Variation Quotes - Page 16

• There is a direct parallel in the way that we speak, with natural variations of pitch and volume that give full meaning to our words. This is what is missing in the words on the page of a book, and the notes on the score.

  Howard Snell

  Book, Giving, Missing

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• I'm often asked why there is such a great variation among sentences imposed by Texas judges. I can only quote the Texas judge who was asked why a killer sometimes doesn't even get indicted and a cattle thief can get ten years. The judge answered: "A lot of fellows ought to be shot, but we don't have any cows that need stealin".

  Percy Foreman

  Texas, Years, Law

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• There is a rhythm in life, a certain beauty which operates by a variation of lights and shadows, happiness alternating with sorrow, content with discontent, distilling in this process of contrast a sense of satisfaction, of richness that can be captured and pinned down only by those who possess the gift of awareness.

  Louis Bromfield

  Light, Sorrow, Shadow

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• And as hearbes and trees are bettered and fortified by being transplanted, so formes of speach are embellished and graced by variation.... As in our ordinary language, we shall sometimes meete with excellent phrases, and quaint metaphors, whose blithnesse fadeth through age, and colour is tarnish by to common using them.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Tree, Age, Ordinary

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• All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Essence, Biologist, Knows

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History”, p.476, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The first colour charts were unsystematic. They were based directly on commercial colour samples. They were still related to Pop Art. In the canvases that followed, the colours were chosen arbitrarily and drawn by chance. Then, 180 tones were mixed according to a given system and drawn by chance to make four variations of 180 tones. But after that the number 180 seemed too arbitrary to me, so I developed a system based on a number of rigorously defined tones and proportions.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Numbers, Arbitrary

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• Different people call me different things. In America, people really struggle with my name, so I don't have a nickname as such. I've had Sharlito, Sheldon, Charldo, really interesting variations on the name.

  Sharlto Copley

  Struggle, Names, America

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• I want to establish a wide range and play all kinds of parts. It's that sort of acting career I really respect. I like to turn a sharp left from whatever I've done before because that keeps me awake. That's why I want to be an actor - I don't want to play endless variations on one character.

  Tim Curry

  Character, Play, Careers

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Those humble but indomitable workers, to whom later generations referred by the collective name of Baale Masorah, Masters of Tradition, performed in obscurity their Herculean task of guarding the Biblical Text against loss or variation.

  Robert Gordis

  Humble, Loss, Biblical

  Robert Gordis (1971). “The Biblical text in the making: a study of the kethib-qere”, Ktav Pub Inc

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• Lying is a crime the least liable to variation in its definitions. A child will upon the slightest temptation tell an untruth as readily as the truth. That is, as soon as he can suspect that it will be to his advantage; and the dread that he afterward has of telling a lie is acquired principally by his being threatened, punished, and terrified by those who detect him in it, till at length, a number of painful impressions are annexed to the telling of an untruth, and he comes even to shudder at the thought of it.

  Joseph Priestley

  Children, Lying, Numbers

  Joseph Priestley (1831). “The Theological and Miscellaneous Works. Ed. with Notes by John Towill Rutt”, p.196

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• Unlike every other product that is now manufactured for the table, wine exists in as many varieties as there are people who produce it. Variations in technique, climate, grape, soil and culture ensure that wine is, to the ordinary drinker, the most unpredictable of drinks, and to the connoisseur the most intricately informative, responding to its origins like a game of chess to its opening move.

  Roger Scruton

  Moving, Wine, Games

  Roger Scruton (2013). “I Drink Therefore I Am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine”, p.22, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Western civilization presents one of the most difficult tasks for historical analysis, because it is not yet finished, because we are a part of it and lack perspective, and because it presents considerable variation from our pattern of historical change.

  Carroll Quigley

  Civilization, Perspective, Historical

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• It has therefore been justly observed that however honestly the coin of a country may conform to its standard, money made of gold and silver is still liable to fluctuations in value, not only to accidental, and temporary, but to permanent and natural variations, in the same manner as other commodities.

