Precedent Quotes - Page 3

• I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises.

  John F. Kennedy

  Broken Promises, Keeping Your Word, Breaking Promises

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• Every four years in the presidential election, some new precedent is broken.

  Nate Silver

  Years, Broken, Presidential

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• Every event in this world is the effect of some precedent cause, and also the cause of some subsequent effect.

  Horace Mann

  Events, World, Causes

  Horace Mann (1867). “Thoughts”, p.70

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• Precedent goes in support of justice.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Justice, Support

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• The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Excellence, Example

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Hester Mulson Chapone, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1785). “The Rambler”, p.212

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• Is it conceivable that a newly emancipated people can soar to the heights of liberty, and, unlike Icarus, neither have its wings melt nor fall into an abyss? Such a marvel is inconceivable and without precedent. There is no reasonable probability to bolster our hopes.

  Simon Bolivar

  Fall, Wings, People

  Simón Bolívar, José Luis Salcedo-Bastardo (1983). “The hope of the universe”, United Nations Educational

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• I think that presidents don't give up power that has accrued to them by the precedent of previous presidents. Even when they say they would like to, I think once they get there they don't give it up.

  Rachel Maddow

  Giving Up, Don't Give Up, Thinking

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• As time goes on, I realize more and more that, beginning in the early 30's, David Smith began setting the precedent for what was to come later for many of us.

  Kenneth Noland

  Fog, Goes On, Realizing

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• The progressive Left can be in favor of Big Government or population control but not both. The mutual incompatibility is about to plunge Europe into societal collapse. There is no precedent in human history for economic growth on declining human capital - and that's before anyone invented unsustainable welfare systems.

  Mark Steyn

  Government, Europe, Growth

  Mark Steyn (2006). “America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It”, p.3, Regnery Publishing

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• This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis, but it satisfies the conditions of a legitimate hypothesis, by postulating the operation of no unknown or uncertain cause, but only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost.

  William Robertson Smith

  Religious, Strong, Alive

  William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.404, Transaction Publishers

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• The obvious precedent for Beijing 2008 was the Berlin Olympics, in 1936. Both were showcases for a muscle-flexing nation, although Hitler made an elementary error when he chose not to dress his young National Socialists in lime-green catsuits laced with twinkling fairy lights.

  Anthony Lane

  Errors, Light, Dresses

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• Today it is not nearly enough to be a saint, but we must have the saintliness demanded by the present moment, a new saintliness, itself also without precedent.

  Simone Weil

  Live In The Moment, Saint, Today

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.28, Routledge

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• In my own recent String Trio I attempt to superimpose two quite different sets of formal strategies, both of which, ultimately, refer back to historical precedent.

  Brian Ferneyhough

  Two, Historical, Trios

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• Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.

  Francis Cornford

  Time, Done, Firsts

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• Worse still is that mankind - the non-Jewish world - learned nothing from the Holocaust: The event which had no precedent in history, which should be equal to the Revelation at Sinai in significance.

  Elie Wiesel

  Holocaust, Events, World

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• Ornate rhetorick taught out of the rule of Plato.... To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.

  John Milton

  Plato, Simple, Poetry

  'Of Education' (1644)

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• . . . the example given by the Nazi regime as to the ability of a modern state to destroy human lives with the same techniques used by modern industry, employing the bureaucratic apparatus readily available to any modern state, is one that can hardly be ignored. Because although history may not repeat itself, it is rare that anything introduced to human history is not used again. Whether the Holocaust was unique or not in terms of its precedents is one question; whether it will remain so is quite another.

  Omer Bartov

  Unique, Holocaust, May

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• There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you’ve got is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.

  John DiIulio

  Running, Mean, White

  "Bush’s Burgeoning Body Count" by Nick Turse, www.motherjones.com. November 28, 2005.

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• Is not Precedent indeed a King of men? A Word from the Psalmist.

  Algernon Charles Swinburne

  Kings, Men

  "A Word From the Psalmist". Poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, www.public-domain-poetry.com.

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• Clouds of a different sort signal an environmental holocaust without precedent. Once again, world leaders waffle, hoping the danger will dissipate. Yet today the evidence is as clear as the sounds of glass shattering in Berlin.

  Al Gore

  Clouds, Glasses, Holocaust

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• I will look, your Honor, and endeavor to find a precedent, if you require it; though it would seem to be a pity that the Court should lose the honor of being the first to establish so just a rule.

  Rufus Choate

  Law, Honor, Looks

  Rufus Choate, Samuel Gilman Brown (1862). “Memoir. Lectures and addresses”, p.292

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• My [singing] style really has no style, because I try to sing each number differently. I’ve always believed that if style takes precedent over the words and music, the audience get’s cheated. It’s like when people see a fine play or movie. They imagine themselves in the leading role. I want them to imagine that they’re singing - not just listening to someone else.

  Judy Garland

  Play, Numbers, People

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• There is no precedent of a civilian population, displaced by a war that their leadership started and lost, claiming a right to return to territory that they failed to conquer.

  Caroline Glick

  War, Population, Territory

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• As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent, it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles.

  George Washington

  America, Principles, May

  George Washington (1988). “George Washington: A Collection”, Liberty Fund

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• No crime has been without a precedent.

  Seneca the Younger

  Prison, Crime, Has Beens

  "Hippolytus, DLIV". DLIV, 1st century.

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