Pretext Quotes - Page 3

• We must always be on guard lest, under the pretext of keeping one commandment, we be found breaking another.

  Saint Basil

  Faith, Christianity, Christian Life

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• Not to open the hunting season on the pretext that there is no game would be as if one gave up celebrating Christmas because there was not enough snow to go by sleigh to midnight Mass.

  Maurice Grimaud

  Hunting, Games, Snow

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• Growth and mastery come only to those who vigorously self-direct. Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy-these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another.

  John Taylor Gatto

  School, Self, Creating

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• What is meant by charity? Charity is not fundamental. It is really helping on the misery of the world, not eradicating it. One looks for name and fame and covers his efforts to obtain them with the enamel of charity and good works. He is working for himself under the pretext of working for others. Every so-called charity is an encouragement of the very evil it claims to operate against.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Encouragement, Names, Evil

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2593, Manonmani Publishers

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• The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.

  James Madison

  Religious, Rights, Liberty

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Causes

  "The Prince". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, ch. 17, 1513.

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• If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals,or the storm bruised its stem, if it knew that such were not the case.

  Therese of Lisieux

  Sweet, Flower, Humility

  Saint Therese of Lisieux (2007). “The Story of the Soul”, p.27, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Variety made the Revolution. Liberty was just a pretext.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Liberty, Revolution, Made

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• Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion. False, manhandled religion produces the opposite effect. Whenever religion shows contempt or disregards the rights of persons, even under the noblest pretexts, it draws us away from reality and God.

  Brennan Manning

  Fashion, Live Life, Reality

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• The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

  James Madison

  War, Home, Mean

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787. The journal of the Constitutional convention”, p.317

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• Hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littleness, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies.

  Honore de Balzac

  Hate, Hatred, Soul

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• The legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom.

  Pope John Paul II

  Names, Abortion, Abuse

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• They knew only too well the intimate bond which unites faith with worship, 'the law of belief with the law of prayer,' and so, under the pretext of restoring it to its primitive form, they corrupted the order of the liturgy in many respects to adapt it to the errors of the Innovators.

  Pope Leo XIII

  Prayer, Errors, Order

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• The fight against drug trafficking is a false pretext for the United States to install military bases.

  Evo Morales

  Military, Fighting, Drug

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• Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art.

  Georges Braque

  Art, Emotion, Plus

  Raymond Cogniat, Georges Braque, Joanne Greenspun (1980). “Georges Braque”

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• The enemy is only a pretext to test our strength

  Paulo Coelho

  Enemy, Tests

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• It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed...I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives, such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.

  Winston Churchill

  Military, Communication, Land

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• And among the other honours and rewards our young men can win for distinguished service in war and in other activities, will be more frequent opportunities to sleep with a woman; this will give us a pretext for ensuring that most of our children are born of that parent.

  Plato

  Children, War, Sleep

  Plato, Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee (1987). “The Republic”

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• Politics are always a struggle for power, disguised and modified by prudence, reason and moral pretext.

  William Hurrell Mallock

  Struggle, Political, Politics

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• Poverty cannot be accepted as a pretext and justification for the exploitation of children. It does not explain the huge global demand with, in many instances, customers from rich countries circumventing their national laws to exploit children in other countries. Sex tourism has spread its illicit wings wide, and paedophiles search for their victims in all parts of the globe. The problem is compounded by the criminal networks which benefit from the trade in children, and by collusion and corruption in many national settings.

  Vitit Muntarbhorn

  Country, Sex, Children

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• When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida's ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination.

  Robert Lewis Hinkle

  Sex, Gay, Florida

  "Federal judge strikes down Florida's ban on same-sex marriage". www.foxnews.com. August 21, 2014.

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• I do not exclude this, but I would like to draw your attention to one absolutely key aspect: In line with international law, only the U.N. Security Council can sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression.

  Vladimir Putin

  Independent, Gay, Keys

  "G20: Russia says it will consider Syria military action but needs more proof". "AM", www.abc.net.au. September 5, 2013.

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• At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. There's no beat anymore. You can't keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There's a new idea that consists in destroying everything and find what's shocking and unexpected; whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand.

  Thelonious Monk

  Music, Fashion, Believe

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• When under the pretext of fraternity, the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gains from this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Struggle, Sacrifice, Effort

  "Justice and fraternity". Journal des Économistes, June 15, 1848.

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• It seems to me,' said the other, 'That you are simply seeking a pretext to insult the Marquis.' By George!' said Syme facing round and looking at him, 'What a clever chap you are!

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Clever, Insult, Said

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.223, Simon and Schuster

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