Provoking Quotes - Page 18

• I like to do movies that provoke rather than reinforce conservative values.

  Steve Coogan

  Conservative, Conservative Values, Values

  "Q&A: Steve Coogan on Sex, Drugs & Bad Press". Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.esquire.com. July 9, 2013.

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• I think a writer's job is to provoke questions. I like to think that if someone's read a book of mine, they've had - I don't know what - the literary equivalent of a shower. Something that would start them thinking in a slightly different way perhaps. That's what I think writers are for. This is what our function is.

  Doris Lessing

  Jobs, Book, Thinking

  "Doris Lessing, The Art of Fiction No. 102". Interview with Thomas Frick, The Paris Review, Issue 106, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 1988.

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• There is a mental fear, which provokes others of us to see the images of witches in a neighbor's yard and stampedes us to burn down this house. And there is a creeping fear of doubt, doubt of what we have been taught, of the validity of so many things we had long since taken for granted to be durable and unchanging. It has become more difficult than ever to distinguish black from white, good from evil, right from wrong.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Fear, Taken, White

  "This I Believe" radio program, thisibelieve.org. 1951.

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• Before I even put pen to paper, in any sense, I'm like, "What's the coolest MacGuffin you can come up with? What are the last frames of this series?" The secret that's behind this entire thing is to be as evocative, original, thought-provoking and timely.

  Paul Scheuring

  Thought Provoking, Secret, Original Thought

  Source: collider.com

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• R.G. Belsky's thought-provoking thriller, The Kennedy Connection, introduces us to a smart, witty, and human hero whose quest to find answers about two crimes - one famous, one all but unnoticed - is loaded with tension and full of unexpected twists and turns. I loved The Kennedy Connection, and can't wait for the next Gil Malloy novel.

  Jan Burke

  Witty, Smart, Hero

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• I feel like great TED Talks are ones that are a little bit subject to interpretation, that do provoke further conversation - and potentially controversy.

  Damon Lindelof

  Littles, Ted Talks, Conversation

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• I like my films to have a certain amount of realism - something that's thought provoking and intelligently written. More than the amount on the pay cheque, I look for a level of respectability as an actor.

  Arjun Rampal

  Thought Provoking, Looks, Actors

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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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• 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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• 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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• There was an op-ed piece in The New York Times by an evolutionary biologist or somebody - which was a curious place for the opinion to come from - and he said that there's no such thing as a completely free, uncensored medium, that people censor themselves all the time, in deference to hurting other people's feelings, or offending other groups, or in their own, not to provoke a fight. And you do self-censor certain things, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. That's just the way human social interaction works.

  David Byrne

  Hurt, Fighting, People

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• Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men's eyes when deciding what provokes it.

  Naomi Wolf

  Self Esteem, Eye, Men

  Naomi Wolf (1990). “The Beauty Myth”, Vintage

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• It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs.

  Pope John Paul II

  Challenges, Inspire, Levels

  Pope John Paul II (2007). “Pope John Paul II: A Reader”

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• I think that because this is a moral universe, then right will prevail, goodness will prevail, compassion will prevail, laughter will prevail, love, caring, sharing will prevail. Because we are made for goodness. We are made for love.

  Desmond Tutu

  Laughter, Caring, Thinking

  Interview with Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. December 30, 2001.

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• Civil society rests on moral relationships. They are covenantal rather than contractual. They are brought about not by governments but by us a husbands and wives, parents, friends and citizens, and by the knowledge of what we do and what we are makes a difference to those around us. (...) Renewing society's resources of moral energy is the program, urgent but achievable.

  Jonathan Sacks

  Husband, Differences, Government

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• Millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain enslaved by the chains of poverty. It is time to set them free.

  Nelson Mandela

  Country, People, Challenges

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• In an age of interdependence, global citizenship - based on trust and sense of shared responsibility - is a crucial pillar of progress. At a time when more than one billion people are denied the very minimum requirements of human dignity, business cannot afford to be seen as the problem. Rather, it must work with governments and all other actors in society to mobilize global science, technology and knowledge to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world.

  Kofi Annan

  Responsibility, Technology, Government

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• Aid is the process by which the poor in rich countries subsidize the rich in poor countries.

  Peter Thomas Bauer

  Country, Rich Countries, Challenges

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• Hope, even more than necessity, is the mother of invention.

  Jonathan Sacks

  Mother, Challenges, Inspire

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• Our God listens to us. Our God is a living God. He's not a block of wood you made up that's not going to answer you. My God listens to me. He answers me.

  Francis Chan

  Block, Thought Provoking, Answers

  "Francis Chan: Prayers Make Christians Different; Our God Listens". www.christianpost.com. February 2, 2011.

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• Every heart is the lair of a ferocious animal. The greatest wrong that you can put upon a man is to provoke him to let out his beast.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Heart, Animal, Men

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1209, Delphi Classics

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• Orientation in time, space, and status are the essentials of social existence, and the Balinese, although they make very strong spirits for ceremonial occasions, with a few startling exceptions resist alcohol, because if one drinks one loses one's orientation. Orientation is felt as a protection rather than as a strait jacket and its loss provokes extreme anxiety.

  Margaret Mead

  Strong, Loss, Space

  Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead (1942). “Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis”

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• Can storied urn, or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

  Thomas Gray

  Dust, Voice, Fleeting

  'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) l. 41

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• That was how divorced from the human scale modern warfare had become. You could smash and destroy from unthinkable distances, obliterate planets from beyond their own system and provoke stars into novae from light-years off... and still have no good idea why you were really fighting.

  Iain Banks

  Stars, Distance, Fighting

  "Consider Phlebas (The Culture, Book 1)". Book by Iain Banks (Chapter 2 "The Hand of God 137", p. 32), 1987.

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• The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action.

  Jacques Ellul

  Ideas, Action, Propaganda

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner, 1965.

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