Provocative Quotes

• No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky.

  Llewelyn Powys

  Good Night, Sight, Sky

  Llewelyn Powys (1961). “Llewelyn Powys: A Selection from His Writings”

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• I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.

  Duane Michals

  Thinking, People, Magic

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• I think scent is sensual. I guess evoking a mood or a spirit is key, and I think with the women's fragrances we have evoked different types, moods or sensibilities of a woman - whether it's Daisy with the sweetness and the innocence or Lola which is more provocative, sexy and sultry.

  Marc Jacobs

  Sexy, Thinking, Keys

  "Marc Jacobs Reveals The Naked Truth". GO Interview, gq.co.za. September 7, 2015.

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• People have this idea that if you're sexual and beautiful and provocative, then there's nothing else you could possibly offer.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Beautiful, Ideas, People

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• I think a newspaper should be provocative, stir 'em up, but you can't do that on television. It's just not on.

  Rupert Murdoch

  Thinking, Ems, Television

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• There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.

  William S. Burroughs

  Mind Your Own Business, Minding My Own Business, Mind Your Own

  William S. Burroughs (2013). “The Place of Dead Roads: A Novel”, p.117, Holt Paperbacks

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• I think it is really important to be in some way provocative -- either intellectually or viscerally -- in the films one makes.

  Peter Greenaway

  Thinking, Important, Way

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• Let us consider that swearing is a sin of all others peculiarly clamorous, and provocative of Divine judgment.

  Isaac Barrow

  Sin, Judgment, Divine

  Isaac Barrow (1830). “The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow”, p.390

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• We are in a very critical and sensitive time in this nation. We need our president to sit down with folks who have a personal experience, a deep connection to the horror and the pain of this country`s provocative racial history. If the president wants to have a better understanding and appreciation for what he should do next, he needs to hear something from folks who have gone through this painful history. Without that personal connection to the painful past, it will be hard for him to regain that moral authority from my perspective.

  Tim Scott

  Country, Appreciation, Pain

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• It's not success that makes a person's life worthy of legend. It's provocative defeat, someone who struggled mightily and lost. And that loss can't just be gratuitous - there has to be something about his or her character that whittles that loss into something provocative.

  Lawrence Douglas

  Character, Loss, Defeat

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• A faint smile that made every tiny hair on her body rise in quivering attention. "How fast can you run?" A wolf's question.

  Nalini Singh

  Running, Hair, Attention

  Nalini Singh (2011). “Kiss of Snow”, p.84, Penguin

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• I have been a provoker and I'll probably always be one in the public arena for the rest of my life.

  Mark Lanegan

  Life, Musician, Publicity

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I thought I could get everyone's attention by coming up with something that's provocative.

  Seungri

  Attention

  Source: ygfamilyy.tumblr.com

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• Do women dress for men or women? I’ve always wondered why that eternally provocative question is put in terms of approval - as if the heart of the matter, the answer, were indeed a question of approval by either sex. But the question is never satisfactorily answered because it is incorrectly posed. It’s disapproval, the fear of it, that motivates most women, and with disapproval it doesn’t matter where it comes from.

  Nancy Friday

  Sex, Heart, Men

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• A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person.

  Pope Francis

  Inspirational, Gay, Doe

  "A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis". Interview with Antonio Spadaro, S.J., www.americamagazine.org. September 30, 2013.

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• I naturally want to be provocative.

  Iggy Azalea

  Want

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I like to be provocative. I like to make people think. I like to touch people's hearts. And if I can do all three of those things in one fell swoop, then I feel like I've really accomplished something.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Heart, Thinking, People

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• My message is strong and my belief is strong, in the fact that we can still be provocative and have fun and just get informed.

  Chelsea Handler

  Strong, Fun, Messages

  Source: variety.com

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• It's more provocative to say 'might still have sex' because - it doesn't matter to me. There's not, like, one that hurts my feelings and one that doesn't.

  Taylor Swift

  Hurt, Sex, Feelings

  Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

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• And as cynical and jaded as many have become, you see the heroic nature of cops, who put aside a lot of their own personal concerns and their families to speak for the dead, which is a sacred thing. Over time there is this thing in them that is very powerful and interesting and provocative to me.

  Veena Sud

  Powerful, Interesting, Cynical

  Source: deadline.com

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• I believe that movies are fast becoming antique and dinosauric as a medium. Film is a medium for the over-40s and television has gone the same way. If you're going to look towards the new generation, then of course you're going to have to be a lot more random, spontaneous, irreverent and provocative with your programming.

  Malcolm Mclaren

  Believe, Generations, Looks

  "Malcolm McLaren on bringing bollocks back to the BBC" by Malcolm McLaren, www.theguardian.com. March 14, 2008.

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• Each generation, we peel back biases that have blinded those before us. The more we know about the past enables us to ask richer and more provocative questions about who we are today.

  David McCullough

  Past, Generations, Who We Are

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• It's hard to be understood when addressing many people at once. How can you ever know if you're being understood? So, I've just started being intelligently provocative. And people take the bait.

  Kenneth Goldsmith

  People, Bait, Understood

  Source: logger.believermag.com

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• I think there probably was a time when I was less provocative. That's when I was married.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Thinking, Married

  Source: www.independent.ie

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• White Collar' is a show about the unlikely pairing of an FBI agent and an ex-con solving smart, glamorous, interesting and provocative crimes in a sometimes very funny way.

  Tim DeKay

  Smart, Fbi Agents, White

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