Presumptuous Quotes - Page 3

• You’re presumptuous and arrogant and a whole lot of other things if you think I’ve changed my mind.” “You see, that’s just it.” There he was again, moving into my space. “I think you like the ‘other things.

  Richelle Mead

  Moving, Thinking, Space

  Richelle Mead (2013). “The Indigo Spell: A Bloodlines Novel”, p.120, Penguin

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• And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth be at all within the reach of human capacity, it is certain it must lie very deep and abstruse: and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous. I pretend to no such advantage in the philosophy I am going to unfold, and would esteem it a strong presumption against it, were it so very easy and obvious.

  David Hume

  Strong, Pain, Philosophy

  David Hume (1874). “A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”, p.306

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• There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and - I'm going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

  Joe Biden

  Thinking, Long, Respect Me

  "Biden's Brief". Interview with Ryan Lizza, www.newyorker.com. October 20, 2008.

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• It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature and Nature's God; that is, he follows God in his works and in his word.

  Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

  Real, Discovery, Progress

  Henry St John's letter to Alexander Pope, as quoted in "The Work of Lord Bolingbroke: With a Life, Prepared Expressly for this Edition, Containing Additional Information Relative to His Personal and Public Character, Selected from the Best Authorities. In Four Volumes. Volume III", 1841.

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• It's hard to give advice. There are so many people, how do you give major advice to a group of people, it's very presumptuous.

  Vidal Sassoon

  People, Giving, Advice

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• You think that the only thing that counts is the bottom line! What a presumptuous thing to say. The bottom line is in heaven.

  Edwin Land

  Thinking, Heaven, Lines

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• Man, only - rash, refined, presumptuous man, Starts from his rank, and mars creation's plan.

  George Canning

  Men, Mars, Creation

  'The Progress of Man' (1799) l. 55

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• I'm not presumptuous enough to feel that people are going to feel what I have in mind, so I tell a story, you know, let them read something, that doesn't change, that as I have said it, you know, so that's the way I feel about the viewer, the viewer has a mind of their own and eyes of their own and they're going to see it their way, I just hope they look.

  Faith Ringgold

  Eye, People, Mind

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• We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.

  Blaise Pascal

  Math, Vanity, People

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. The victim of the fanatical persecutor will find that the stronger the motives he can urge for mercy are, the weaker will be his chance for obtaining it, for the merit of his destruction will be supposed to rise in value in proportion as it is effected at the expense of every feeling both of justice and of humanity.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Justice, Feelings, Humanity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.128

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• When we look at a painting, or hear a symphony, or read a book, and feel more Named, then, for us, that work is a work of Christian art. But to look at a work of art and then to make a judgment as to whether or not it is art, and whether or not it is Christian, is presumptuous. It is something we cannot know in any conclusive way. We can know only if it speaks within our own hearts, and leads us to living more deeply with Christ in God.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Christian, Art, Book

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.41, Convergent Books

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• For a young and presumptuous poet a disposition to write satires is one of the most dangerous he can encourage. It tempts him to personalities, which are not always forgiven after he has repented and become ashamed of them.

  Robert Southey

  Writing, Personality, Poet

  William Cowper, Robert Southey (1853). “The Works of William Cowper: Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations”, p.226

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• The portrait painter... If he insults his sitters his occupation is gone. Whether he paints the should instead of the features, or the latter with all its natural blemishes, he is as presumptuous as if he shouted, 'What a face. Hide it.' which would never do, although it is analogous to what landscape painters are doing every day.

  Walter J. Phillips

  Portraits, Gone, Portraiture

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• I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionize pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago

  Lady Gaga

  Years, Goal, Sound

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• I think it's become such a part of younger people's daily life to have the instant access to each other that it sometimes gets a little presumptuous. People feel like it's OK, for example, to email you with some weird personal criticism they have.

  Ted Leo

  Thinking, People, Criticism

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• Who am I to stop everybody just to tell my stupid story? It's presumptuous.

  Brendan Benson

  Stupid, Stories

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• the idea of a finished human product not only appears presumptuous but even, in my opinion, lacks any strong appeal. Life is struggle and striving, development and growth - and analysis is one of the means that can help in this process. Certainly its positive accomplishments are important, but also the striving itself is of intrinsic value.

  Karen Horney

  Strong, Struggle, Mean

  Karen Horney (2013). “Self-Analysis”, p.303, Routledge

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• Like Karl Kraus [Wittgenstein], was seldom pleased by what he saw of the institutions of men, and the idiom of the passerby mostly offended his ear - particularly when they happened to speak philosophically; and like Karl Kraus, he suspected that the institutions could not but be corrupt if the idiom of the race was confused, presumptuous, and vacuous, a fabric of nonsense, untruth, deception, and self-deception.

  Thomas Szasz

  Confused, Men, Race

  "Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry". Book by Thomas Szasz and Karl Kraus (p. 67), March 1, 1990.

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• Conscience, the organ of feeling which dominates us and of the opinions which rule us, is presumptuous in the strong, timid in the weak and unfortunate, uneasy in the undecided.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Strong, Feelings, Opinion

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• When the blessed Spirit, that bloweth where it listeth, visits you and stirs the plumage of the soul, seek no cowardly shelter from it, but fling yourself upon it, and, though its sweep be awful, you shall be sustained. Only do this, do all, not in presumptuous daring, but in divine submission; in dependence, not on any strength that can be spent, but on the ever-living stay of all that trust in Him.

  James Martineau

  Blessed, Visits You, Soul

  James Martineau (1905). “A Martineau year book: Extracts from sermons”

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• Communities now find themselves in possession of improvements [resulting from the WPA] which even in 1929 they would have thought themselves presumptuous to dream of... [but] everywhere there had been an overhauling of the word presumptuous. We are beginning to wonder if it is not presumptuous to take for granted that some people should have much, and some should have nothing; that some people are less important than others and should die earlier; that the children of the comfortable should be taller and fatter, as a matter of right, than the other children of the poor.

  Harry Hopkins

  Dream, Children, Should Have

  "Spending to Save: The Complete Story of Relief". Book by Harry Lloyd Hopkins, p. 184, 1936.

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• 'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle, and makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile... 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, and hold in balance each contending state, To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, and answer her afflicted neighbours' prayer... Soon as her fleets appear their terrors cease.

  Joseph Addison

  Kings, Prayer, War

  Joseph Addison, “A Letter From Italy”

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• For the most part, we should pray rather in aspiration than petition, rather by hoping than requesting; in which spirit also we may breathe a devout wish for a blessing on others upon occasions when it might be presumptuous to beg it.

  Leigh Hunt

  Prayer, Blessing, Wish

  Leigh Hunt (1853). “The Religion of the Heart: A Manual of Faith and Duty”, p.55

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• We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us.

  Blaise Pascal

  Vanity, Wish, World

  Blaise Pascal (1849). “Thoughts of Blaise Pascal”, p.90

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• In a certain reign there was a lady not of the first rank whom the emperor loved more than any of the others. The grand ladies with high ambitions thought her a presumptuous upstart, and lesser ladies were still more resentful. Everything she did offended someone.

  Murasaki Shikibu

  Book, Ambition, Reign

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