Observers Quotes - Page 7

• How often has providence convinced its observers, upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives, that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels they had as often been their own tormentors, if not executioners!

  John Flavel

  Christian, Events, Sober

  John Flavel (1840). “Divine Conduct: Or, The Mystery of Providence, Wherein the Being and Efficacy of Providence are Asserted and Vindicated ... and the Proper Course of Improving All Providences Pointed Out”, p.19

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• When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida's ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination.

  Robert Lewis Hinkle

  Sex, Gay, Florida

  "Federal judge strikes down Florida's ban on same-sex marriage". www.foxnews.com. August 21, 2014.

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• The observer of beauty always receives a passion to share the beauty with others.

  Timothy Keller

  Passion, Share

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• A church must be more deeply and practically committed to deeds of compassion and social justice than traditional liberal churches and more deeply and practically committed to evangelism and conversion than traditional fundamentalist churches. This kind of church is profoundly counter-intuitive to American observers. It breaks their ability to categorize (and dismiss) it as liberal or conservative. Only this kind of church has any chance in the non-Christian west.

  Timothy Keller

  Christian, Compassion, Justice

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• The thing about being a songwriter, once you realize you are one, is that to provide ammo, you start to become an observer. ... You're constantly on the alert. That faculty gets trained in you over the years: observing people, how they react to one another, which in a way makes you weirdly distant. ... It's a little of Peeping Tom, being a song-writer.

  Keith Richards

  Music, Song, Years

  Keith Richards (2010). “Life”, p.127, Hachette UK

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• Add the hippie-rock-drugs atmosphere circa 1970, and you get Clinton's rechristened group Parliament, decked out in weird costumes, singing cosmic lyrics and laying down amazing funk lines - also lines of other kinds. One observer describes Maggot Brain ... one of those guys with super technique that took a lot of acid and just went out from there.

  Eddie Griffin

  Hippie, Rocks, Guy

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• It is difficult to attack me directly on religion because I never speak of it. Formally I am a strict observer of decorum and in public affairs it is my principle to uphold religion.

  Etienne Francois, duc de Choiseul

  Political, Principles, Speak

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• True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Heart, Thinking

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• Politics, as any observer of the modern world knows, is the enemy of economics, everywhere and always.

  John Derbyshire

  Political, Enemy, World

  John Derbyshire (2009). “We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism”, p.234, Crown Forum

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• Virtually all informed observers agree that a fair and equitable resolution of the plight of the Palestinians would considerably weaken the anger and hatred of Israel and the US in the Arab and Muslim worlds - and far beyond, as international polls reveal. Such an agreement is surely within reach, if the US and Israel depart from their long-standing rejectionism.

  Noam Chomsky

  Israel, Agreement, Long

  "Apocalypse Near (Part One)". Interview with Merav Yudilovitch, www.ynetnews.com. August 04, 2006.

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• We are often confident even when we are wrong, and an objective observer is more likely to detect our errors than we are.

  Daniel Kahneman

  Errors, Objectives

  Daniel Kahneman (2011). “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, p.7, Macmillan

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• In the absence of observers, our universe is dead

  Andrei Linde

  Absence, Universe

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• I was an observer. I liked to listen rather than openly express myself. This trait is something that I've retained over the years.

  Giorgio Armani

  Artist, Years, Traits

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• The practical revolutionary will understand Goethe's 'conscience is the virtue of observers and not of agents of action'; in action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one's individual conscience and the good of mankind.

  Saul Alinsky

  Luxury, Decision, Doe

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.25, Vintage

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• Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business… the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products.

  Noam Chomsky

  Military, Government, Ignorant Masses

  "Force and Opinion". Article by Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info. July, 1991.

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• Some statements concern the conscious states of the animal, what he is to himself as an inner life; others concern his original and acquired ways of response, his behavior, what he is an outside observer

  Edward Thorndike

  Animal, Way, Behavior

  Edward Thorndike (2017). “Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies”, p.23, Routledge

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• Everything in Irenaeus is bathed in a warm and radiant joy, a wise and majestic gentleness. His words of struggle are hard as iron and crystal clear, ... so penetrating that they cannot fail to enlighten the unbiased observer.

  Hans Urs von Balthasar

  Wise, Struggle, Iron

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• The close observer soon discovers that the teacher's task is not to implant facts but to place the subject to be learned in front of the learner and, through sympathy, emotion, imagination, and patience, to awaken in the learner the restless drive for answers and insights which enlarge the personal life and give it meaning.

  Nathan M. Pusey

  Life, Teacher, Learning

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• As Day and other observers had reported, the slaves were leading very comfortable lives. After this tactic [slave rebellions in the South] failed, it became obvious to the conspirators that an actual military invasion was the only solution to their campaign. The merchant bankers of New England, who were directly controlled by the Rothschilds, were no instructed to finance a military attack against the South. Their instrumentality was the already well-known terrorist, John Brown. He was financed by a group famed as "the Secret Six".

  Eustace Mullins

  Military, War, Secret

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• A performer may be taken in by his own act, convinced at the moment that the impression of reality which he fosters is the one and only reality. In such cases we have a sense in which the performer comes to be his own audience; he comes to be performer and observer of the same show. Presumably he introcepts or incorporates the standards he attempts to maintain in the presence of others so that even in their absence his conscience requires him to act in a socially proper way.

  Erving Goffman

  Taken, Reality, May

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• Children are very quick observers; very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often discover that, as the father is, so is the son.

  J. C. Ryle

  Children, Father, Son

  J.C. Ryle (2015). “The Duties of Parents”, p.34, Booklassic

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• The visual impact of the stupa on the observer brings a direct experience of inherent wakefulness and dignity. Stupas continue to be built because of their ability to liberate one simply upon seeing their structure

  Chogyam Trungpa

  Impact, Dignity, Structure

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• It's really a pity that there are observers who view political events like comic strips. There has to be a Zorro, there has to be a star. No, the problem of Upper Volta is more serious than that. It was a grave mistake to have looked for a man, a star, at all costs, to the point of creating one, that is, to the point of attributing the ownership of the event to captain Sankara, who must have been the brains, etc.

  Thomas Sankara

  Stars, Mistake, Men

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• Four varieties in society: lovers, the ambitious, observers, and fools. The fools are the happiest.

  Hippolyte Taine

  Ambitious, Four, Fool

  "Notes on Paris".

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• If you put yourself in a situation of unpredictability and then find that it's completely possible to accept it, then you become an observer.

  David Tudor

  Accepting, Situation, Unpredictability

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