Obliged Quotes

• I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

  Galileo Galilei

  Spiritual, Atheist, Believe

  "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina". Essay by Galileo Galilei, 1615.

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• Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Science, Fiction

  Following the Equator ch. 15, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897) See Byron 33; Chesterton 6

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• People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.

  John Wanamaker

  Funny, Time, Pyramids

  John Wanamaker (1923). “Maxims of Life and Business”

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• I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.

  Johann Sebastian Bach

  Inspiring, Succeed, Wells

  Johann Sebastian Bach, Richard Stokes (2000). “The Complete Church and Secular Cantatas”, p.18, Scarecrow Press

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• Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

  Samuel Johnson

  Found You, Understanding, Statistics

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for June 1784)

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• The pursuit of happiness, which American citizens are obliged to undertake, tends to involve them in trying to perpetuate the moods, tastes and aptitudes of youth.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Happiness, Joy, Trying

  Malcolm Muggeridge (1966). “The Most of Malcolm Muggeridge”

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• Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

  Mark Twain

  Motivational, Work, Yoga

  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ch. 2 (1876)

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• So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.

  Marquis de Sade

  Law, Long, Silence

  Marquis de Sade “Philosophy in the Bedroom: An Erotic Novel”, Library of Alexandria

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• I don't always see my movies right away. And there are some I haven't seen at all. Sometimes that bothers the directors, so I'm obliged to see them.

  Emmanuelle Beart

  Directors, Sometimes, Bother

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The beggar is the only person in the universe not obliged to study appearance.

  Don Herold

  Study, Appearance, Beggar

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• Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Remember, Duty, Position

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• For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white.

  Frantz Fanon

  Destiny, Men, White

  "Black Skin, White Masks". Book by Frantz Fanon, 1952.

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• I do feel ashamed of having participated to the slightest even as a tool in those dark days. But I was obliged to serve the state to which I had taken an oath. It was a tragic fate.

  Walther Funk

  Taken, Fate, Dark

  "The Nuremberg Interviews: Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses". Book by Leon Goldensohn, Random House, p. 85 (To Leon Goldensohn, April 14, 1946), 2010.

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• In order to protect himself from force, man was obliged to submit to justice. Justice or force: he was compelled to choose between the two masters, so little are we made to be independent.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Independent, Men, Order

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience, in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.

  Umberto Eco

  Thinking, Past, People

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• Our behavior toward each other is the strangest, most unpredictable, and most unaccountable of all the phenomena with which we are obliged to live. In all of nature, there is nothing so threatening to humanity as humanity itself.

  Lewis Thomas

  Humanity, Threatening, Behavior

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• An army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every enactment, every change of rule which impairs this principle weakens the army, impairs its value, and defeats the very object of its existence.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Military, Army, Men

  "Jealousy is the tribute which mediocrity pays to genius".

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• We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence... on pain of liquidation.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Pain, Years, Boards

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• Out of my desire to complete Iraq's independence and to finish the withdrawal of the occupation forces from our holy lands, I am obliged to halt military operations of the honest Iraqi resistance until the withdrawal of the occupation forces is complete.

  Muqtada al Sadr

  Military, Land, Iraq

  "Moqtada al-Sadr orders halt to attacks on US troops stationed in Iraq". www.theguardian.com. September 11, 2011.

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• I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

  Catherine the Great

  May, Lines, Gentle

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• When you work on a text of a lesser quality, as the interpreter or the delivery person, you are obliged to try to fill it out as you see so many people do in lesser work.

  Mandy Patinkin

  People, Trying, Quality

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• If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.

  Heinrich Heine

  Funny, Life, Education

  As quoted in "The Medical Record", No. 674, October 6, 1883.

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• I believe if there is any place left where the humanity is still visible, it can not be anywhere else than in an Islamic society. Time would come when the world would be obliged to accept this reality.

  Jermaine Jackson

  Islamic, Believe, Reality

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• Customers need to be given control of their own data-not being tied into a certain manufacturer so that when there are problems they are always obliged to go back to them.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Data, Needs, Problem

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• However painful it may be for me to accept this conclusion, I am obliged to state it: for the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white.

  Frantz Fanon

  Destiny, Men, White

  Frantz Fanon (1967). “Black Skin, White Masks”, p.12, Pluto Press

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