Opposing Quotes - Page 3

• There is an invisible strength within us; when it recognizes two opposing objects of desire, it grows stronger.

  Rumi

  Two, Desire, Stronger

  Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (Maulana), Jelaluddin Rumi, Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey (2005). “The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations of Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi”, p.4, Shambhala Publications

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• I don't personally believe that villains exist. Villains are just a way of saying that somebody has an opposing conviction.

  Ryan Reynolds

  Believe, Way, Villain

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• It now becomes clear why the Bush Administration has been vigorously opposing congressional hearings. The Bush Administration has been engaged in a conspiracy of silence.

  Cynthia McKinney

  Silence, Hearing, Administration

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• Bush reiterated his stand to conservatives opposing his decision on stem cell research. He said today he believes life begins at conception and ends at execution.

  Jay Leno

  Believe, Science, Cells

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• The question of the family now divides our society so deeply that the opposing sides cannot even agree on a definition of the institution they are arguing about.

  Christopher Lasch

  Definitions, Our Society, Sides

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• Do you think when two representatives holding diametrically opposing views get together and shake hands, the contradictions between our systems will simply melt away? What kind of a daydream is that?

  Nikita Khrushchev

  Thinking, Views, Hands

  "Khrushchev Remembers; the Last Testament, Volume 2". Book by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Strobe Talbott (Little, Brown), p. 415, 1974.

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• To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.

  Stephen Fry

  Mean, Opposites, Adults

  Stephen Fry's BAFTA annual television lecture, www.theguardian.com. June 16, 2010.

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• I wanted the players to feel like they were part of a family, to be conscious of that controlled togetherness as they made that slow entrance onto the field. It had a great psychological effect on the opposing team, too. They'd never seen anything like it.

  Hayden Fry

  Team, Player, Fields

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• An artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Artist, Two, Viewpoints

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• So be gentle with yourself; show yourself the same kindness and patience you might show a young child - the child you once were. If you won’t be your own friend, who will be? If, when playing an opponent, you are also opposing yourself, you will be outnumbered.

  Dan Millman

  Children, Kindness, Opponents

  Dan Millman (2010). “Body Mind Mastery: Training for Sport and Life”, p.49, New World Library

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• Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates. Like others having or living in more than one culture, we get multiple, often opposing messages. The coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incomparable frames of reference causes un choque, a cultural collision.

  Gloria E. Anzaldúa

  Reality, Self, Two

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• We used to laugh at our small selves, saying that I was a bad girl trying to be good and that he was a good boy trying to be bad. Through the years these roles would reverse, then reverse again, until we came to accept our dual natures. We contained opposing principles, light and dark.

  Patti Smith

  Girl, Dark, Boys

  Patti Smith (2010). “Just Kids”, p.9, A&C Black

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• Yes, there are plenty of heroes and heroines everywhere you look. They are not famous people. They are generally obscure and modest people doing useful work, keeping their families together and taking an active part in the health of their communities, opposing what is evil (in one way or another) and defending what is good. Heroes do not want power over others.

  Edward Abbey

  Hero, People, Evil

  "Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast".

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• You got rid of them. Yes, that’s just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether ‘tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them… But you don’t do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It’s too easy.

  Aldous Huxley

  Sea, Arrows, Mind

  Aldous Huxley (1933). “Retrospect: an omnibus of Aldous Huxley's books”

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• There's the tree with the branches that everyone sees, and then there's the upside-down root tree, growing the opposite way. So Earth is the branches, growing in opposing but perfect symmetry. The branches don't think much about the roots, and maybe the roots don't think much about the branches, but all the time, they're connected by the trunk, you know?

  Gabrielle Zevin

  Thinking, Opposites, Roots

  Gabrielle Zevin (2016). “Elsewhere”, p.69, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• It is a self-deception of philosophers and moralists to imagine that they escape decadence by opposing it. That is beyond their will; and, however little they acknowledge it, one later discovers that they were among the most powerful promoters of decadence.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Powerful, Self, Deception

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2011). “The Will to Power”, p.340, Vintage

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• To espresso or to latte, that is the question...whether 'tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain...or to take a cup to go. Or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and by opposing the endless choice, end one's heartache.

  Jasper Fforde

  Espresso, White, Heartache

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• It was a brutal picture, a tug-of-war between two equal but opposing impulses. It had the ring of truth, however.

  Deborah Harkness

  War, Two, Impulse

  Deborah Harkness (2014). “All Souls Trilogy”, p.158, Penguin

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• God is the creator of all things, right? He is the force that dictates the laws of the universe, and is therefore the ultimate source of ethics. He is absolute morality... We claim to be doing good. But the Lord Ruler - as God - defines what is good. So by opposing him we're actually evil. But since he's doing the wrong thing, does evil actually count as good in this case?

  Brandon Sanderson

  Law, Evil, Doe

  Brandon Sanderson (2011). “Mistborn Trilogy”, p.192, Tor Books

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• When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.

  Byron Katie

  Uplifting, Simple, Reality

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• How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with whom we are competitive, or whom we dislike or have a quarrel with; but very few of us have true enemies in the martial sense. And yet if Lincoln could pray fervently- and contemporary reports indicate he did- for the people who were opposing him, how much more can we do for someone we just find a little irritating?

  John Wooden

  People, Enemy, Littles

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• To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Suicide, Dream

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 1, l. 56

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• Whether we realise it or not, most of us define ourselves by opposing rather than by favouring something or someone. To put it another way, it is easier to react than to act.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Way, Easier, Realising

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• It is only on the battlefield of ideas that the best ones can be recognized and ultimately prevail. Only those afraid of the truth seek to silence debate, intimidate those with whom they disagree, or slander their ideological counterparts. Those who know they are right have no reason to stifle debate because they realize that all opposing arguments will ultimately be overcome by fact.

  Glenn Beck

  Ideas, Silence, Facts

  Glenn Beck (2009). “Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Ouf-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• Indeed, religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral - that is, when pressing these concerns inflicts unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings. This explains why Christians like yourself expend more "moral" energy opposing abortion than fighting genocide. It explains why you are more concerned about human embryos than about the lifesaving promise of stem-cell research. And it explains why you can preach against condom use in sub-Saharan Africa while millions die from AIDS there each year. (25)

  Sam Harris

  Christian, Fighting, Condom Use

  Sam Harris (2006). “Letter to a Christian Nation”, Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

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