Saying No Quotes - Page 9

• Here's a vice: I say yes to too many things. I wish I had the guilty pleasure of saying no. My goal is to try to do less, but more fully.

  Sigourney Weaver

  Goal, Wish, Trying

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• We're saying no changes for Medicare for people above the age of 55. And in order to keep the promise to current seniors who've already retired and organized their lives around this program, you have to reform it for the next generation.

  Paul Ryan

  Birthday, Senior, Order

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• On her daughter, Jessica: Kids at her school will sidle up to me and say, Does Jessica know what happens in book 4? Does Jessica know the title of book 4? And I keep saying, No! There is no point kidnapping her, taking her around back of the bike shed, and torturing her for information.

  J. K. Rowling

  Daughter, Mother, Book

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• We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

  Tim Cook

  Meaningful, Believe, Discipline

  "Apple's Tim Cook: We're Fine Without Steve Jobs (AAPL)" by Dan Frommer, www.businessinsider.com. January 21, 2009.

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• I mean, there are lots of people who get married who can't have children. To take a state that does allow adoption and say-there, what is the justification for saying no gay marriage? Certainly not the one you said, is it?

  Stephen Breyer

  Children, Mean, Gay

  Supreme Court Arguments On California Gay Marriage Ban, www.npr.org. March 26, 2013.

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• I remember saying to someone when I got one of those ‘don’t do it’ [comments] – I just remember hearing my voice being calm and saying, ‘No, it’s going happen. It’s going to happen. I’m just letting you know.’

  T. R. Knight

  Voice, Hearing, Calm

  "T.R. Knight: I Was Told Not to Come Out" by Stephen M. Silverman, people.com. May 11, 2007.

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• In the immortal words of Roberto Duran, we are saying, 'No mas!' We will educate students and then promote them, not the reverse

  Joel Klein

  Students, Immortal, Reverse

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• I'm a big believer in personal responsibility. My life wasn't always peaches and roses. Where I am today is through a belief in hard work and never saying no.

  Steve Wilkos

  Hard Work, Responsibility, Rose

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• Peoples of the Americas are rising once again, saying no to imperialism, saying no to fascism, saying no to intervention - and saying no to death.

  Hugo Chavez

  Rising, Imperialism, Fascism

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• Saying no isn't easy, but it's a required skill if you wish to have any degree of focus in your life. If you say yes too often, you'll likely fall into the common trap of saying yes to the good while simultaneously saying no to the best.

  Steve Pavlina

  Fall, Skills, Thought Provoking

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• We have to get out of the mind-set of saying, "No matter how hard we try, we will have accidents," and into "We will not have accidents."

  Federico Pena

  Safety, Mind, Trying

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• I have a saying 'train, don't strain.' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way.

  Arthur Lydiard

  Running, Pain, Distance

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• But the safety of the world, in some sense, depends on your saying no to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.

  Gabrielle Giffords

  Integrity, Expression, Ideas

  Commencement address at Scripps College, Claremont, California, 2009.

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• After saying yes to Turkey, the EU is having difficulty finding clear and consistent grounds for saying no to other, still more remote candidates - but being in the general vicinity of Europe does seem to be a continuing requirement.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Europe, Turkeys, Saying Yes

  Timothy Garton Ash (2012). “Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name”, p.124, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

  Warren Buffett

  Life, Success, Differences

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• Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead.

  John F. MacArthur

  Integrity, Discipline, Lust

  John F. MacArthur (2012). “Moments of Truth: Unleashing God's Word One Day at a Time”, p.328, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• To act honestly- even at the risk of saying the unpleasant truth, or of saying no and causing distress to others- if done with intelligence and tact, is the kindest thing to do because it respects our own integrity and acknowledges in others the capacity to be competent and mature.

  Piero Ferrucci

  Integrity, Risk, Done

  Piero Ferrucci (2007). “The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life”, p.35, Penguin

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• Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.

  Ignazio Silone

  Religious, Freedom, Fear

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• Saying no”, argues the author Kevin Ashton, “has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know.

  Kevin Ashton

  Math, Thinking, Simple

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• For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that's-she did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop. And when the night was over and the white wine was over and the dancing was over, she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I saw her sitting quietly without expression on her face, and I walked towards her but I wouldn't photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.

  Richard Avedon

  Children, Wine, Night

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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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• To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no, even if saying no means death.

  Jean Anouilh

  Life, Mean, Hands

  Jean Anouilh “Plays: Antigone. Eurydice (Legend of lovers). The ermine. The rehearsal. Romeo and Jeannette”

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• Focusing is about saying No.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Swimming, Power

  "Steve Jobs: seven lessons from Apple's founder" by Frédéric Filloux, www.theguardian.com. October 10, 2011.

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• Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature - if that word can be used in reference to man, who has ‘invented’ himself by saying ‘no’ to nature - consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.

  Octavio Paz

  Men, Solitude, Facts

  The Labyrinth of Solitude ch. 9 (1950) (translation by Lysander Kemp)

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• I have enjoyed life a lot more by saying "yes" than by sayings "no".

  Richard Branson

  Positive, Saying Yes, Enjoyed

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