Notion Quotes - Page 26

• Why are solutions not just as newsworthy as problems? The notion that hostility is necessary all the time to create interest and news is not going to help us [humanity] come to agreements and solve the huge problems we have.

  Gloria Steinem

  Agreement, Humanity, News

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• All our thoughts and concepts are called up by sense-experiences and have a meaning only in reference to these sense-experiences. On the other hand, however, they are products of the spontaneous activity of our minds; they are thus in no wise logical consequences of the contents of these sense-experiences. If, therefore, we wish to grasp the essence of a complex of abstract notions we must for the one part investigate the mutual relationships between the concepts and the assertions made about them; for the other, we must investigate how they are related to the experiences.

  Albert Einstein

  Wise, Hope, Wisdom

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• The history of life is more adequately represented by a picture of 'punctuated equilibria' than by the notion of phyletic gradualism. The history of evolution is not one of stately unfolding, but a story of homeostatic equilibria, disturbed only 'rarely' (i.e. rather often in the fullness of time) by rapid and episodic events of speciation.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Events, Stories, History Of Life

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• The English Writers of Tragedy are possessed with a Notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent Person in Distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his Troubles, or made him triumph over his Enemies.

  Joseph Addison

  Innocent Person, Enemy, Criticism

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1858). “The Spectator”, p.80

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• Both bisexuality and transgender are fluid notions of identity, while lesbian and gay are fixed identities. Some people believe that means there should be two movements: LG and BT. But then what're ya gonna do about SM players? And intersexed folks who want their own I in the alphabet soup of sex and gender related politics?

  Kate Bornstein

  Sex, Believe, Mean

  "Interview with Kate". TV Series "P.O.V." ("Georgie Girl"), www.pbs.org. June 20, 2003.

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• There is a bizarre notion according to which it is claimed that because men are corrupt, it is necessary to give certain of them all the more power... on the contrary, they must be given less power.

  Benjamin Constant

  Philosophy, Men, Giving

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• Since my logic aims to teach and instruct the understanding, not that it may with the slender tendrils of the mind snatch at and lay hold of abstract notions (as the common logic does), but that it may in very truth dissect nature, and discover the virtues and actions of bodies, with their laws as determined in matter; so that this science flows not merely from the nature of the mind, but also from the nature of things.

  Francis Bacon

  Science, Law, Understanding

  Francis Bacon (1858). “Works of Francis Bacon: 4”, p.246

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• ...the century's most radical vice... the notion that human beings can be shoveled around like concrete.

  Paul Johnson

  Political, Vices, Century

  Paul Johnson (1991). “Modern times: the world from the twenties to the nineties”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• By salvation I mean not barely according to the vulgar notion deliverance from hell or going to heaven but a present deliverance from sin a restoration of the soul to its primitive health its original purity a recovery of the divine nature the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness in justice mercy and truth.

  John Wesley

  Recovery, Mean, Justice

  John Wesley (1827). “The Works of the Rev. John Wesley”, p.219

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• The notion of infinity is our greatest friend; it is also the greatest enemy of our peace of mind.

  James Pierpont

  Education, Mind, Enemy

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• When a human being becomes so still that they begin to lose awareness of their gender, and they are simply looking into that abyss where there is no notion of self whatsoever, the world disappears. And that's really the only place to go. It's the only place to remain.

  Andrew Cohen

  Self, Literature, World

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• It seems to me patently obvious that we can no more respect and tolerate vast differences in notions of human well-being than we can respect or tolerate vast differences in the notions about how disease spreads, or in the safety standards of buildings and airplanes.

  Sam Harris

  Motivation, Inspiration, Airplane

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• Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons.

  Abigail Adams

  Disappointment, Unhappiness, Arise

  Abigail Adams, John Adams (1840). “Letters of Mrs. Adams: The Wife of John Adams”, p.5

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• It is giving me a great satisfaction, because I had the notion that we could make great wines equal to the greatest wines in the world, and everybody said it was impossible.

  Robert Mondavi

  Wine, Giving, World

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• Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Facts, Sides

  Francis Bacon (2012). “The Great Instauration”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

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• If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains.

  Joe Hill

  Ocean, Ties, Ships

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• I have a notion that gamblers are as happy as most people - being always excited.

  Lord Byron

  Gambling, People, Excited

  Lord Byron (1990). “The Sayings of Lord Byron”, p.37, Gerald Duckworth & Co

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• If I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have in my own preconceived silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me. And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen.

  John McLaughlin

  Children, Lying, Silly

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• The native and untaught suggestions of inquisitive children do often offer things, that may set a considering man's thoughts on work. And I think there is frequently more to be learn'd from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men, who talk in a road, according to the notions they have borrowed, and the prejudices of their education.

  John Locke

  Children, Men, Thinking

  John Locke, George Berkeley (2010). “Locke, Berkely & Hume”, p.113, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The core belief that drives terrorism is the notion of a "holy place," along with the idea that some people belong there and other people don't. That's why the only solution to terrorism is for religious scholars to hold a global summit to agree on the definition of "holy place." Once they agree on a definition, it will be easier to mock it into submission.

  Scott Adams

  Religious, Ideas, People

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• An idle man has a constant tendency to torpidity. He has adopted the Indian maxim that it is better to walk than to run, and better to stand than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie than to sit. He hugs himself into the notion, that God calls him to be quiet.

  Richard Cecil

  Running, Lying, Men

  Richard Cecil, Josiah PRATT (the Elder.) (1854). “Remains of the Rev. Richard Cecil ... With a view of his character, by the Rev. Josiah Pratt ... To which is prefixed a memoir of his life signed: J. Cecil . Tenth edition”, p.177

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• The anger I felt when the ACLU tried to disenfranchise me because my religious stayed with me. These are dangerous people who make dangerous arguments. Some powerful members of the cultural elites in our country are so paralyzed by the fear that theistic notions might reassert themselves in the official activities of government that they will go to Gestapo lengths to inhibit such expression.

  Henry Hyde

  Christian, Country, Religious

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• There's a lot of romanticisation of the intuitive actor and method acting and all kinds of notions about getting inside a character and coming out from there.

  Edward Norton

  Character, Acting, Actors

  Source: www.theguardian.com

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• Happiness can seem like an abstract, transcendent notion, but in fact, I found that getting enough sleep (very important!!), getting exercise, not letting myself get too hungry, not letting myself get too cold (I'm a person who is always cold), made a big difference. Partly because I felt happier, partly because feeling physically comfortable makes it easier to keep other difficult happiness-boosting resolutions like biting my tongue.

  Gretchen Rubin

  Sleep, Exercise, Differences

  "Slate Discussion: The Happiness Project". Online Chat, www.washingtonpost.com. January 15, 2009.

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• If you look back in history, as the barbarians were invading the gates of Rome, people were consulting fortunetellers and worrying about the end of the world and all sorts of other apocalyptic notions. When the tsars were finally overthrown, they were all reading tarot cards even as the revolutionaries were banging at the gates.

  Matt Taibbi

  Reading, Rome, People

  Interview with Gregg LaGambina, www.avclub.com. July 11, 2008.

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