Rarity Quotes - Page 3

• If we make this readjustment to view Homo sapiens as an ultimate in oddball rarity, and life at bacterial grade as the common expression of a universal phenomenon, then we could finally ask the truly fundamental question raised by the prospect of Martian fossils. If life originates as a general property of the material universe under certain conditions (probably often realized), then how much can the basic structure and constitution of life vary from place to independent place?

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Independent, Views, Expression

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• The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity.

  John Boyle O'Reilly

  Right Words

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• You can be revered for all sorts of qualities, but to be truly charismatic is rare. Elizabeth Taylor was, for me, one of those rarities.

  Francesca Annis

  Quality, Charismatic

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• In the name of what - except perhaps the coefficient of rarity - does man adorn himself with necklaces of shells and not spider's webs, with fox fur and not fox innards? In the name of what I don't know. Don't dirt, trash and filth, which are man's companions during his whole lifetime, deserve to be dearer to him and isn't it serving him well to remind him of their beauty?

  Jean Dubuffet

  Men, Names, Doe

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• Legislators who are of even average intelligence stand out among their colleagues. . . . A cultured college president has become as much a rarity as a literate newspaper publisher. A financier interested in economics is as exceptional as a labor leader interested in the labor movement. For the most part our leaders are merely following out in front; they [only] marshal us in the way that we are going.

  Bergen Evans

  Leadership, College, Average

  Bergen Evans (1954). “The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense”, New York : Knopf

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• To see a man humble under prosperity is one of the greatest rarities in the world.

  John Flavel

  Christian, Humble, Men

  John Flavel (1801). “A Treatise on the Keeping of the Heart”, p.38

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• It's a rarity when someone takes a political risk in Washington today in the public interest.

  Arlen Specter

  Political, Risk, Today

  "Face to Face" with Bill Plante, www.cbsnews.com. March 21, 2012.

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• Rarity gives a charm; so early fruits and winter roses are the most prized; and coyness sets off an extravagant mistress, while the door always open tempts no suitor.

  Martial

  Winter, Doors, Giving

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• The cheapness of wine seems to be a cause, not of drunkenness, but of sobriety. ...People are seldom guilty of excess in what is their daily fare... On the contrary, in the countries which, either from excessive heat or cold, produce no grapes, and where wine consequently is dear and a rarity, drunkenness is a common vice.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Wine, People

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond”, p.439, Harriman House Limited

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• It's such a rarity to have women in senior powerful positions. We can name them all. Fact is, women can handle power and handle it well. That's something I'd like a lot more women to understand.

  Christine Nixon

  Leadership, Senior, Powerful

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• For example, there are numbers of chemists who occupy themselves exclusively with the study of dyestuffs. They discover facts that are useful to scientific chemistry; but they do not rank as genuine scientific men. The genuine scientific chemist cares just as much to learn about erbium-the extreme rarity of which renders it commercially unimportant-as he does about iron. He is more eager to learn about erbium if the knowledge of it would do more to complete his conception of the Periodic Law, which expresses the mutual relations of the elements.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Science, Men, Law

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• I think my dad was happy. I phrase it like this because he seldom showed much emotion. Hugs and kisses wwere a rarity for me growing up, and when they did happen, they often struck me as lifeless, something he did because he felt he was supposed to, not because he wanted to.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Dad, Growing Up, Kissing

  Nicholas Sparks (2010). “Dear John”, p.16, Hachette UK

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• Four people wheel out a huge wedding cake from a side room. Most of the guests back up, making way for this rarity, this dazzling creation with blue-green, white-tipped icing waves swimming with fish and sailboats, seals and sea flowers. But I push my way through the crowd to confirm what I knew at first sight. As surely as the embroidery stitches in Annie's gown were done by Cinna's hand, the frosted flowers on the cake were done by Peeta's.

  Suzanne Collins

  Flower, Swimming, Hands

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)”, p.227, Scholastic Inc.

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• I am more modest now, but I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world.

  M. F. K. Fisher

  Food, Thinking, Hands

  M. F. K. Fisher, Joan Reardon (2004). “The Art of Eating”, p.402, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Commercials are not the only exposure that obesity gets on TV. It is by no means a rarity on the wonderful Judge Judy's show when both plaintiff and accused all but literally fill the screen.

  Dick Cavett

  Mean, Judging, Tvs

  Dick Cavett (2010). “Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets”, p.67, Macmillan

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• Few and precious are the words which the lips of Wisdom utter: To what shall their rarity be likened? What prices shall count their worth? Perfect, and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, No lovely thing on earth can picture their fair beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of Oblivion.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Wisdom, Rocks, Giving

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1838). “Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated”, p.9

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• DUST includes rarities, demos, unreleased songs and instrumentals, live recordings, and more.

  Adrian Belew

  Song, Dust, Demos

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• Anaximenes ... also says that the underlying nature is one and infinite ... but not undefined as Anaximander said but definite, for he identifies it as air; and it differs in its substantial nature by rarity and density. Being made finer it becomes fire; being made thicker it becomes wind, then cloud, then (when thickened still more) water, then earth, then stones; and the rest come into being from these.

  Theophrastus

  Science, Fire, Clouds

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• The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise, but hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude or to pursue very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ambition, Ambitious, Desire

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Three, Chapter XIX, 1840.

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• Every once in awhile you find a novel so magical that there is no escaping its spell. The Night Circus is one of these rarities - engrossing, beautifully written and utterly enchanting. If you choose to read just one novel this year, this is it

  Danielle Trussoni

  Night, Escaping, Years

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• A deep and sober concern to please God is the rarest of rarities.

  Vance Havner

  Christian, Sober, Concern

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• A true evangelist is almost as great a rarity as a true pastor. Alas! Alas! How rare are both! The two are closely connected. The evangelist gathers the sheep; the pastor feeds and cares for them. The work of each lies very near the heart of Christ- [Who Is] The Divine Evangelist and Pastor.

  Charles Henry Mackintosh

  Christian, Lying, Heart

  Charles Henry Mackintosh (2012). “The Mackintosh Treasury - Miscellaneous Writings - Volume V: The Church – The Body of Christ”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

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• This high proportion of history's decisive campaigns, the significance of which is enhanced by the comparative rarity of the direct approach, enforces the conclusion that the indirect is by far the most hopeful and economic form of strategy.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Hopeful, Direct Approach

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• I'm sure a handful of people can relate to that experience of having some kind of romantic encounter - the event of love - which they just can't shake. They take it with them, despite their own desire, and it continually haunts them, and there's nothing to be done about it. That's a true rarity.

  John Maus

  People, Desire, Encounters

  Interview with Jenn Pelly, pitchfork.com. August 10, 2012.

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• Hey, every once in awhile the secondary form works better than the original but it's certainly a rarity.

  Jaime Hernandez

  Hey, Form, Originals

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