Precarious Quotes - Page 2

• As we live our precarious lives on the brink of the void, constantly coming closer to a state of nonbeing, we are all too often aware of our fragitlity.

  Iris Murdoch

  Void, States

  Iris Murdoch (2002). “Nuns and Soldiers”, p.14, Penguin

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• ... freedom is a conquest, always partial, always precarious, always challenged. ... the freest person is the one with the most hope.

  Gabriel Marcel

  Conquest, Persons

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• It is a precarious undertaking to say anything reliable about aims and intentions.

  Albert Einstein

  Say Anything, Statistics, Intention

  Albert Einstein (2016). “The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It”, p.37, Open Road Media

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• If you have given up your militia, and Congress shall refuse to arm them, you have lost every thing. Your existence will be precarious, because you depend on others, whose interests are not affected by your infelicity.

  Patrick Henry

  Arms, Given, Lost

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• There is a precarious balance to the life of a building. It has nothing to do with its age, or the beauty of its construction. A damaged building can always be repaired if it still has life, but a dead building will never be whole again.

  Natsuhiko Kyogoku

  Balance, Age, Construction

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• Wine is a precarious aphrodisiac, and its fumes have blighted many a mating.

  Norman Douglas

  Wine, Aphrodisiac, Mating

  Norman Douglas (1932). “Paneros, Some Words on Aphrodisiacs and the Like”

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• It would be beautiful to photograph the winners of everything from Nobel to booby prize, clutching trophy, or money or certificate, solemn or smiling or tear stained or bloody, on the precarious pinnacle of the human landscape.

  Diane Arbus

  Beautiful, Photography, Tears

  Diane Arbus (2003). “Diane Arbus: revelations”, Random House (NY)

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• In the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, as in so many later conflicts, British women seem to have been no more markedly pacifist than men. Instead, and exactly like so many of their male countrymen, some women found ways of combining support for the national interest with a measure of self-promotion. By assisting the war effort, women demonstrated that their concerns were by no means confined to the domestic sphere. Under cover of a patriotism that was often genuine and profound, they carved out for themselves a real if precarious place in the public sphere.

  Linda Colley

  Real, War, Mean

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• The so-called film star's lot is an infantile and precarious one.

  Hildegard Knef

  Movie, Stars, Film

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• To be young is surely the best, if the most precarious, gift of life.

  James Russell Lowell

  Youth, Young, Gifts Of Life

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.277

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• Many do not understand how precarious Western civilization is and what a joy it is. From it, we get real democracy. From it, we get the sort of intellectual tolerance that allows me to propound something that may be completely alien to you.

  John Rhys-Davies

  Real, Civilization, Joy

  "Welsh star in race row". WalesOnline Interview, www.walesonline.co.uk. January 18, 2004.

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• Freely the subject makes himself what he is, never in this life is the making finished, always it is in process, always it is a precarious achievement that can slip and fall and shatter.

  Bernard Lonergan

  Fall, Achievement, Life Is

  Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Frederick E. Crowe, Robert M. Doran, Lonergan Research Institute (1993). “Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan: Collection”, p.220, University of Toronto Press

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• In you, humanity is precarious; and so, in dread and in shame, you kill the animal in you. And its slaughter poisons you.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Animal, Humanity, Poison

  Olaf Stapledon (1972). “Last and first men, and Last men in London”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• The precarious ontological link between Logos and Eros is broken, and scientific rationality emerges as essentially neutral.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Broken, Links, Logos

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.150, Routledge

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• One good Man may take another's Word, if they so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Honesty, Men, People

  "The Fable of the Bees". Book by Bernard Mandeville. Remark Q, pp. 207-208, 1732.

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• Trust to a plank, draw precarious breath,
  At most seven inches from the jaws of death.

  Juvenal

  Death, Seven, Inches

  Juvenal (1836). “The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis,”, p.140

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• My life is quite physical anyway. When you are three-foot-six you kind of have to climb stuff now and again, and you find yourself in quite precarious situations just to manage in what is quite a big world.

  Warwick Davis

  Feet, Finding Yourself, Three

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.

  Diane Ackerman

  Distance, Balance, Human Nature

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• The motto I have penned on my knuckles is that this is the best world we have--because it's the only world we have. It's the simplest math ever. However many terrible, rankling, peeve-inducing things may occur, there are always libraries. And rain-falling-on-sea. And the moon. And love. There is always something to look back on, with satisfaction, or forward to, with joy. There is always a moment where you boggle at the world--at yourself--at the whole, unlikely, precarious business of being alive--and then start laughing

  Caitlin Moran

  Rain, Fall, Math

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• Hopes have precarious life.
  They are oft blighted, withered, snapped sheer off
  In vigorous growth and turned to rottenness.

  George Eliot

  Hope, Growth, Vigorous

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.4195, Delphi Classics

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• Man's survival, from the time of Adam and Eve until the invention of agriculture, must have been precarious because of his inability to ensure his food supply.

  Norman Borlaug

  Men, Agriculture, Survival

  Norman Ernest Borlaug (1971). “Mankind and Civilization at Another Crossroad”

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• What about precarious labor? It's actually not the most efficient form of labor at all. They were much more efficient when they had loyalty to their workers and people were allowed to be creative and contribute - you know that what precarious labor does is that it's the best weapon ever made to depoliticize labor. They're always putting the political in front of the economic.

  David Graeber

  Loyalty, People, Political

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Life is precarious, and life is precious. Don't presume you will have it tomorrow, and don't waste it today.

  John Piper

  Life Is Precious, Today, Waste

  John Piper (2009). “Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life”, p.34, Multnomah

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• [The] operation of the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Inspire, Vices

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.372, Wordsworth Editions

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• It is important to remember that value investing is not a perfect science. It is an, with an ongoing need for judgment, refinement, patience, and reflection. It requires endless curiosity, the relentless pursuit of additional information, the raising of questions, and the search for answers. It necessitates dealing with imperfect information - knowing you will never know everything and that that must not prevent you from acting. It requires a precarious balance between conviction, steadfastness in the face of adversity, and doubt - keeping in mind the possibility that you could be wrong.

  Seth Klarman

  Adversity, Reflection, Knowing

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