Unlikely Quotes - Page 3

• I sometimes find reality far more fantastical and unlikely than what I could just make up.

  J. Michael Straczynski

  Reality, Sometimes

  "From 'Moloch' to "Superman Earth One Vol. 2' J. Michael Straczynski Interview". Interview with Valerie Gallaher, www.mtv.com. November 12, 2012.

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• Because I'm short and slim, I can identify with somebody who's an unlikely fit for something and desperately wants to be part of it.

  Daniel Radcliffe

  Want, Slim, Fit

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• So the British, of all ages, still walk the course. On trips to Florida or the American desert, they still marvel, or shudder, at the fleets of electric carts going off in the morning like the first assault wave at the Battle of El Alamein. It is unlikely, for some time, that a Briton will come across in his native land such a scorecard as Henry Longhurst rescued from a California club and cherished till the day he died. The last on its list of local rules printed the firm warning "A Player on Foot Has No Standing on the Course."

  Alistair Cooke

  Morning, Golf, Player

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• Like every writer, I'm drawn by unlikely juxtapositions, precisely-dated and once-only collisions between people from different worlds.

  Hilary Mantel

  People, Different, World

  "A life of Biggles" by Hilary Mantel, www.theguardian.com. December 11, 2009.

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• The Darkest Minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces.

  Alexandra Bracken

  Life, Mind, Faces

  Alexandra Bracken (2016). “The Darkest Minds”, p.485, Hachette UK

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• i'm never going to understand the Barrani." "You needn't sound so morose, Lord Kaylin. They are unlikely to understand you either." "Yes, but I'm unlikely to try to kill them for fun.

  Michelle Sagara

  Fun, Trying, Sound

  Michelle Sagara (2012). “Cast in Peril”, p.126, LUNA

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• I'm always excited by the unlikely, never by ordinary things.

  David Hockney

  Ordinary, Ordinary Things, Excited

  "Sunlight, beaches and boys" by Edmund White, www.theguardian.com. September 8, 2006.

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• My heroes and heroines are often unlikely people who are dragged into situations without meaning to become involved, or people with a past that has never quite left them. They are often isolated, introspective people, often confrontational or anarchic in some way, often damaged or secretly unhappy or incomplete.

  Joanne Harris

  Hero, Past, People

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• What is necessary is possible, what we want is expensive. What is unnecessary is unlikely.

  Robert Fripp

  Want, Unnecessary, Expensive

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• Being thankful helps you to be present.People commit errors because they are not present.I would encourage women and men to be present - you'll avoid falling into certain pits.For instance, if you know that a person has just lost his wife or her husband or lover, it's unlikely that you will say something that will hurt that person's feelings if you're truly paying attention. You'll make a sweeter life for yourself and for those around you if you are present.

  Maya Angelou

  Hurt, Husband, Fall

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• People are unlikely to know that they need a product which does not exist and the basis of market research in new and innovative products is limited in this regard.

  John Harvey-Jones

  Business, People, Doe

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• Both in Britain and America, huge publicity has been given to stem cells, particularly embryonic stem cells, and the potential they offer. Of course, the study of stem cells is one of the most exciting areas in biology, but I think it is unlikely that embryonic stem cells are likely to be useful in healthcare for a long time.

  Robert Winston

  Thinking, Cells, Britain And America

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• And what could be a hotter ticket than the improbable triumph of 'The Book of Mormon,' the musical-comedy moon shot of the season? Its creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, of Comedy Central's 'South Park,' are the most unlikely Rodgers and Hammerstein team ever to bowl a thundering strike.

  James Wolcott

  Team, Book, Moon

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• Indeed, without emotion it seems unlikely we can even have morality.

  Julian Baggini

  Morality, Emotion, Seems

  "Calm? Why should I be calm?" by Julian Baggini, www.theguardian.com. March 2, 2009.

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• It is unlikely that many people will take to heart the conclusion that coming into existence is always a harm. It is even less likely that many people will stop having children. By contrast, it is quite likely that my views either will be ignored or will be dismissed. As this response will account for a great deal of suffering between now and the demise of humanity, it cannot plausibly be thought of as philanthropic. That is not to say that it is motivated by any malice towards humans, but it does result from a self-deceptive indifference to the harm of coming into existence.

  David Benatar

  Children, Heart, Self

  David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.225, Oxford University Press

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• He taught only one class: 'Unlikely Maths'. But since the time was listed as "now" and the place, "everywhere," this was hardly helpful in tracking him down.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Math, Class, Taught

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• I stand four-square for reason, and object to what seems to me to be irrationality, whatever the source. If you are on my side in this, I must warn you that the army of the night has the advantage of overwhelming numbers, and, by its very nature, is immune to reason, so that it is entirely unlikely that you and I can win out. We will always remain a tiny and probably hopeless minority, but let us never tire of presenting our view, and of fighting the good fight for the right.

  Isaac Asimov

  Army, Fighting, Night

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• Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered . . . or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power.

  Stephen King

  Falling In Love, Book, Responsibility

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• I think it's extremely unlikely that the European Union will fracture with nations dropping off the edge.

  John Major

  Thinking, Unions, Dropping

  "The Andrew Marr Show", news.bbc.co.uk. October 09, 2011.

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• But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us.

  John Green

  Together, Towns, Happens

  John Green (2013). “The John Green Collection”, p.434, Penguin

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• If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) and if He desired to be worshiped (a proposition which Jubal found inherently improbable but conceivably possible in the dim light of his own ignorance), then (stipulating affirmatively both the above) it nevertheless seemed wildly unlikely to Jubal to the point of reductio ad absurdum that a God potent to shape galaxies would be titillated and swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered Him as "worship.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Ignorance, Light, Intellectual

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• She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness. I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible.

  Roald Dahl

  Teacher, Reading, School

  Roald Dahl (2007). “The Witches”, p.11, Penguin

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• But most critically, sweet, never try to change the narrative structure of someone else's story, though you will certainly be tempted to, as you watch those poor souls in school, in life, heading unwittingly down dangerous tangents, fatal digressions from which they will unlikely be able to emerge. Resist the temptation. Spend your energies on your story. Reworking it. Making it better.

  Marisha Pessl

  Sweet, School, Narrative Structure

  Marisha Pessl (2006). “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, p.83, Penguin

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• My homeland of Belarus is an unlikely place for an Internet revolution. The country, controlled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, was once described by Condoleezza Rice as 'the last outpost of tyranny in Europe.'

  Evgeny Morozov

  Country, Europe, President

  "How dictators watch us on the web" by Bruce Sterling, www.wired.com. December 10, 2009.

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• Free open-source software, by its nature, is unlikely to feature secret back doors that lead directly to Langley, Va.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Doors, Secret, Source

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