Resistance Quotes - Page 36

• So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy to the contrary, was not so much a state of composition, as a state of warfare; and his probation in it, precisely that of any other man militant upon earth,--both depending alike, not half so much upon the degrees of his WIT--as his RESISTANCE.

  Laurence Sterne

  Men, Half, Earth

  Laurence Sterne (1849). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent., Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters, &c. With a Life of the Author Written by Himself”, p.228

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nations, like families, have great men only in spite of themselves. They do everything in their power not to have any. And therefore, the great man, in order to exist, must possess a force of attack which is greater than the force of resistance developed by millions of people.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Men, Greatness, Order

  12 Copy quote

• The final goal of physical education is to make strong beings. In the purely physical sense, the Natural Method promotes the qualities of organic resistance, muscularity and speed, towards being able to walk, run, jump, move on all fours, to climb, to keep balance, to throw, lift, defend yourself and to swim.

  Georges Hebert

  Running, Strong, Moving

  12 Copy quote

• The cause of Sense, is the External Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense, either immediately, as in theTaste and Touch; or mediately, as in Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling: which pressure, by the mediation of Nerves, and other strings, and membranes of the body, continued inwards to the Brain, and Heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter- pressure, or endeavor of the heart, to deliver it self: which endeavor because Outward, seemeth to be some matter without.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Nature, Heart, Self

  Thomas Hobbes (2008). “Leviathan”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• An uprising would punish only the country, and that is out of the question. But there is yet another approach, the most effectiveform of resistance: contemptuous compliance.

  Franz Grillparzer

  Country, Uprising, Revolution

  4 Copy quote

• The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the people would develop plans of resistance and resort to arms.

  James Madison

  Powerful, Government, People

  33 Copy quote
• 

  [O]ne of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone.

  Bell Hooks

  Community, Way, Building

  bell hooks (2014). “Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics”, p.227, Routledge

  243 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nobody likes to change. There will always be resistance to change, and there always will be change. And the quicker you get to that, the easier it is. It's not such a difficult thing. If you entrench yourself and go, "By God, I will not change. I will not have this." Then, you're a dead man. We're great at adaptability. It's our strongest suit.

  Nick Nolte

  Men, Likes, Suits

  Source: collider.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most change initiatives either fail or fall far short of original (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. More often than not, resistance is cultural in nature, the result of what James O'Toole so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom."

  John Daly

  Fall, Expectations, Comfort

  Source: bobmorris.biz

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trying to maintain a pleasant state and avoid an unpleasant state is actually the cause of sorrow. When you stop resisting, you see that what seems frightening is actually the absolute beauty of reality. When you see that everything is a momentary display of reality, then you stop resisting it. Resistance hurts, only every single time. Love is the state of nonresistance.

  Adyashanti

  Hurt, Reality, Love Is

  66 Copy quote

• Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.

  Steven Pressfield

  Years, Giving, Support

  Steven Pressfield (2002). “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles”, p.57, Black Irish Entertainment LLC

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The will to power can express itself only against resistances; it seeks that which resists it--this is the native tendency of theamoeba when it extends its pseudopodia and gropes around.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Power, Tendencies, Native

  7 Copy quote

• Human interaction is the key force in overcoming resistance and speeding change.

  Atul Gawande

  Keys, Overcoming, Force

  "Annals of Medicine" by Atul Gawande, www.newyorker.com. July 29, 2013.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Heat is a universal solvent, melting out of things their power of resistance, and sucking away and removing their natural strength with its fiery exhalations so that they grow soft, and hence weak, under its glow.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Melting, Heat, Weak

  "De architectura". Book by Vitruvius. Book I, Chapter IV, Section 3,

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue.

  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

  Faith, Freedom, Knowledge

  7 Copy quote

• In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy; we bear it without daring to look on it; like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Mistake, Suffering, Coward

  4 Copy quote

• There is no movement without our own resistance.

  Laura Schlessinger

  Movement

  7 Copy quote

• All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push. The animal takes its stand on the plant, man bestrides animality, and the whole of humanity, in space and in time, is one immense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death.

  Henri Bergson

  Army, Animal, Men

  Henri Bergson (2015). “Creative Evolution”, p.224, Sheba Blake Publishing

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• War is a brutal and fierce means of pacification; it means the suppression of resistance by the destruction or enslavement of the conquered.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  War, Mean, Fierce

  4 Copy quote

• If a person is capable of rectifying his erroneous judgments in the light of new evidence he is not prejudiced. Prejudgments become prejudices only if they are reversible when exposed to new knowledge. A prejudice, unlike a simple misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence that would unseat it. We tend to grow emotional when a prejudice is threatened with contradiction. Thus the difference between ordinary prejudgments and prejudice is that one can discuss and rectify a prejudgment without emotional resistance.

  Gordon Allport

  Simple, Emotional, Light

  "The Nature of Prejudice" by Gordon Allport, (p. 9), 1954.

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yet never resist anything. If you think that by your resistance you will eliminate it, think again. You only plant it more firmly in place. Have I not told you all thought is creative?

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Thinking

  Neale Donald Walsch (1996). “Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue”, p.84, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is no accident that this homeplace, as fragile and as transitional as it may be, a makeshift shed, a small bit of earth where one rests, is always subject to violation and destruction. For when a people no longer have the space to construct homeplace, we cannot build a meaningful community of resistance.

  Bell Hooks

  Meaningful, Women, Home

  bell hooks (2014). “Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics”, p.61, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do your neighbour good by all means in your power, moral as well as physical - by kindness, by patience, by unflinching resistance against every outward evil - by the silent preaching of your own contrary life. But if the only good you can do him is by talking at him, or about him - nay, even to him, if it be in a self-satisfied, super-virtuous style - such as I earnestly hope the present writer is not doing - you had much better leave him alone.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  Kindness, Mean, Self

  "A Woman's Thoughts About Women" by Dinah Maria Murlock Craik, (Ch. 8), 1858.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist you kill yourself.

  Alan Watts

  Life, Change, Trying

  6 Copy quote

• The most important thing about the gentleman was that he was an idealist. ... He was bred up to a code of self-restraint which taught resistance to pragmatic temptation. He was definitely a man of sentiment, who refused to put matters on a basis of materialism and self-aggrandizement.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Men, Self, Temptation

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition”, p.50, University of Chicago Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source