Obtaining Quotes - Page 5

• No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

  John Adams

  Men, Office, Presidential

  Letter to Josiah Quincy, 14 Feb. 1825

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• Patriotism in its simplest, clearest and most indubitable signification is nothing else but a means of obtaining for the rulers their ambitions and covetous desires, and for the ruled the abdication of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish enthrallment to those in power.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Ambition, Mean, Patriotism

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• Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Believe, Adventure, Accomplishment

  Samuel Johnson (1828). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.199

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• The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Wish, Pleasure

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.116

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• Humor is a means of obtaining pleasure in spite of the distressing effects that interface with it.

  Sigmund Freud

  Happiness, Mean, Pleasure

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• Mathematics is an interesting intellectual sport but it should not be allowed to stand in the way of obtaining sensible information about physical processes.

  Richard Hamming

  Sports, Interesting, Intellectual

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• Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th. asking 'the best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law' is received. The mode is very simple, though laborious, and tedious. It is only to get the books, and read, and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after reading it carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, & Story's Equity &c. in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Book, Reading, Simple

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.121, Wildside Press LLC

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• Life cannot have had a random beginning. ... The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10 to the 40,000 power, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.

  Fred Hoyle

  Two, Trials, Enzymes

  "Evolution from Space". Book by Chandra Wickramasinghe and Fred Hoyle, 1981.

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• The study of taxonomy in its broadest sense is probably the oldest branch of biology or natural history as well as the basis for all the other branches, since the first step in obtaining any knowledge of things about us is to discriminate between them and to learn to recognize them.

  Richard E. Blackwelder

  Knowledge, Science, Taxonomy

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• I never did anything, great or small, without obtaining in advance express instructions from Adolf Hitler or any of my superiors.

  Adolf Eichmann

  Instruction, Superiors

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• Drawing is a means of obtaining and communicating knowledge

  John Ruskin

  Mean, Drawing, Communicate

  John Ruskin (2015). “A Joy Forever”, p.126, John Ruskin

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• We have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least the rule of fixed necessity... what is still lacking here is a grasp of the connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order itself.

  Albert Einstein

  Life, Order, Profound

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”, p.24, Open Road Media

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• Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if-and mark well what I say-if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.

  Louis de Montfort

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.

  Laura Miller

  Book, Healing, Buying

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• It (land value taxation) guarantees that no one dispossess fellow citizens by obtaining a disproportionate share of what nature provides for humanity.

  William Vickrey

  Guarantees That, Land, Humanity

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• There is only one way of attaining liberation and of obtaining the omniscience of enlightenment: following an authentic spiritual master.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Spiritual, Enlightenment, Way

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• Being thus prepared for us in all ways, and made beautiful, and good for food, and for building, and for instruments of our hands, this race of plants, deserving boundless affection and admiration from us, becomes, in proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly perfect test of our being in right temper of mind and way of life; so that no one can be far wrong in either who loves trees enough, and everyone is assuredly wrong in both who does not love them, if his life has brought them in his way.

  John Ruskin

  Life, Beautiful, Race

  John Ruskin (1873). “Pt. 6-9 of leaf beauty. of cloud beauty. of ideas of relation”, p.4

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• In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Data, Progress, Branches

  James Clerk Maxwell (1990). “The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862”, p.209, CUP Archive

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• Let them no more say, God must do all, we can do nothing, and so encourage themselves to live in a careless neglect of God, and of their own souls, and salvation. Most certainly, altho' we cannot say, That if men improve their natural abilities as they ought to do, that grace will infallibly follow, yet there will not one sinner in all the reprobate world, stand forth at the day of judgment, and say, Lord, thou knowest I did all that possibly I could do, for the obtaining grace, and for all that, thou didst withhold it from me.

  Increase Mather

  Men, Grace, Soul

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• What sort of a brain-dead idiot does it take to actually believe that gun laws will prevent criminals from obtaining and carrying guns?

  Neal Boortz

  Believe, Gun, Law

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• There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is simply to try to get rid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever had, and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of obtaining a larger measure of divine grace.

  A. B. Simpson

  Blessing, Opportunity, Two

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• Our first object is... the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements.

  Theodor Herzl

  Law, Requirements, Firsts

  Theodor Herzl (1960). “Herzl Speaks His Mind on Issues, Events, and Men”

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• If a person trains his mind to walk in the spirit, and brings his whole mind to bear upon its operations, and upon the principles of faith which are calculated to put him in possession of the power of God, how much greater will be his faculties for obtaining knowledge. . . .

  Orson Pratt

  Faith, Mind, Bears

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• PALMISTRY, n. The 947th method . . . of obtaining money by false pretences [by] "reading character" in the wrinkles [of] the hand. The pretence is not altogether false. . . for the wrinkles in every hand submitted plainly spell the word "dupe."

  Ambrose Bierce

  Money, Reading, Character

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• The complaint of bad pay, and difficulty in obtaining it, is almost generally reiterated through every department of education.

  Joseph Lancaster

  Pay, Difficulty, Complaints

  Joseph Lancaster (1807). “Improvements in Education, as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community: Containing Among Other Important Particulars, an Account of the Institution for the Education of One Thousand Poor Children, Borough Road, Southwark; and of the New System of Education on which it is Conducted”, p.142

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