Practicals Quotes - Page 12

• Intellect is neither practical nor impractical; it is extra-practical.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Intellect, Extras

  Richard Hofstadter (2012). “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life”, p.30, Vintage

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• The intellectual's ... playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play of the mind is perhaps the only form of play that is not looked upon with the most tender indulgence. His piety is likely to seem nettlesome, if not actually dangerous. And neither quality is considered to contribute very much to the practical business of life.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Men, Play, Luxury

  "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". Book by Richard Hofstadter (p. 33), 1974.

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• I cannot... perceive any ground for hoping that any practical good would, while the funding system exists in its present extent, result from the adoption of any of those projects, which have professed to have in view what is called Parliamentary Reform... when the funding system, from whatever cause, shall cease to operate upon civil and political liberty, there will be no need of projects for parliamentary reform. The parliament will, as far as shall be necessary, then reform itself.

  William Cobbett

  Views, Adoption, Political

  Political Register, March 15, 1806.

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• Whatever the practical origins of aesthetic discernment may have been, it has been used to create great works of art. When the very loftiest human creations are seen to derive from humble origins and functions, what needs revision is not our esteem for these creations but our notion of nobility.

  Robert Nozick

  Art, Humble, Needs

  Robert Nozick (1994). “The Nature of Rationality”, p.181, Princeton University Press

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• The current demoralization of the art world is attributable at least in part to museum interference, ideological and practical, with ongoing creation in art.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Museums, Ongoing

  Harold Rosenberg (1983). “Art on the Edge: Creators and Situations”, p.283, University of Chicago Press

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• Don't be 'practical' in politics. To be practical in that sense means that you have schooled yourself to think along the lines, and in the grooves that those who rob you would desire you to think.

  James Connolly

  Mean, Thinking, Desire

  1909 Socialism Made Easy.

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• The task of the political philosopher can only be to influence public opinion, not to organize people for action. He will do so effectively only if he is not concerned with what is now politically possible but consistently defends the "general principles which are always the same." In this sense I doubt whether there can be such a thing as a conservative political philosophy. Conservatism may often be a useful practical maxim, but it does not give us any guiding principles which can influence long-range developments.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Philosophy, Guiding Principles, Often Is

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Postscript: Why I Am Not a Conservative, 1960.

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• Name one practical, down-to-earth effect of spirituality," said the skeptic who was ready for an argument. "Here's one," said the Master. "When someone offends you, you can raise your spirits to heights where offenses cannot reach.

  Anthony de Mello

  Names, Earth, Height

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• Useful knowledge, practical kindness, and beneficent laws -- these are not the Gospel; but, like philosophy, they are, or may be, its handmaids. They may make its task smooth and grateful; they may associate themselves with its victories, or they may prepare its way.

  Henry Parry Liddon

  Kindness, Philosophy, Grateful

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• If capitalism begins as the practical idealism of the aspiring bourgeoisie, it ends ... as an orgy of materialism.

  Talcott Parsons

  Bourgeoisie, Materialism, Ends

  Max Weber, Talcott Parsons (2003). “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, p.3, Courier Corporation

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• Surely to root politics out of art is a highly necessary undertaking: for the freedom of art, like that of science, depends entirely upon its objectivity and non-practical, non-partisan passion.

  Wyndham Lewis

  Art, Passion, Objectivity

  Wyndham Lewis (1929). “The Diabolical Principle and The Dithyrambic Spectator”, p.40, Ardent Media

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• Buddhists and Christians contrive to agree about death Making death their ideal basis for different ideals. The Communists however disapprove of death Except when practical.

  William Empson

  Christian, Buddhist, Different

  William Empson (1984). “Collected poems”, Chatto & Windus

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• No practical biologist interested in sexual reproduction would be led to work out the detailed consequences experienced by organisms having three or more sexes; yet what else should he do if he wishes to understand why the sexes are, in fact, always two?

  Ronald Fisher

  Sex, Two, Work Out

  "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection". Book by Ronald Fisher, 1930.

