Trouble Quotes - Page 39

• The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end.

  Clement Greenberg

  Art, Views, Avant Garde

  Clement Greenberg (1971). “Art and Culture: Critical Essays”, p.19, Beacon Press

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• Me and my shadow Strolling down the avenue Oh, me and my shadow Not a soul to tell our troubles to And when it's twelve o'clock we climb the stairs We never knock 'cause nobody's there Just me and my shadow All alone and feeling blue

  Billy Rose

  Blue, Soul, Feelings

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• The male dares to be different to the degree that he accepts his passivity and his desire to be female, his fagginess. The farthest out male is the dragqueen, but he, although different from most men, is exactly like all other dragqueens; like the functionalist, he has an identity - a female; he tries to define all his troubles away - but still no individuality. Not completely convinced that he's a woman, highly insecure about being sufficiently female, he conforms compulsively to the man-made feminine stereotype, ending up as nothing but a bundle of stilted mannerisms.

  Valerie Solanas

  Insecure, Men, Individuality

  Valerie Solanas (1971). “SCUM manifesto”

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• Keep your head down, avoid all the distractions of being a writer today—all the shifts in the business, all the drama, all the debating about where publishing is going—and write the best story that you can. It sounds a bit glib, but I think this is advice a lot of people are having trouble following right now. It is so hard to focus. But that is the single key to success.

  Jeff Abbott

  Drama, Writing, Thinking

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• Our predecessors overcame many troubles and much suffering, but each time got back up stronger than before.

  Shinzo Abe

  Suffering, Stronger, Predecessors

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• In the products of the culture industry human beings get into trouble only so that they can be rescued unharmed, usually by representatives of a benevolent collective; and then, in illusory harmony, they are reconciled with the general interest whose demands they had initially experienced as irreconcilable with their own.

  Theodor Adorno

  Culture, Demand, Harmony

  "Culture Industry Reconsidered". Book by Theodor Adorno, 1963.

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• If we choose a weak and foolish speculation as a primary textbook illustration (falsely assuming that the tale possesses a weight of history and a sanction of evidence), then we are in for trouble - as critics properly nail the particular weakness, and then assume that the whole theory must be in danger if supporters choose such a fatuous case as a primary illustration.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Illustration, Weakness, Nails

  Stephen Jay Gould (1999). “Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History”, Three Rivers Press (CA)

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• Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

  William Shakespeare

  Secret, Mind, Deeds

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 1, l. [78]

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• The trouble with the last snowfall of the season is that you can't be sure.

  Doug Larson

  Snow, Lasts, Seasons

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• To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews , and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.

  Eric Hoffer

  Acceptance, Diagnosis, Causes

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• I could never figure out or probably did not take the trouble to figure out what the great philosophical problems are about. The momentous statements I come across are at best a storm in a teacup. There are quite a number of people who have a vested interest in the stuff, make a noble living out of it, and they conspire with one another to keep it alive.

  Eric Hoffer

  Philosophical, Numbers, People

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• In my individual heart I fully believe my faith is as robust as yours. The trouble with your robust and full bodied faiths, however, is, that they begin to cut each others throats too soon, and for getting on in the world and establishing a modus vivendi these pestilential refinements and reasonablenesses and moderations have to creep in.

  William James

  Believe, Heart, Cutting

  Letter to John Jay Chapman, April 5, 1897.

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• A common civility to an impertinent fellow, often draws upon one a great many unforeseen troubles; and if one doth not take particular care, will be interpreted by him as an overture of friendship and intimacy.

  Joseph Addison

  Care, Common, Intimacy

  Joseph Addison (1721). “Remarks on several parts of Italy , &c in the years 1701, 1702, 1703. The Tatler. By Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq. The Spectator, no.1-89”, p.314

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• It is often said that in prosperity we have many friends, but that we are usually neglected when things go badly. I disagree. Not only do malicious people flock about us in order to witness our ruin, but other unfortunates as well, who have been kept away by our happiness, and now feel close to us on account of our troubles.

  Andre Maurois

  Order, People, Ruins

  "The Art of Living". Book by Andre Maurois, 1939.

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• When you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you've got to have been looking for it.

  Will Rogers

  Home, Miles, Has Beens

  Will Rogers, Bryan B. Sterling (1995). “Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (writers, Politicians, Comedians, Browsers ...)”, M Evans & Company

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• I said to Mr. Pavarotti once ... a marvelous man and a great artist ... I said to him ... "Maestro, I'm having trouble closing out a note so that it's almost as thin as a butter knife ... finish it out quietly like that." I said, "I have trouble doing that. What do you think I should do?" He said, "Justa close up your mouth." That's all he said, and I fell on the floor. I thought he was gonna give me a dissertation.

  Frank Sinatra

  Artist, Men, Thinking

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• Verbal ability is a highly overrated thing in a guy, and it's our pathetic need for it that gets us into so much trouble.

  Nora Ephron

  Guy, Needs, Ability

  "Fictional character: Becky". "Sleepless in Seattle", www.imdb.com. 1993.

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• I have made myself two or three caps to wear of evenings since I came home, and they save me a world of torment as to hair-dressing, which at present gives me no trouble beyond washing and brushing, for my long hair is always plaited up out of sight, and my short hair curls well enough to want no papering.

  Jane Austen

  Home, Hair, Sight

  Jane Austen, Deirdre Le Faye (2011). “Jane Austen's Letters”, p.25, Oxford University Press

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• We all have the dark, ignorant shadow inside us. I have worked endlessly to reveal it and heal it in me, but of course there's some primitive weird stuff in me. The Tea Party is about exhorting white supremacy, though, so I've had a tiny bit of trouble experiencing sympathy.

  Anne Lamott

  Party, Dark, White

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• The trials and pressures of life--and how we face them--often define us. Confronted by adversity, many people give up while others rise up. How do those who succeed do it? They persevere. They find the benefit to them personally that comes from any trial. And they recognize that the best thing about adversity is coming out on the other side of it. There is a sweetness to overcoming your troubles and finding something good in the process, however small it may be. Giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter. Persevering through adversity makes one better.

  John C. Maxwell

  Giving Up, Adversity, People

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• I really am a happy, amusing fellow at heart. Trouble is I seem the only one left.

  Cary Grant

  Heart, Amusing, Left

  "Cary Grant is puzzled because you have No Time for Laughs" by Robert Ottaway in Picturegoer magazine, January 4, 1958.

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• Come and relax now, put your troubles down. No need to bear the weight of your worries, just let them all fall away.

  Dave Matthews

  Fall, Worry, Relax

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• No adversity is in kind or degree peculiar to us; but if we survey the conditions of other men (of our brethren everywhere, of our neighbours all about us), and compare our case with theirs, we shall find that we have many consorts and associates in adversity, most as ill, many far worse bestead than ourselves; whence it must be a great fondness and perverseness to be displeased that we are not exempted from, but exposed to bear a share in the common troubles and burdens of mankind.

  Isaac Barrow

  Adversity, Men, Degrees

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• What troubles me about the "hostile workplace" category of sexual harassment policy is that women are being returned to their old status of delicate flowers who must be protected from assault by male lechers. It is anti-feminist to ask for special treatment for women.

  Camille Paglia

  Flower, Feminist, Special

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays”, p.44, Vintage

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• When feminist discourse is unable to discriminate the drunken fraternity brother from the homicidal maniac, women are in trouble.

  Camille Paglia

  Brother, Feminist, Fraternity

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.33, Vintage

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