefore the solid body of the earth is reasonably considered as being the largest relative to those moving against it and as remaining unmoved in any direction by the force of the very small weights, and as it were absorbing their fall. And if it had some one common movement, the same as that of the other weights, it would clearly leave them all behind because of its much greater magnitude. And the animals and other weights would be left hanging in the air, and the earth would very quickly fallout of the heavens. Merely to conceive such things makes them appear ridiculous.

  Ptolemy

  Moving, Fall, Science

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