Relative Quotes - Page 6

• It happens to us once or twice in a lifetime to be drunk with some book which probably has some extraordinary relative power to intoxicate us and none other; and having exhausted that cup of enchantment we go groping in libraries all our years afterwards in the hope of being in Paradise again.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Years, Drunk

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1911). “Lectures and biographical sketches”

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• Safety is relative. You can be so close to shore that you can practically feel it under your feet, when you suddenly find yourself breaking apart on the rocks.

  Jodi Picoult

  Rocks, Feet, Safety

  Jodi Picoult (2011). “Sing You Home: A Novel”, p.453, Simon and Schuster

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• He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know, full of relative truth and of relative falsehood, exactly like the lives of his friends and acquaintances; and another life running its course in secret. And through some strange, perhaps accidental, conjunction of circumstances, everything that was essential, of interest and of value to him, everything in which he was sincere and did not deceive himself, everything that made the kernel of his life, was hidden from other people.

  Anton Chekhov

  Running, Two, People

  Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.2943, Delphi Classics

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• I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.

  R. C. Sproul

  Stress, Bridges, Numbers

  R. C. Sproul (2003). “Running the Race: A Graduate's Guide to What's Important in Life”, Baker Publishing Group

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• Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, Holiday, Mean

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• It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, Evey, for silence is a fragile thing, one loud noise, and its gone. But the people are so cowed and disorganised. A few might take the opportunity to protest, but it'll just be a voice crying in the wilderness. Noise is relative to the silence preceding it. The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations, Evey and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.

  Alan Moore

  Opportunity, Voice, People

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• You should be careful, tossing descriptors like that around in a situation like this. My ‘problem’ isn’t little. Unless you’re drawing some pretty wild comparisons. Please tell me you’re not drawing wild comparisons. Or blood-relative comparisons.

  Rachel Vincent

  Blood, Drawing, Littles

  Rachel Vincent (2013). “Soul Screamers Volume Three: If I Die\Never to Sleep\Before I Wake”, p.281, Harlequin

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• But everything is relative, Bertie... You, for instance, are my relative, and I am your relative.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Instance

  "Joy in the Morning".

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• Justice is a relative concept in all ages. The fourteenth century is no exception.

  Ian Mortimer

  Justice, Age, Century

  Ian Mortimer (2009). “The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century”, p.226, Simon and Schuster

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• Everything is relative. If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause. You don’t look at its manifestation.

  Randa Abdel-Fattah

  Looks, Want, Causes

  Randa Abdel-Fattah (2014). “Does My Head Look Big in This?”, p.66, Scholastic UK

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• Evil is relative…You can’t hang a sign on it. You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.

  Glen Cook

  Cutting, Evil, Taste

  Glen Cook (1992). “The Black Company: The First Novel of 'The Chronicles of The Black Company'”, p.281, Macmillan

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• To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Soul, Mind

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.40, Beacon Press

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• Formerly, when I would feel a desire to understand someone, or myself, I would take into consideration not actions, in which everything is relative, but wishes. Tell me what you want and I'll tell you who you are.

  Anton Chekhov

  Wish, Desire, Want

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• People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory—and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media. Frequently mentioned topics populate the mind even as others slip away from awareness. In turn, what the media choose to report corresponds to their view of what is currently on the public’s mind. It is no accident that authoritarian regimes exert substantial pressure on independent media. Because public interest is most easily aroused by dramatic events and by celebrities, media feeding frenzies are common

  Daniel Kahneman

  Memories, Independent, Views

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• Over the past decade or so, you have seen the flip side of that as you've seen stock prices have come down a lot relative to gold. Now you are getting a change where people are more comfortable holding gold because in the rear-view mirror it doesn't look so bad for gold. Bonds have not come down as much relative to gold, but I think the bond bubble is going to burst and will be falling for years too. And gold will look that much better.

  Peter Schiff

  Fall, Past, Thinking

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• Noise is relative to the silence preceeding it. The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the peoples voice for generations, Evey and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.

  Alan Moore

  Voice, Silence, Generations

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• Insanity is relative. Who sets the norm?

  Charles Bukowski

  Insanity, Norm

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• I watched as Humphrey Bogart’s character used beans as a metaphor for the relative unimportance in the wider world of his relationship with Ingrid Bergman’s character, and chose logic and decency ahead of his selfish emotional desires. The quandary and resulting decision made for an engrossing film. But this was not what people cried about. They were in love and could not be together. I repeated this statement to myself, trying to force an emotional reaction. I couldn’t. I didn’t care. I had enough problems of my own.

  Graeme Simsion

  Selfish, Character, Emotional

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• Normal is all relative.

  Alethea Kontis

  Normal

  Alethea Kontis (2012). “Enchanted”, p.109, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• God, the boring relative everyone ignores--no one calls, no one writes--until they need a serious favor.

  Marisha Pessl

  Writing, Needs, Favors

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• The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.

  George Orwell

  Country, Freedom, Law

  George Orwell (2016). “Fifty Essays (George Orwell) (Literary Thoughts Edition)”, p.501, epubli

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• A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context.

  Karl Mannheim

  Knowledge, Character, Historical

  "Ideology and Utopia". Book by Karl Mannheim, 1936.

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• Play not only keeps us young but also maintains our perspective about the relative seriousness of things. Running is play, for even if we try hard to do well at it, it is a relief from everyday cares.

  Jim Fixx

  Running, Play, Perspective

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• A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.

  Emile Durkheim

  Practice, Community, Religion

  Emile Durkheim, Steven Lukes (2014). “The Rules of Sociological Method: And Selected Texts on Sociology and Its Method”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• People who are rich want to be richer, but what's the difference? The toys get different, that's all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It's all relative.

  Martina Navratilova

  Football, Team, Differences

  MARTINA NAVRATILOVA (1985). “MARTINA”

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