Opposites Quotes - Page 17

• Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Men, Risk, Useless

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• The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere.

  Michel de Certeau

  Real, Media, Silence

  Michel de Certeau (2011). “The Practice of Everyday Life”, p.185, Univ of California Press

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• No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

  Epictetus

  Men, Progress, Wavering

  Epictetus (1895*). “Discourses: With the Encheiridion and Fragments”

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• Preparing a character is the opposite of building-it is a demolishing, removing brick by brick everything in the actor's muscles, ideas and inhibitions that stands between him and the part, until one day, with a great rush of air, the character invades his every pore.

  Peter Brook

  Character, Air, Ideas

  Peter Brook (2017). “The Shifting Point: Forty Years of Theatrical Exploration, 1946-87”, p.16, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Kids don't say, "Wait." They say, "Wait up, hey wait up!" Because when you're little, your life is up. The future is up. Everything you want is up. "Hold up. Shut up! Mum, I'll clean up. Let me stay up!" Parents, of course, are just the opposite. Everything is down. "Just calm down. Slow down. Come down here! Sit down. Put... that... down."

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Kids, Waiting, Parent

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• Often you will find the opposite situation. The author seems to have interesting ideas, but he is not able to illustrate them with decent examples. If a grandmaster is commenting on one of his own games, then there is usually not any problem: his general thoughts are closely tied up with what is happening on the board. But as soon as he starts writing an article or book on a different theme the difficulties begin, as he may not have suitable material to hand.

  Mark Dvoretsky

  Book, Writing, Ideas

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• If we doubt that the foundation for inner work is compassion for self and self-honoring behavior, we need only remind ourselves that the opposite approach, feeling guilty or judging ourselves has never really worked.

  John Earle

  Inspirational, Compassion, Self

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• I have never liked sex. I do not think I ever will. It just seems the opposite of love.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Sex, Thinking, Seems

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• Fat people who want to reduce should take their exercise on an empty stomach and sit down to their food out of breath.... Thin people who want to get fat should do exactly the opposite and never take exercise on an empty stomach.

  Hippocrates

  Exercise, People, Want

  A Regimen for Health IV (transl. John Chadwick and W.N. Mann)

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• Whenever I think about an issue, I always argue the opposite side of it. So, when I ultimately decide on a course of action, I've already been through all the conceivable scenarios, and I'm going to go for it.

  Kenneth I. Chenault

  Leadership, Thinking, Issues

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• [Grateful] Cheerfulness is health; its opposite, [ungrateful] melancholy, is disease.

  Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  Gratitude, Grateful, Disease

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• How little has situation to do with happiness. The happy individual uses their intelligence to realise things could be worse and therefore is grateful and happy. The unhappy individual does the opposite!

  Fanny Burney

  Gratitude, Grateful, Unhappy

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• It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim.

  A. N. Wilson

  Thinking, History, Political

  A. N. Wilson (2015). “After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World”, p.194, Macmillan

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• They looked at one another in incomprehension, two minds driving opposite ways up a narrow street and waiting for the other man to reverse first.

  Terry Pratchett

  Men, Two, Waiting

  Terry Pratchett (2009). “Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)”, p.208, Random House

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• First, you have to have fun. Second, you have to put love where your labour is. Third, you have to go in the opposite direction to everyone else.

  Anita Roddick

  Fun, Firsts, Contradiction

  Anita Roddick (1994). “Body and soul: profits with principles, the amazing success story of Anita Roddick & the Body Shop”, Three Rivers Press

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• Zero is powerful because it is infinity’s twin. They are equal and opposite, yin and
  yang. They are equally paradoxical and troubling. The biggest questions in science
  and religion are about nothingness and eternity, the void and the infinite, zero and
  infinity. The clashes over zero were the battles that shook the foundations of philosophy,
  of science, of mathematics, and of religion. Underneath every revolution lay a
  zero – and an infinity.

  Charles Seife

  Zero, Powerful, Philosophy

  Charles Seife (2000). “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea”, p.2, Penguin

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• The opposite of theism is not atheism, it’s idolatry

  Peter Kreeft

  Atheism, Theism, Idolatry

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• We live under the power of Modern Consciousness, which means that we are obsessed with progress. Wherever you are is not good enough. We always want to achieve something, rather than experience something. The opposite of this is Spiritual Consciousness. By that I mean you find enchantment in every action you do, rather in just the results of your action. Spiritual Consciousness is not a particular religion but a way of being.

  Satish Kumar

  Spiritual, Mean, Not Good Enough

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• Cultivated people foster what is good in others,
  not what is bad.
  Petty people do the opposite.

  Confucius

  People, Petty

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• Praying is what confirms our true belief that we cannot succeed without God, and its absence confirms the exact opposite.

  James MacDonald

  God, Faith, Christian

  Twitter post from Aug 02, 2016

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• Stunted varieties were generally chosen, particularly if they had the side branches opposite or regular, for much depends upon this; a one-sided tree is of no value in the eyes of the Chinese.

  Robert Fortune

  Eye, Tree, Chinese

  Robert Fortune (1863). “Yedo and Peking: A Narrative of a Journey to the Capitals of Japan and China ...”, p.112

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• Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book's artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotion, content to follow the action with tenderness and interest, all passion spent.  Rather than surrender to the story or the characters - as a good first reader ought - we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftmanship.  Surprisingly, such dissection doesn't murder the experience.  Just the opposite: Only then does a work of art fully live.

  Michael Dirda

  Art, Book, Passion

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• Charles Bernstein's pairs of jingles of 'public discourse' are 'simultaneous double narrative / the space between's the other narrative/as if they're opposite.' In the space between, outside representation but in the 'presence' of it, we are provoked to laugh. Bernstein alters our language to open a double range that's public and mind at once and inseparable, that is 'Poetry is patterned thought in search of unpatterned mind.' Girly Man is doing it.

  Leslie Scalapino

  Girly, Men, Space

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• I am the neurological opposite of a psychopath, in that I feel anxious almost all the time. It must be great to not constantly feel like you’ve got someone living inside your face, shooting you with a mini Taser.

  Jon Ronson

  Tasers, Shooting, Faces

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• Some people make you feel better about living. Some people you meet and you feel this little lift in your heart, this 'Ah', because there's something in them that's brighter or lighter, something beautiful or better than you, and here's the magic: instead of feeling worse, instead of feeling 'why am I so ordinary?', you feel just the opposite, you feel glad. In a weird way you feel better, because before this you hadn't realised or you'd forgotten human beings could shine so.

  Niall Williams

  Beautiful, Heart, Feel Better

  Niall Williams (2014). “History of the Rain: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014”, p.128, A&C Black

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