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• Why does a woman carry a gun? Because, under our system, every citizen has the latitude to act in the absence of police; the latitude to act reasonably, to act immediately, to act in defense of self, to act in defense of another, to act with lethal force, to act with her acquired training and to act not in anger but to respond in purpose. To exercise the protections of that latitude in public policy, public interest and practical safety, all that is demanded of her is that she act reasonably under the circumstances.

  John Longenecker

  Exercise, Gun, Self

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• Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Long, Progress, Our Words

  Nobel Lecture, delivered 5 May 2010, Oslo, Norway

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• Whenever I am embraced by land and seascape I draw ideas for new sculptures; new forms to touch and walk around, new people to embrace, with an exactitude of form that those without sight can hold and realize... ...It is essentially practical and passionate.

  Barbara Hepworth

  Sight, Land, Ideas

  Studio International 171, p.280, June 1966.

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• My object has been, first to discover correct principles and then to suggest their practical development.

  James Prescott Joule

  Principles, Development, Firsts

  "On Electro-Magnetic Forces". Annals of Electricity, Volume 4, p. 484, March 10, 1840.

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• My area of research is something that in all fairness has no practical usability whatsoever and the thing is I'm often asked to apologize for that. It is interesting to me that people ask 'what's the point of doing that if it's not useful?' But they never ask that, or do they very rarely ask that about art or literature or music. Those things are not gonna produce a better toaster.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Art, People, Interesting

  YouTube Channel "Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science"/"Lawrence Krauss Discussion (1/12) - Richard Dawkins", www.youtube.com. April 14, 2008.

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• The science of political economy is essentially practical, and applicable to the common business of human life. There are few branches of human knowledge where false views may do more harm, or just views more good.

  Thomas Malthus

  Views, Political, Branches

  Thomas Malthus (2015). “An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings”, p.246, Penguin UK

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• The first business of philosophy is to account for things as they are; and till our theories will do this, they ought not to be the ground of any practical conclusion.

  Thomas Malthus

  Philosophy, Firsts, Theory

  Thomas Robert Malthus “An Essay on the Principle of Population, Or, a View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness: With an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal Or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions”, Cambridge University Press

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• I don't think I am a traditional romantic who thinks about candlelight dinners and wonders if my husband is going to bring me flowers, though I'm delighted if he does. I'm more practical-minded. I find it incredibly romantic that my husband does the dishes.

  Nora Roberts

  Husband, Flower, Thinking

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• We're all a bunch of badminton birdies who just got batted from the Republican side of the court to the Democrat side. We'll eventually get batted back again, of course, unless libertarians can manage to do something about it. If your principal concern, like mine, is freedom, there's absolutely no discernable difference between the two 'majors,' and for all practical purposes, they're one big party - the Boot On Your Neck party - pretending to be two.

  L. Neil Smith

  Party, Two, Differences

  "Catching Up with L. Neil Smith". Interview with Ari Armstrong, www.freecolorado.com. December 07, 2006.

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• Man is by nature a pragmatic materialist, a mechanic, a lover of gadgets and gadgetry; and these are the qualities that characterize the "establishment" which regulates modern society: pragmatism, materialism, mechanization, and gadgetry. Woman, on the other hand, is a practical idealist, a humanitarian with a strong sense of noblesse oblige, an altruist rather than a capitalist.

  Elizabeth Gould Davis

  Strong, Men, Hands

  "The First Sex". Book by Elizabeth Gould Davis. Chapter 22: "Woman in the Aquarian Age", 1971.

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• Luck, if it mean nothing more than an event of which the cause is not apparent, is a term that may be employed without error; but if it means, as it generally does, an event which has no cause at all, a mere chance, it is a bad word, a heathen term; drop it from your vocabulary; trust nothing to luck, nor expect anything from it; avoid all practical use or dependence upon this or its kindred words, fate, chance, fortune.

  John Angell James

  Mean, Fate, Errors

  John Angell James (1851). “The young man's friend and guide through life to immortality”, p.180

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• it's just that in C++ and the like, you don't trust anybody, and in CLOS you basically trust everybody. The practical result is that thieves and bums use C++ and nice people use CLOS.

  Erik Naggum

  Nice, People, Thieves

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