Mechanism Quotes - Page 5

• From the point of view of physics, it is a miracle that [seven million New Yorkers are fed each day] without any control mechanism other than sheer capitalism.

  John Henry Holland

  Views, Miracle, Each Day

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• The shark is the apex predator in the sea. Sharks have molded evolution for 450 million years. All fish species that are prey to the sharks have had their behavior, their speed, their camouflage, their defense mechanisms molded by the shark.

  Paul Watson

  Sharks, Years, Sea

  "Sea Shepherd: How We Sank the Japanese Whaling Fleet". Interview with Deborah Bassett, www.theecologist.org. April 21, 2011.

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• By deriving it's just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft, and involuntary servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute money or property nor to force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will. Government is created by the people. No individual possesses the power to take another's wealth or to force others to do good, so no government has the the right to do such things either. The creature cannot exceed the creator.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Government, People, Defense

  Ezra Taft Benson (1986). “The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner”, Shadow Mountain

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• I was the fat kid, so as a defense mechanism, I was the jokester.

  Peter DeLuise

  Kids, Defense, Fats

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• To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment....would result in the demolition of society.

  Karl Polanyi

  Fate, Society, Directors

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• Power is tolerable only on condition that it mask a substantial part of itself. Its success is proportional to its ability to hide its own mechanisms.

  Michel Foucault

  Mask, Ability, Tolerable

  Michel Foucault (2012). “The History of Sexuality: An Introduction”, p.86, Vintage

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• An ultimate joint challenge for the biological and the computational sciences is the understanding of the mechanisms of the human brain, and its relationship with the human mind.

  Tony Hoare

  Understanding, Challenges, Brain

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• One idea I explore in my stand-up show is whether, if you try looking at the universe rationally and avoid coping mechanisms like mysticism or religion, you can still be happy knowing you are going to die after a brief time on this spinning ball.

  Robin Ince

  Ideas, Coping Mechanisms, Knowing

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• My books may highlight corruption, brutality and venality, but they also show that if these things come to light, there is rectification. The voiceless do have a voice; democratic mechanisms and accountability do exist.

  Vikas Swarup

  Book, Light, Voice

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• Being connected to the Internet means being vulnerable to coordinated actions that can knock down walls of secrecy and shatter mechanisms of control.

  Jamais Cascio

  Wall, Mean, Action

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• With respect to duels, indeed, I have my own ideas. Few things in this so surprising world strike me with more surprise. Two little visual spectra of men, hovering with insecure enough cohesion in the midst of the unfathomable, and to dissolve therein, at any rate, very soon, make pause at the distance of twelve paces asunder; whirl around, and simultaneously by the cunningest mechanism, explode one another into dissolution; and, offhand, become air, and non-extant--the little spitfires!

  Thomas Carlyle

  Distance, Insecure, Men

  Thomas Carlyle (2015). “Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh”, p.161, The Floating Press

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• Gender is used as a control mechanism that's just wrong. Gender is never anything to struggle with; gender is something to play with. Once you're free of the rules that all these hierarchical, oppressive systems place on gender, that's the tricky part.

  Kate Bornstein

  Struggle, Play, Gender

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• In principle, if you understood the mechanisms of keeping things repaired, you could keep things going indefinitely.

  Cynthia Kenyon

  Principles, Understood, Ifs

  "Finding the Fountain of Youth / Where will UCSF biochemist Cynthia Kenyon's age-bending experiments with worms lead us?" by David Ewing Duncan, www.sfgate.com. May 29, 2005.

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• Your brain has an in-built mechanism for finding patterns you've programmed because of where you've put your attention. Solutions, innovations, and success come not from greater intelligence or creativity but from what we notice because of where we point those attributes

  David Allen

  Creativity, Innovation, Brain

  David Allen (2004). “Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done”, p.60, Penguin

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• The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.

  Thomas Piketty

  Levels, Wells, Diffusion

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.71, Harvard University Press

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• Bad things happen. And the human brain is especially adept at making sure that we keep track of these events. This is an adaptive mechanism important for survival.

  David Perlmutter

  Track, Brain, Survival

  "Human Memory: Why Bad Memories Stick" by David Perlmutter, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 17, 2011.

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• Because I was a shy and awkward child, I used humour to deflect attention. It was a controlling mechanism. Because I could use it to control my image.

  Catherine Tate

  Children, Awkward, Use

  "What I'm not is a cheery person". Interview with Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2008.

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• Denial can be a pathology or a survival mechanism - and sometimes it's both.

  Jane Fonda

  Survival, Denial, Sometimes

  Jane Fonda (2006). “My Life So Far”, Ebury Press

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• True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honor and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us farther than all the force of mechanism.

  Jeremy Collier

  Courage, Lying, Brave

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• Celebrities used to be found in clusters, like oysters - and with much the same defensive mechanisms.

  Barbara Walters

  Oysters, Used, Found

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• I've never known a Philadelphian who wasn't a downright 'character'; possibly a defense mechanism resulting from the dullness of their native habitat.

  Anita Loos

  Character, Cities, Philadelphia

  Anita Loos (1974). “Kiss Hollywood good-by”, Viking Adult

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• All the energy in the universe is evenly present in all places at the same time. We don't get energy, we release energy. And the triggering mechanism to release energy is desire. When you have a strong desire to do something, you will always have the energy to do it.

  Bob Proctor

  Strong, Desire, Energy

  Source: pavlinapapalouka.com

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• I'm sure drugs and alcohol perhaps would inspire new thoughts, but it's certainly not something that I use as a tool or a mechanism to create.

  Heath Ledger

  Alcohol, Drug, Inspire

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• It is all a mistake that we cannot be good and manly without being scrupulously and studiously good. There is too much mechanism about our virtue.

  Charles Henry Parkhurst

  Mistake, Too Much, Virtue

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• The mechanism of violence is what destroys women, controls women, diminishes women and keeps women in their so-called place.

  Eve Ensler

  Women, Violence, Diminish

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