Refusal Quotes - Page 11

• There is a vast difference - a constitutional difference-between restrictions imposed by the state which prohibit the intellectual commingling of students, and the refusal of individuals to commingle where the state presents no such bar.

  Fred M. Vinson

  Differences, Intellectual, Bars

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• In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.

  John Stuart Mill

  Political, Age, Example

  John Stuart Mill (1989). “J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings”, p.67, Cambridge University Press

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• The unification of opposites which characterizes the commercial and political style is one of the many ways in which discourse and communication make themselves immune against the expression of protest and refusal.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Communication, Expression, Opposites

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.90, Beacon Press

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• The beginning of suffering is often a refusal to look at the situation as it really is.

  Deepak Chopra

  Suffering, Looks, Situation

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• As it turns out, the ecological catastrophe Kirk feared that would be the consequence of our impiety appears not to be one of radically diminished resources, but of potentially catastrophic climate change. It comes from an arrogant refusal by a modern consumerist society to accept limits on its desires. Kirk's idea of the "eternal society" evaporates before the insatiable demands of the Everlasting Now.

  Rod Dreher

  Ideas, Desire, Limits

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• Our way out involves both resistance and renewal: saying no to what is, so that we can reshape and recreate the world. Our challenge is communal, but to face it we must be empowered as individuals and create structures of support and celebration that can teach us freedom. Creation is the ultimate resistance, the ultimate refusal to accept things as they are. For it is in creation that we encounter Mystery.

  Starhawk

  Support, Challenges, Way

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• The noblest relationship is marriage, that is, love. Its nobility resides in its altruism, the desire to serve another beyond all the pleasures of the relationship; and in its refusal ever to regard the other as a thing, an object, a utilizability. Sex is an exchange of pleasures, of needs; love is a giving without return. It is this giving without return, this helping without reward, this surplus of pure good, that identifies the uniqueness of man as well as the true nature of the true marriage. This is the quintessence the great alchemy of sex is for.

  John Fowles

  Love, Sex, Men

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• Only the refusal to listen guarantees one against being ensnared by the truth.

  Robert Nozick

  Guarantees

  Robert Nozick (1974). “Anarchy, state, and utopia”

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• There is no such thing as failure for an artist, unless failure is the refusal to attempt, the unwillingness to dream.

  Laurence Overmire

  Dream, Artist

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• Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Christian, Pain, Block

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.93, Beacon Press

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• The myths and folk tales of the whole world make clear that the refusal is essentially a refusal to give up what one takes to be one's own interest. The future is regarded not in terms of an unremitting series of deaths and births, but as though one's present system of ideals, virtues, goals, and advantages were to be fixed and made secure.

  Joseph Campbell

  Giving Up, Goal, World

  Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.49, New World Library

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• Silence is an argument in favor of the status quo. A refusal to address an inequity is a strategy for maintaining that inequity.

  PZ Myers

  Silence, Addresses, Favors

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• We do literature a real disservice if we reduce it to knowledge or to use, to a problem to be solved. If literature solves problems, it does so by its own inexhaustibility, and by its ultimate refusal to be applied or used, even for moral good. This refusal, indeed, is literature's most moral act. At a time when meanings are manifold, disparate, and always changing, the rich possibility of interpretation--the happy resistance of the text to ever be fully known and mastered--is one of the most exhilarating products of human culture.

  Marjorie Garber

  Real, Doe, Culture

  Marjorie Garber (2011). “The Use and Abuse of Literature”, p.30, Vintage

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• Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.

  Rumi

  Inspirational, Depression, Praise

  Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (Maulana), Jelaluddin Rumi, Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey (2005). “The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations of Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi”, p.122, Shambhala Publications

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• Mahatma Gandhi was a man of peace and non-violence and lived by the Hindu principle of ahimsa, action based on refusal to do harm. As his war-strewn presidency shows, George Bush knows nothing about ahimsa and non-violence. Bush should reconsider this cynical, disrespectful display of symbolism.

  Kevin Martin

  War, Men, Symbolism

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• There is a feeling of personal dignity and independence in grasping, literally, the power to back your refusal to be a target of a violent crime with lethal force. This is not a sense of power, it is now the experience of escaping from a sense of powerlessness.

  John Longenecker

  Gun, Escaping, Feelings

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• Breach of promise is no less an act of insolvency than a refusal to pay one's debt.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Promise, Debt

  Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

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• What else is death but the refusal any longer to grow and suffer change?

  David Malouf

  Suffering, Grows

  Karin Hansson, David Malouf (1991). “Lund Studies in English”

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• Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Anxiety, Withdrawal, Pharaohs

  Walter Brueggemann (2010). “Journey to the Common Good”, p.26, Westminster John Knox Press

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• I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Running, Odds, Voice

  "The Good Fight". Book by Shirley Chisholm, 1973.

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• The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, Men, Ordinary

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• Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right.  It has nothing to do with fixing things.  It has nothing to do with standards.  Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move forward.  It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.

  Julia Cameron

  Moving, Writing, Sight

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• Dear Mr. President: ... We urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraq sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.

  Joe Lieberman

  Wmds In Iraq, Mass Destruction, Air

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• As long as this deliberate refusal to understand things from above, even where such understanding is possible, continues, it is idle to talk of any final victory over materialism.

  C. S. Lewis

  Long, Understanding, Victory

  "The Weight of Glory". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1949.

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• If brains have brought us to what we are in now, I think it is time to allow our hearts to speak. When our sons are killed by the millions, let us, mothers, only try to do good by going to the kings and emperors without any other danger than a refusal.

  Rosika Schwimmer

  Mother, Kings, Heart

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