  David Ricardo

  Country, Gold, Coins

  David Ricardo, John Ramsay McCulloch (1846). “The Works of David Ricardo ...”, p.46

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• The variation in the value of money, however great, makes no difference in the rate of profits.

  David Ricardo

  Differences, Profit, Rate

  David Ricardo, John Ramsay McCulloch (1852). “The Works of David Ricardo. With a notice of the life and writings of the author: by J. R. McCulloch”, p.32

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• Basically, when I'm writing something, I think about what is the subject of the piece. The subject of the piece is our fear of getting old, which is a variation on our fear of dying.

  M. Night Shyamalan

  Writing, Thinking, Dying

  Source: www.moviesonline.ca

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• The only work that can be compared to Chopin's Etudes, innovatively, where every note is essential and one becomes completely exposed, is the Brahms-Paganini variations. These are etudes - not as interesting musically as, say, the Brahms-Handel - but they are incredible.

  Carlo Grante

  Interesting, Essentials, Incredibles

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• When I walk into a market I may see a different cut of meat or an unusual vegetable and think, ‘I wonder how it would be if I took the recipe for that sauce I had in Provence and put the two together?’ So I go home and try it out. Sometimes my idea is a success and sometimes it is a flop, but that is how recipes are born. There really are not recipes, only millions of variations sparked by someone’s imagination and desire to be a little creative and different. American cooking is built, after all, on variations of old recipes from around the world.

  James Beard

  Home, Cutting, Thinking

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• I'm not a frustrated concert composer, and the concert pieces I've done have been a small part of my work. What I've sought there is instruction, variation from the demands of film and relief from its restrictions.

  John Towner Williams

  Frustrated, Relief, Done

  "The force is with him". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2002.

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• I just think that's the job of an actor. I guess that's the variation that you're talking about. It's probably a byproduct of just constantly looking for something different, because that's what I feel like I'm supposed to do.

  Eric Bana

  Jobs, Thinking, Talking

  Interview with Gregg LaGambina, film.avclub.com. July 29, 2009.

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• There is great variation in brain power all the way from Einstien on one hand to Sarah Palin on the other.

  Richard Dawkins

  Hands, Brain, Way

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• The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

  Miles Davis

  Thinking, Play, Giving

  "Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis". Book by Paul Maher, ‎Michael K. Dorr, p. 18, 2009.

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• After every movie, I always kick myself for the same things-didn't do enough, not enough variation, not enough interesting choices, too bland.

  Robin Wright

  Interesting, Choices, Enough

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• Certainly, from where I stand, I'm not a specialist in wildly different walks and voices. But I find as much variation and nuance as what satisfies me in what I do. So, I don't find this particularly different. He has his own peculiarities. You're probably talking about a cluster of Englishmen in suits but I've done quite a big cluster of guys not in suits as well, which I've occupied myself with. So, I don't find that this is the one that stands out.

  Colin Firth

  Talking, Voice, Guy

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• The attitude is in my personality. It's going to come out in the songs no matter what. If you're pushing the vocal constantly at 10, there's no room for any dynamics. There's no room for any variation in tone. There's no room for anything.

  Mike Ness

  Song, Attitude, Personality

  "Mike Ness of Social Distortion". Interview with Matt Schild, music.avclub.com. January 18, 2011.

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• There's such a wide variation in tax systems around the world, it's difficult to imagine a harmonized CO2 tax that every country agrees to. That's not in the cards in the near term. But the countries that are doing the best job, like Sweden, are already doing both of these. I think that eventually we'll use both of them but we need to get started right away and the cap-and-trade is a proven and effective tool.

  Al Gore

  Country, Jobs, Thinking

  ""What in the Hell Do They Think Is Causing It?"". Interview with John Dickerson, www.slate.com. December 8, 2009.

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