Provoking Quotes - Page 14

• I was going to save the world, and I thought I would start with the African continent.

  Jacqueline Novogratz

  Thought Provoking, World, African Continent

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• The conscious mind is a maelstrom of fleeting thoughts, images, sensations, feelings, conflicting desires, and doubts; barely able to confine its attention to a single clear objective for a microsecond before secondary thoughts begin to adulterate it and provoke yet further trains of mental discourse. If you do not believe this, then attempt to confine your conscious attention to the dot at the end of this sentence without involving yourself in any other form of thinking, including thinking about the dot.

  Peter J. Carroll

  Believe, Thinking, Feelings

  "Liber Kaos". Book by Peter J. Carroll, January 15, 1992.

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• Persons who clamor for governmental control of American railways should visit Germany, and above all Russia, to see how such control results. In Germany its defects are evident enough; people are made to travel in carriages which our main lines would not think of using, and with a lack of conveniences which with us would provoke a revolt; but the most amazing thing about this administration in Russia is to see how, after all this vast expenditure, the whole atmosphere of the country seems to paralyze energy.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Country, Thinking, Russia

  ANDREW DICKSON WHITE (1905). “AUTOBIOGRAPHY of ANDREW DICKSON WHITE volume 1”

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• Paradoxically, the simpler poetry is, the more difficult it becomes for a critic to discuss intelligently. Trained to explicate, the critic often loses the ability to evaluate literature outside the critical act. A work is good only in proportion to the richness and complexity of interpretations it provokes.

  Dana Gioia

  Literature, Proportion, Interpretation

  Dana Gioia (2002). “Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture”, Graywolf Pr

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• Rewards and punishments, to speak frankly, are the desk of the soul, that is, a means of enslaving a child's spirit, and better suited to provoke than to prevent deformities.

  Maria Montessori

  Children, Mean, Punishment

  "The Discovery of the Child" by Maria Montessori, Ch. 1, 1948.

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• I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.

  Spike Lee

  Thinking, Racism, Prejudice

  Spike Lee, Cynthia Fuchs (2002). “Spike Lee: Interviews”, p.26, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• It has always been the task of the new generation to provoke changes.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Tasks, Generations, New Generation

  Ludwig Von Mises (1969). “Bureaucracy”, ICON Group International

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• You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.

  Pope Francis

  Fun, Insult

  "Pope Francis says there are limits to freedom of expression". Press conference on the plane to the Philippines, en.radiovaticana.va. January 15, 2015.

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• Originality provokes originality.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Originality

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.41

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• I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

  Linda Sue Park

  Book, Thinking, Want

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• The tension of a mysterious danger is even more unbearable than danger itself. People hate the vacuum of an unknown situation. They want security. They even prefer war to the insecure expectation of a war with its threat of enemy surprise. This vague fearful expectation acts on their fantasies. They anticipate all kinds of mysterious dangers; they begin to provoke them. It is the evocation of fear and danger in order to escape the tension of insecurity.

  Joost Meerloo

  Hate, War, Insecure

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• I try to make things interesting and thought-provoking.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Thought Provoking, Interesting, Trying

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• I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets.

  Spike Lee

  People, Thought Provoking, Trying

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• As far as world war goes, there are really only two possibilities: either war provokes revolution, or revolution averts war.

  Mao Zedong

  War, Two, World

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• The relationship between individuals or communities and the environment ultimately stems from their relationship with God. When ‘man turns his back on the Creator’s plan, he provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Men, Order, Community

  Pope Benedict XVI (2014). “The Garden of God”, p.20, CUA Press

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• It's the admirer and the watcher who provoke us to all the inanities we commit.

  Seneca the Younger

  Praise, Admirer, Commit

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• Names generate meaning in a short amount of space — they provoke thoughts, questions. That's something I like doing. Of course, you have to be careful. Sometimes it can alienate the reader, it can be another level of mediation, to make a character carry the great burden of a metaphoric name. The character can be a device before he or she becomes a person, and that can be a bad thing for a writer who wants to offer up a kind of emotional proximity in the work. It's a constant struggle, the desire to be playful and the desire to communicate on some very stark emotional level.

  Joshua Ferris

  Struggle, Character, Emotional

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• Suggestion is generally better than Definition. There is a seeming dogmatism about Definition that is often repellent, while Suggestion, on the contrary, disarms suspicion and summons to co-operation and experiment. Definition provokes discussion. Suggestion provokes to love and good works. Defining is limiting. Suggestion is enlarging. Defining calls a halt; Suggestion calls for an advance. Defining involves the peril of contentment: "I am here, I rest." "Thus far," says Definition, and draws a map. "Westward," cries Suggestion, and builds a boat.

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock

  Contentment, Definitions, Defining

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1901). “Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock”

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• A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — ​what gospel is that?

  Oscar Romero

  Real, Church, Skins

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• Eating highly seasoned food is unhealthful, because it stimulates too much, provokes the appetite too much, and often is indigestible.

  Catharine Beecher

  Food, Often Is, Cooking

  Catharine Beecher (2013). “Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt-Book”, p.34, Courier Corporation

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• Abstain from beans. There be sundry interpretations of this symbol. But Plutarch and Cicero think beans to be forbidden of Pythagoras, because they be windy and do engender impure humours and for that cause provoke bodily lust.

  Richard Taverner

  Food, Thinking, Cooking

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• Nothing is so pregnant as cruelty; so multifarious, so rapid, so ever teeming a mother is unknown to the animal kingdom; each of her experiments provokes another and refines upon the last; though always progressive, yet always remote from the end.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Mother, Animal, Cuckoos

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• I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.

  Louis Sachar

  Teacher, Children, Book

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• The legal system is designed to protect men from the superior power of the state but not to protect women or children from the superior power of men. It therefore provides strong guarantees for the rights of the accused but essentially no guarantees for the rights of the victim. If one set out by design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one could not do better than a court of law.

  Judith Lewis Herman

  Strong, Children, Men

  Judith Lewis Herman (1992). “Trauma and recovery”, Basic Books

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• When something is dramatized it provokes a much more emotive response than just hearing a story on the news.

  Joanne Froggatt

  News, Stories, Hearing

  "Downton Abbey controversial rape storyline to continue as Lady Mary offers to help victim Anna Bates" by Mark Jefferies, www.mirror.co.uk. October 31, 2013.

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