Timidity Quotes - Page 3

• Life calls us forth to independence, and anyone who does not heed this call because of childish laziness or timidity is threatened with neurosis. And once this has broken out, it becomes an increasingly valid reason for running away from life.

  Carl Jung

  Running, Broken, Psychology

  Carl Gustav Jung (1967). “Symbols of transformation: an analysis of the prelude to a case of schizophrenia”

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• No woman dares express all she thinks.

  Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

  Thinking, Dare

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• An hour's terror is better than a lifetime of timidity.

  Walter de La Mare

  Lifetime, Hours, Terror

  Walter de La Mare (2013). “The Return”, p.60, Courier Corporation

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• The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

  John Adams

  Suffering, Source, Dissertation

  John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.15, Regnery Publishing

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• Every isolated passion, is, in isolation, insane; sanity may be defined as synthesis of insanities. Every dominant passion generates a dominant fear, the fear of its non-fulfillment. Every dominant fear generates a nightmare, sometimes in form of explicit and conscious fanaticism, sometimes in paralyzing timidity, sometimes in an unconscious or subconscious terror which finds expression only in dreams. The man who wishes to preserve sanity in a dangerous world should summon in his own mind a parliament of fears, in which each in turn is voted absurd by all the others.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Passion, Men

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• [The political mind] is a strange mixture of vanity and timidity, of an obsequious attitude at one time and a delusion of grandeurat another time. The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Attitude, Men, Vanity

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• Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

  Tacitus

  Rome, Empires, Great Empires

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• The first symptom of true love in a man is timidity, in a young woman, boldness. This is surprising, and yet nothing is more simple. It is the two sexes tending to approach each other and assuming each the other's qualities.

  Victor Hugo

  Sex, Simple, Men

  Victor Hugo (2015). “Les Misérables”, p.1167, Booklassic

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• Who shall ever tell how much an unmerited disfavor crushes a shy person? Who can ever depict the misfortunes of timidity?

  Honore de Balzac

  Crush, Shy, Persons

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• I feel sorry for the man who has never known the bracing thrill of taking a stand and sticking to it fearlessly. Moral courage has rewards that timidity can never imagine. Like a shot of adrenaline, it floods the spirit with vitality.

  Billy Graham

  Sorry, Men, Vitality

  "A Time for Moral Courage". Reader's Digest, July 1964.

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• I am inclined to think from my own experience that the difficulty to eminence lies not in the road, but in the timidity of the traveler.

  Washington Allston

  Lying, Thinking, Traveler

  Washington Allston (1993). “The Correspondence of Washington Allston”, p.15, University Press of Kentucky

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• As many people die from an excess of timidity as from bravery.

  Norman Mailer

  Fear, People, Bravery

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• Another of Cicero's maxims was that if you must do something unpopular, you might as well do it wholeheartedly, for in politics there is no credit to be won by timidity.

  Robert Harris

  Credit, Might, Wells

  Robert Harris (2006). “Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome”, p.47, Simon and Schuster

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• Competitive sports keep alive in us a spirit and vitality. Sports teach the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid; to be proud and unbowed in defeat, and yet humble and gentle in victory; to master ourselves before we attempt to master others; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; and to give the predominance of courage over timidity.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Sports, Strong, Humble

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• On the environment and climate change, I suspect that future generations will think there was too much timidity, too much fear of upsetting business. Basically, New Labour was very nervous about regulating business, or requiring it to do anything, even when there was a very clear social or environmental case for doing so.

  Geoff Mulgan

  Thinking, Upset, Environmental

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• The most noticeable weakness of Congressmen is their timidity. They fear the use to be made of their "record." They are afraid ofmaking enemies. They do not vote according to their convictions from fear of consequences.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Enemy, Weakness, Use

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• Nation editor Katrina van den Heuvel told me that the failure to adequately cover the Downing Street Memo epitomizes the timidity, the cowardice of a media that has been manipulated, intimidated, bullied by an administration that has taken it to a high level. . lapdog news media.

  Frank Rich

  Taken, Media, Downing Street

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• Nonviolence means an ocean of compassion. It means shedding from us every trace of ill will for others. It does not mean abjectness or timidity, or fleeing in fear. It means, on the contrary, firmness of mind and courage, a resolute spirit.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Ocean, Mean, Compassion

  Mahatma Gandhi (1986). “The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Civilization, Politics and Religion”, Clarendon Press

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• We're the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody's afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else.

  Gore Vidal

  Average, Different, Way

  "Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

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• Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.

  Robert Greene

  Thinking, Ideas, Two

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• The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful.

  Pope Pius X

  Catholic, Faithful, Church

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• Timidity keeps me safe and sad in a narrow room.

  Mason Cooley

  Safe, Rooms

  "City Aphorisms: Eighth Selection". Book by Mason Cooley, 1991.

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• Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Men, Roots, Majority

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.190, Princeton University Press

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• Timidity can be as dangerous as rashness.

  Poul Anderson

  Dangerous, Rashness

  Poul Anderson (2003). “Going For Infinity: A Literary Journey”, p.20, Macmillan

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• Passions often produce their contraries: avarice sometimes leads to prodigality, and prodigality to avarice; we are often obstinate through weakness and daring through timidity.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Passion, Weakness, Sometimes

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