Modern World Quotes - Page 13

• The modern world is a crowd of very rapid racing cars all brought to a standstill and stuck in a block of traffic.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Block, Car, Racing

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• Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.

  John W. Gardner

  Running, Being Yourself, Clever

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• For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty.

  Richard Leakey

  Creativity, Science, Years

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• What is the pattern of worship that best conveys the richness of divine grace, faithfully interprets the gospel in our modern world and helpfully consolidates the body of Christ?

  Geoffrey W Bromiley

  Grace, World, Body

  Geoffrey W. Bromiley (1995). “The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia”, p.1133, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Needs, World

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Medicine, the only profession that labors incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence.

  James Bryce

  Science, America, Practice Of Medicine

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• The modern world is devoted to vanishing species, vanishing weather and vanishing capacity for wonder.

  Douglas Coupland

  Weather, World, Vanishing

  Douglas Coupland (2011). “The Gum Thief: A Novel”, p.87, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• I was out there for 12 days. There are more beggars in Soho than there are in Kabul.

  Neil Morrissey

  America, Kabul, World

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• Don't start drinking before the fifth song.

  Terry Wogan

  Song, Drinking, America

  "Fairytale story for Norton on his Euro debut" by Carole Cadwalladr, www.theguardian.com. May 16, 2009.

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• Not only do we mock the Eurovision Song Contest itself, but we lampoon other European countries for taking it so seriously, and they all retaliate by voting for each other every year and ignoring our (sometimes) palpably superior songs. Accordingly, Britain has become the Millwall FC of Eurovision: we are hated, we know we are hated, and we pretend we are happy to be hated. It's actually quite a sad state of affairs.

  Marcus Berkmann

  Country, Song, Years

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• Why do Britons keep stabbing each other in August? Why do seaside hotels burn down in August? Why do children disappear in August, examinations get easier and Heathrow become the world's worst airport? The answer lies not in reality but in appearance. News editors abhor a vacuum. Half an hour of airtime and 10 pages of news must be filled each day, whatever the weather.

  Simon Jenkins

  Children, Lying, Reality

  "The state has only aided our seasonal spates of thuggery" by Simon Jenkins, www.theguardian.com. August 21, 2007.

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• Nowhere in politics is there such a mismatch between public and private realm as in transport. Everyone on the M6 last weekend would have agreed with Transport Minister Alasdair Darling's reported hatred of cars. They too wanted drivers off the roads and on to public transport. Go to it, Mr Darling, they cried in unison, get rid of all those cars. Except, of course, their own. Other people's cars are traffic. My car is the outward essence of my being. It is my hat, stick and cane. It embodies my freedom as a citizen and my right as a democrat. My car is my soul in flight.

  Simon Jenkins

  Weekend, Essence, America

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• The daily press is the evil principle of the modern world, and time will only serve to disclose this fact with greater and greater clearness. The capacity of the newspaper for degeneration is sophistically without limit, since it can always sink lower and lower in its choice of readers. At last it will stir up all those dregs of humanity which no state or government can control.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Government, Evil, Choices

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• Most big companies don't like you very much, except hotels, airlines and Microsoft, which don't like you at all.

  Bill Bryson

  America, Microsoft, World

  Bill Bryson (2000). “The Complete Notes”, Random House

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• Like most parents, I've been stumped by homework, the big questions, such as: 'What is the point of geography - the pilot always knows where we are going?'. Answer: 'If you didn't know any geography, people would think you were an American, and you wouldn't be able to put them right because you wouldn't know where they live.'

  A. A. Gill

  Thinking, America, People

  A.A. Gill (2010). “Paper View: The Best of The Sunday Times Television Columns”, p.127, Hachette UK

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• What is the English for 'Refreshing towelette'?

  Mary Wakefield

  America, World, Modern

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• Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.

  Anthony Burgess

  America, Victory, Democracy

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• I'm not from around these parts. I'm from a little place called England: we used to run the world before you.

  Ricky Gervais

  Running, America, World

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• In Burton's day they [soldiers] were itching to get into the fray. Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now! The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!

  Rupert Everett

  War, Army, Thinking

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• Yesterday, I tried to call Northwest Airlines' customer-service line over a couple of hours. I couldn't get through. The recording said, "Due to a high volume of calls" Well, you could put it that way - "Due to a high volume of calls". Or you could say, "Due to an insufficient number of employees..."

  Jay Nordlinger

  Couple, Yesterday, Numbers

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• They're called Virgin Trains because they don't go all the way.

  Simon Hoggart

  America, World, Way

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• William Hague, the world's favourite hairline.

  Rory Bremner

  America, World, Modern

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• I said it three times actually.

  Edward Heath

  America, Three, World

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• Prince Charles is the only member of the Royal Family who ever left Cinderella for the Ugly Duckling.

  Des Hanafin

  Ugly Duckling, America, World

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• Our cheeky sidekick. We're like a motorcycle and sidecar.

  Al Murray

  America, Motorcycle, Sidekicks

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