Theory Quotes - Page 32

• The hold of the evolutionary paradigm is so powerful that an idea which is more like a principle of medieval astrology than a serious twentieth century scientific theory has become a reality for evolutionary biologists.

  Michael Denton

  Powerful, Reality, Ideas

  Michael Denton (2002). “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis”, Adler & Adler Pub

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• If moral statements are about something, then the universe is not quite as science suggests it is, since physical theories, having said nothing about God, say nothing about right or wrong, good or bad. To admit this would force philosophers to confront the possibility that the physical sciences offer a grossly inadequate view of reality. And since philosophers very much wish to think of themselves as scientists, this would offer them an unattractive choice between changing their allegiances or accepting their irrelevance.

  David Berlinski

  Reality, Thinking, Irrelevance

  David Berlinski (2010). “The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions”, p.36, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In ancient cultures, they didn*t practice theory in their dances; they wanted to arrive at a state of trance, and I think that's an appropriate approach for the arts: to create a work that is entrancing.

  Reza Abdoh

  Art, Thinking, Practice

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• Bernard Williams has been a distinctive presence on the intellectual scene for more than three decades. . . . His writings do not offer the dubious exhilaration of grand philosophical theory, in which messy reality is tamed and caged, but the thrill of seeing pretension punctured by a kind of high-voltage common sense (backed up by impressive erudition). . . . There is no one in philosophy quite like him.

  Colin McGinn

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Writing

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• If a theory purports to explain everything, then it is likely not explaining much at all.

  Massimo Pigliucci

  Explaining, Ifs

  Massimo Pigliucci (2010). “Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk”, p.2, University of Chicago Press

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• Over the years, I developed a theory about why writers are such procrastinators: We were too good in English class. This sounds crazy, but hear me out.

  Megan McArdle

  Crazy, Years, Class

  Megan McArdle (2014). “The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success”, p.11, Penguin

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• My theory on Manchester and why it produces the bands it
  does is that because the world is willing to listen to
  them, it gives the kids a confidence and and a belief that
  ...what has happened before might happen again. It's something
  to aim for.

  Jimi Goodwin

  Kids, Giving, Doe

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• I learnt the theory of movement, which I still teach sometimes. I was very, very ambitious to learn a skill.

  Diane Cilento

  Skills, Ambitious, Movement

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• People say I don't have great tools. They say that I can't throw like Ellis Valentine or run like Tim Raines or hit with power like Mike Schmidt. Who can? I make up for it in other ways, by putting out a little bit more. That's my theory, to go through life hustling. In the big leagues, hustle usually means being in the right place at the right time. It means backing up a base. It means backing up your teammate. It means taking that headfirst slide. It means doing everything you can do to win a baseball game.

  Pete Rose

  Baseball, Running, Valentine

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• Both the brightness and the spectrum of the X-rays are very different from what theory predicts.

  Andrew Young

  Rays, Different, Brightness

  "Chandra's X-ray vision of universe awes, puzzles", www.cnn.com. June 8, 2000.

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• There's so much to learn about acting and performance in general... I mean, acting is a very complex art, and there are a lot more theories and methods and techniques to it than I think anybody would think.

  Haley Joel Osment

  Art, Mean, Thinking

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• 

  The legal theory is, that marriage makes the husband and wife one person, and that person is the husband.

  Lucretia Mott

  Husband, Wife, Persons

  "Discourse onWoman" (1849)

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• Writing a song doesn't heal things. Even if the song comes up with a solution, it's still only a theory. Going out and living my lyrics is a whole other deal. That takes courage.

  Alanis Morissette

  Music, Song, Writing

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• Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

  George Boole

  Probability Theory, Perfect, Expectations

  Collected Logical Works Volume II An Investigation of the Law of Thought Chapter XVI (p. 258)

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• Years should not be devoted to the acquisition of dead languages or to the study of history which, for the most part, is a detailed account of things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the individual with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history, the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above all, of the sciences.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Kings, Philosophy, Years

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• I do not believe in censorship, but I believe we already have censorship in what is called marketing theory, namely the only information we get in mainstream media is for profit.

  Sam Sheppard

  Believe, Media, Marketing

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• Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels  on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Religious, Believe, Men

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book One, Chapter V, 1840.

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• Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Void

  Marbury v. Madison (1803)

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• My theory on literature is an author who does not indulge in trashiness-writes about people you could introduce into your own home...he did not care to read a book or go to a play about people he would not care to meet at his own dinner table. I believe we should live by certain standards and ideals.

  Booth Tarkington

  Believe, Book, Home

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• Psychoanalysis is essentially a theory of unconscious strivings, of resistance, of falsification of reality according to one's subjective needs and expectations.

  Erich Fromm

  Reality, Expectations, Needs

  Erich Fromm (2013). “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, p.150, Open Road Media

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• We are more heavily invested in the theories of failure than we are in the theories of success.

  Albert Bandura

  APA Address, 1998.

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• As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

  William James

  Use, Facts, Belief

  "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy". Book by William James, 1897.

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• The French need a thrashing. If the Prussians win, the centralization of state power will be useful for the centralization of the German working class. German predominance would also transfer the center of gravity of the workers' movement in Western Europe from France to Germany, and one has only to compare the movement in the two countries from 1866 until now to see that the German working class is superior to the French both theoretically and organizationally.

  Karl Marx

  Country, Mean, Winning

  "The Karl Marx Library: On revolution".

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• If someone asks, ‘But what in the end is a philosopher?’ I would say ‘A philosopher is a human being who fights in theory.’

  Louis Althusser

  Fighting, Philosopher, Ends

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• You know economists; they're the sort of people who see something works in practice and wonder if it would work in theory.

  Ronald Reagan

  Practice, Wonder, Economist

  "Ronald Reagan".

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