Suitable Quotes

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  Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

  291 Copy quote

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• Every object strives for its proper place. A book seeks to be near its truest admirer. Just as this helpless moth seeks to be near the candle that infatuates him.

  Vikram Seth

  Book, Strive, Admirer

  17 Copy quote

• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Selfish, Passion

  Letter to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

  27 Copy quote

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• One of the principal obstacles to the rapid diffusion of a new idea lies in the difficulty of finding suitable expression to convey its essential point to other minds. Words may have to be strained into a new sense, and scientific controversies constantly resolve themselves into differences about the meaning of words. On the other hand, a happy nomenclature has sometimes been more powerful than rigorous logic in allowing a new train of thought to be quickly and generally accepted.

  Arthur Schuster

  Powerful, Lying, Science

  18 Copy quote

• Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.

  Epictetus

  Friendship, Effort, Training

  Epictetus (1967). “Epictetus: the Discourses as reported by Arrian, the Manual, and fragments”

  8 Copy quote

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• Never let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don’t apply to you.

  Chuck Close

  Photography, Use, Defining

  68 Copy quote

• Happiness, as a pursuit, is suitable only for pigs.

  Albert Einstein

  Pigs, Pursuit

  6 Copy quote

• In life, everything awaits in the shadows for the suitable time to come out! All waits silently in the nooks! Observe the shadows and the nooks to guess what will happen!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Life, Waiting, Shadow

  4 Copy quote

• In a suitable temperature, an egg becomes a chicken, and there are no chickens born of stones.

  Mao Zedong

  Eggs, Stones, Temperature

  17 Copy quote

• There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives.

  Scott Adams

  Wisdom, Problem, Dilbert

  9 Copy quote

• Because I have become such a solitary, and not in the Aristotelian sense: not a beast, not a god. Rather, a loner troubled by longings, incapable of finding a suitable language and despairing at the impossibility of composing messages in a playable key--as if I no longer understood the codes used by the estimable people who wanted to hear from me and would have so much to reply if only the impediments were taken away.

  Saul Bellow

  Taken, Keys, People

  Saul Bellow (2010). “Saul Bellow: Letters”, p.422, Penguin

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• We use the Air Force analogy: there were expensive things they had to do to get a cockpit suitable for a lot of pilots, like wraparound windshields, but their initial solutions, when they realized average didn't work, were adjustable seats. How in the world did they not already have adjustable seats in their planes? We're looking for adjustable seats for education, for basic things that we can do.

  L. Todd Rose

  Air, Average, World

  Source: www.macleans.ca

  7 Copy quote

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• I believe that life-saving, essential drugs should be freely available and the innovator should be paid a suitable royalty payment for his invention.

  Yusuf Hamied

  Believe, Drug, Essentials

  4 Copy quote

• Ignorance is not a suitable defense

  Roger Goodell

  Ignorance, Defense

  4 Copy quote

• As women, we all have certain weaknesses. I know one who can't resist pretty shoes but has nothing suitable to wear with them. Others adore frilly lingerie but never have any money to buy outer clothing.

  Edith Head

  Shoes, Weakness, Lingerie

  12 Copy quote

• Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.

  Morihei Ueshiba

  Sports, Enlightenment, Body

  "Inspire! What Great Leaders Do" by Lance Secretan, (p. 45), 2004.

  86 Copy quote

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• I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some point which may be suitable to you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you find that it is of no use, then you can discard it.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Decision, Up To You

  Dalai Lama XIV (2002). “Illustrated Teachings of the Dalai Lama”

  4 Copy quote

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• The married state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of heaven and hell we are capable of receiving in this life.

  Richard Steele

  Marriage, Wedding, Heaven

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1841). “The Spectator: with sketches of the lives of the authors, an index, and explanatory notes”

  7 Copy quote

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• I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.

  Maurice Sendak

  Children, Book, Writing

  "Maurice Sendak Dead: 'Where The Wild Things Are' Author Dies At 83" by the Associated Press, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 8, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

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• After Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the belief in decent housing as a political right or social obligation was supplanted in the U.S. by the notion that suitable shelter should be an act of charity.

  Martin Filler

  Political, Charity, Shelter

  4 Copy quote

• I don't have a talent, unless you count hunting illegally, which they don't. Or maybe singing, which I wouldn't do for the Capitol in a million years. My mother tried to interest me in a variety of suitable alternatives from a list Effie Trinket sent her. Cooking, flower arranging, playing the flute. None of them took, although Prim had a knack for all three. Finally Cinna stepped in and offered to help me develop my passion for designing clothes, which really required development since it was non-existent.

  Suzanne Collins

  Mother, Flower, Passion

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)”, p.39, Scholastic Inc.

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• On the board was a list of words and phrases which her mother considered not suitable for use in college T-shirt design. She had been asked about them so often that in the end she had started a blacklist of banned words to which everyone could refer. Every time someone thought of a new one, she unflinchingly wrote it down... Rose read through the list, and turned back to her letter. These are the words I learned to spell in Mummy's art class today, she wrote, and sighed a little as she began the tedious job of copying from the board.

  Hilary McKay

  Mother, Art, Jobs

  4 Copy quote

• I believe in the magic of books. I believe that during certain periods in our lives we are drawn to particular books--whether it's strolling down the aisles of a bookshop with no idea whatsoever of what it is that we want to read and suddenly finding the most perfect, most wonderfully suitable book staring us right in the face. Unblinking. Or a chance meeting with a stranger or friend who recommends a book we would never ordinarily reach for. Books have the ability to find their own way into our lives.

  Cecelia Ahern

  Believe, Book, Ideas

  41 Copy quote

• The problem is this: in order to make money- lots of money- we don't need flawless literary masterpieces. What we need is mediocre rubbish, trash suitable for mass consumption. More and more, bigger and bigger blockbusters of less and less significance. What counts is the paper we sell, not the words that are printed on it.

  Walter Moers

  Order, Needs, Paper

  10 Copy quote

• The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it!

  Daniel Dennett

  Home, Rocks, Sea

  Consciousness Explained ch. 7 (1991)

  56 Copy quote

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