Undermining Quotes - Page 3

• When your reasons for believing something are justified ad hoc, you are left susceptible to further discoveries undermining the rationale for that belief.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Believe, Discovery, Belief

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2010). “The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet”, p.51, W. W. Norton & Company

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• And so today, the undermining of the home and family is on the increase, with the devil anxiously working to displace the father as the head of the home and create rebellion among the children. [Isaiah] describes the condition when [he] states, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." and then these words follow-and consider these words seriously when you think of those political leaders who are promoting birth control and abortion: "O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Children, Father, Home

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• Our entire society is based on discontent. People wanting more and more and more. Being constantly dissatisfied with their homes, their bodies, their décor, their clothes, everything – taking it for granted that that’s the whole point of life. Never to be satisfied. If you are perfectly happy with what you got, especially if what you got isn’t even all the spectacular then you’re dangerous. You’re breaking all the rules. You’re undermining the sacred economy. You’re challenging every assumption that society is built on.

  Tana French

  Home, Clothes, People

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• Judicial activists are nothing short of radicals in robes--contemptuous of the rule of law, subverting the Constitution at will, and using their public trust to impose their policy preferences on society. In fact, no radical political movement has been more effective in undermining our system of government than the judiciary. And with each Supreme Court term, we hold our collective breath hoping the justices will do no further damage, knowing full well they will disappoint. Such is the nature of judicial tyranny.

  Mark Levin

  Law, Knowing, Government

  Mark R. Levin (2006). “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America”, p.22, Regnery Publishing

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• Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality.

  C. S. Lewis

  Individuality, Privilege, Heal

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “An Experiment in Criticism”, p.140, Cambridge University Press

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• Man made one grave mistake: in answer to vaguely reformist and humanitarian agitation he admitted women to politics and the professions. The conservatives who saw this as the undermining of our civilisation and the end of the state and marriage were right after all; it is time for the demolition to begin.

  Germaine Greer

  Mistake, Women, Agitation

  germaine greer (1971). “the female eunuch”

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• Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister - corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used.

  Richard Rorty

  Civilization, Intellectual, Foundation

  "Philosophical Convictions". The Nation, June 14, 2004.

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• Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.

  Charles Carroll of Carrollton

  Christian, Government, Sublime

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• I am not asking anyone to take the fun out of childhood. As we all know, treats are one of the best parts of being a kid. Instead, the goal here is to empower parents instead of undermining them as they try to make healthier choices for their families.

  Michelle Obama

  Fun, Kids, Goal

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• There must be more equality established in society, or morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equakity will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be continually undermining it through ignorance or pride

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Ignorance, Fate, Pride

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• A trade unionist - of course I am. First, last, and all the time. How else to strike at the roots of the evils undermining the moral and physical health of women? How else grapple with the complex problems of employment, overemployment, and underemployment alike, resulting in discouraged, undernourished bodies, too tired to resist the onslaughts of disease and crime?

  Maud Younger

  Tired, Roots, Evil

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• What threatens civilization today is not war, but the changing conception of life values entailed by certain political doctrines. Only by recapturing the dream of human freedom and restoring the importance of the common man's liberties can that undermining threat to modern civilization be averted

  Lin Yutang

  Dream, War, Men

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• Don't undermine the science just because you don't like the economics. That's a dangerous slope, because the problem of course is you're not undermining just that, you're undermining the basis of rational decision-making in society.

  Brian Cox

  Decision, Problem, Economics

  "Brian Cox: scientists giving false sense of debate on climate change" by Karl Mathiesen, www.theguardian.com. September 3, 2014.

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• There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.

  Ama Ata Aidoo

  Powerful, People, Progress

  Ama Ata Aidoo (2015). “Changes: A Love Story”, p.192, The Feminist Press at CUNY

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• I think we're insecure about our self-imposed spot at the top of the pyramid of life. New studies are continually undermining our superiority complex and forcing us to reconsider our relationship to animals.

  Jonathan Balcombe

  Insecure, Thinking, Animal

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• Now this brings me to my main topic - our military strength - more specifically, how to stay strong against threat from outside, without undermining the economic health that supports our security.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Stay Strong, Military, War

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1959). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958”, p.326, Best Books on

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• Any strategy that attempts to reinforce faith by undermining science is also doomed to failure. Showing that some scientific theory is wrong will not prove that the religious alternative is correct by default. When the sun was shown not to be the center of the universe, as Copernicus had proposed, the Earth was not moved back to that singular position in the cosmos. If Darwinian evolution is proved wrong, biologists will not develop a new theory based on the hypothesis that each species was created separately by God 6,000years ago.

  Victor J. Stenger

  Religious, Religion, Cosmos

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• I think all great comedies - or at least the comedies I like - it has some of the funniest moments, but it never breaks the spell for the audience. It never pushes the audience away by spoofing itself too much or undermining the characters or making them cardboard or flimsy. Everybody is really trying to do what their characters believe in - and so nobody breaks the spell of the world, even though in other ways it's a comedy and very funny.

  James Franco

  Believe, Character, Thinking

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• The world has a way of undermining complex plans. This is particularly true in fast moving environments. A fast moving environment can evolve more quickly than a complex plan can be adapted to it. By the time you have adapted, the target has changed.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Art, War, Moving

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• It should be pointed out for our own guidance in the West that the continual signing of manifestoes and protests is one of the surest ways of undermining the efficacy and dignity of the intellectual. There exists a permanent blackmail that we all know and that we must have the often solitary courage to resist.

  Albert Camus

  Intellectual, Way, West

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.170, Vintage

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• To look without fear is a good subversive tool, undermining taboos.

  Wolfgang Tillmans

  Tools, Looks, Taboo

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• My evaluation of President George W. Bush is nothing personal. He's a lovely person. Sadly, I believe he will be remembered for taking us into war unnecessarily at the cost of thousands of American lives, injuries to tens of thousands of our troops, and trillions of dollars to our economy - enormous costs to our reputation, and undermining the capability of our military to protect us. That, I think, will be the overwhelming issue for which his presidency will be remembered: extensive damage to our country.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Country, Military, War

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• America has exercised its power to insist on elections in Palestine, which Hamas did win. Once they won, we then engaged in a policy not only of ostracism, but by financial boycott, in effect of undermining it, and creating more tension and radicalism and poverty in Gaza, which was susceptible to exploitation by Hamas.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Winning, Creating, America

  Source: www.nytimes.com

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• Young people oppose those market-driven values and practices aimed at both creating radically individualized subjects and undermining those public spheres that create bonds of solidarity that reinforce a commitment to the common good.

  Henry Giroux

  Commitment, Practice, Creating

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• The Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and elsewhere, and should not be demonized or condemned for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge and criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democratic, nor what this country has stood for over 200 years.

  Chuck Hagel

  Country, Hurt, Years

  "Cheney raps Democrats on war charges", www.cnn.com. November 17, 2005.

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