Norm Quotes - Page 3

• Only weeks after Oslo began, when nearly all the world and most of Israel was drunk with the idea of peace, I argued that a Palestinian society not constrained by democratic norms would be a fear society that would pose a grave threat to Israel.

  Natan Sharansky

  Peace, Israel, Ideas

  55 Copy quote

• ...men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the "culture of waste." If you break a computer it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs, the dramas of so many people end up becoming the norm.

  Pope Francis

  Drama, Men, Idols

  "Pope Francis On World Environment Day Speaks Of Food Waste, Lack Of Attention To Needs Of Poor", www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I cried every day of first grade. In class. Which meant I ended up getting comfortable emoting in a place where it wasn't the norm.

  Jesse Eisenberg

  Class, Firsts, Grades

  11 Copy quote

• In recent years a new International System has been developing, oriented toward the establishment of norms and principles of universal jurisdiction, above national sovereignty, in the areas of what is called the New Agenda...we have to confront ..... what I dare to call the Anglo-Saxon prejudice against the establishment of supra-national organizations.

  Vicente Fox

  Years, Organization, Principles

  4 Copy quote

• Many, and I think the determining, constitutive facts remain outside the reach of the operational concept. And by virtue of this limitation this methodological injunction against transitive concepts which might show the facts in their true light and call them by their true name the descriptive analysis of the facts blocks the apprehension of facts and becomes an element of the ideology that sustains the facts. Proclaiming the existing social reality as its own norm, this sociology fortifies in the individuals the "faithless faith" in the reality whose victims they are.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Block, Reality, Thinking

  Herbert Marcuse (1964). “One dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The myth that men are the economic providers and women, mainly, are mothers and care givers in the family has now been thoroughly refuted. This family pattern has never been the norm, except in a narrow middle-class segment.

  Gro Harlem Brundtland

  Mother, Men, Class

  11 Copy quote

• The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Catholic, Action, Tradition

  Pope Benedict XVI's Address at The Meeting with The Representatives of British Society, Including The Diplomatic Corps, Politicians, Academics and Business Leaders, w2.vatican.va. September 17, 2010.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Giving importance to what we think because we thought it, taking our own selves not only (to quote the Greek philosopher) as the measure of all things but as their norm or standard, we create in ourselves, if not an interpretation, at least a criticism of the universe, which we don't even know and therefore cannot criticize. The giddiest, most weak-minded of us then promote that criticism to an interpretation that's superimposed, like a hallucination; induced rather than deduced. It's a hallucination in the strict sense, being an illusion based on something only dimly seen.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Thinking, Self, Giving

  Fernando Pessoa (2005). “The Education of the Stoic: The Only Manuscript of the Baron of Teive”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Control over consciousness cannot be institutionaliz ed. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to be.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Way, Consciousness, Social

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think there's always a call for people who are bucking the norm. But I don't expect it to happen now because I think that more than ever the entertainment industry is trying to serve as a distraction, to keep people from thinking too hard.

  Guy Picciotto

  Thinking, People, Trying

  8 Copy quote

• The repudiation of the primacy of understanding means the repudiation of the norms of judgment as well, and hence the abandonment of all ethical standards.

  Johan Huizinga

  Mean, Ethical Standards, Understanding

  13 Copy quote

• We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.

  Steven Pinker

  Children, Views, Law

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.480, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is wonderful except in the abnormal, and nothing is abnormal until we have grasped the norm.

  C. S. Lewis

  Abnormal, Wonderful

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.10, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our country has the oldest tradition of storytelling, and this was much before writing stories even became a norm.

  Ashwin Sanghi

  Country, Writing, Stories

  12 Copy quote

• Technological defeatism - a belief that, since a given technology is here to stay, there's nothing we can do about it other than get on with it and simply adjust our norms - is a persistent feature of social thought about technology. We'll come to pay for it very dearly.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Technology, Pay, Belief

  4 Copy quote

• Cost overruns are not uncommon in architecture, particularly for designs that depart from structural or technological norms, or demand a finer quality of execution than commercial schemes - conditions typical of buildings for cultural institutions. Budgets are exceeded for many reasons, not all of them within an architect's control.

  Martin Filler

  Design, Quality, Typical

  4 Copy quote

• One of the basics of a good system of innovation is diversity. In some ways, the stronger the culture (national, institutional, generational, or other), the less likely it is to harbor innovative thinking. Common and deep-seated beliefs, widespread norms, and behavior and performance standards are enemies of new ideas. Any society that prides itself on being harmonious and homogeneous is very unlikely to catalyze idiosyncratic thinking. Suppression of innovation need not be overt. It can be simply a matter of peoples walking around in tacit agreement and full comfort with the status quo.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Pride, Thinking, Agreement

  19 Copy quote

• What are our priorities? First, the welfare, the survival of the people. Then, democratic norms and processes which from time to time we have to suspend.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  People, Priorities, Survival

  21 Copy quote

• Cultural dominance of middle-class norms prevail in middle-class schools with a teacher teaching toward those standards and with students striving to maintain those standards.

  James S. Coleman

  Teacher, Teaching, School

  7 Copy quote

• The only ‘realistic’ prospect is to ground a new
  political universality by opting for the impossible,
  fully assuming the place of the exception, with no
  taboos, no a priori norms (‘human rights,’ ‘democracy’),
  respect for which would prevent us from ‘resignifying’
  terror, the ruthless exercise of power, the spirit of
  sacrifice … if this radical choice is decried by some
  bleeding-heart liberals as Linksfaschismus, so be it!

  Slavoj Žižek

  Heart, Exercise, Sacrifice

  39 Copy quote

• The requirement of conspicuous wastefulness is... present as a constraining norm selectively shaping and sustaining our sense of what is beautiful.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Beautiful, Requirements, Wastefulness

  Thorstein Veblen (1993). “A Veblen Treasury: From Leisure Class to War, Peace, and Capitalism”, p.71, M.E. Sharpe

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Dominance in an adaptation to anarchy and it serves no purpose in a society that has undergone a civilising process or in an international system regulated by agreements and norms. Anything that deflates the concept of dominance is likely to drive down the frequency of fights between individuals and wars.

  Steven Pinker

  War, Fighting, Agreement

  7 Copy quote

• Don't be afraid to do weird stuff, so long as you do it cheaply and cover everyone's bets. Be bold. Be stupid, if you have to: so long as you don't hurt anybody, what's it matter how dopey your dream is? If I hadn't made TUSK? If I'd let it die as a podcast? I wouldn't have three other movies I'm now making within the span of a year. Some folks will try to shame you for trying something outside the norm; the only shame is in not trying to accomplish your dreams.

  Kevin Smith

  Dream, Hurt, Stupid

  11 Copy quote

• At a young age, boys learn that to express compassion or empathy is to show weakness. They hear confusing messages that force them to repress their emotions, establish hierarchies, and constantly prove their masculinity ... whether boys and later men have chosen to resist or conform to this masculine norm, there is loneliness, anxiety, and pain.

  Jennifer Siebel Newsom

  Pain, Loneliness, Compassion

  12 Copy quote

• I just get really bored with sticking to the norm and having the proper conservative image. That's just so not me.

  Christina Aguilera

  Bored, Conservative

  "Christina's 'dirrty' Makes Some Fans Ill, Others Hot To Eat Her Toes", www.mtv.com. October 2, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source