As a matter of selective necessity, man is an agent. He is, in his own apprehension, a centre of unfolding impulsive activity; "teleological activity." He is an agent seeking in every act the accomplishment of some concrete, objective, impersonal end. By force of being such an agent, he is possessed of a taste for effective work, and a distaste for futile effort. ~Thorstein Veblen
#quotes #thorstein-veblen #human

I want to take back at least half of the "I love you"s, because I didn't mean them as much as the other ones. ~David Levithan
#quotes #david-levithan #love

There are some public figures who are very private and almost hide behind their work. I try to be as open as possible. ~Moby
#quotes #moby #privacy #work

The style developed over decades, really, but I started out writing pretty traditional stories, then became impatient. It was a writer named Russell Edson who showed me that one could write in any way at all. ~Lydia Davis
#quotes #lydia-davis #russell-edson #style #writing #stories

It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope. ~Ursula K. Le Guin
#quotes #ursula-k-le-guin #imagination #hope #compassion

Will is stronger than fact; it can mold and overcome fact. ~H. G. Wells
#quotes #h-g-wells #wish #hardship

Yes, God wants you to do signs and wonders. But the love of God manifested through you is what people really need. So you first must see His face. You must become so close to His very heartbeat that you can feel what others feel. ~Heidi Baker
#quotes #heidi-baker #god #compassion

The places I've been, or passed through, or seen at a distance, have had as much an impact on my life as the people I've known. ~Bryan Lee O'Malley
#quotes #bryan-lee-o-malley #life #places

I feel lucky that I had my children late. Not that I would advise it in any shape or form. But I know friends who had children when they were young, struggled with feeling trapped. I can honestly say I have never once resented the fact that I could not go out because of my kids. ~Mariella Frostrup
#quotes #mariella-frostrup #children #family

Ideas for gadgets for the disabled were coming into my head so fast they seemed to be arriving from somewhere outside of me, beamed down by an unremitting force. I had little control over them, or their flow. I would wake up in the middle of the night. A blinding flash of an idea would rouse me from my bed and I'd rush down to my workshop to have a go at it before the inspiration dimmed. ~Trevor Baylis
#quotes #trevor-baylis #inspiration #ideas #night

"A woman doesn't want to be told she looks nice," Jude nuttered as she sat down beside maud's grave. "She wants to be told she's beautiful, sexy. That she looks outrageous. It dosen't matter if its not true." She sighed and laid the flowers against the headstone. "Because for the moment, when the words are said and the words are heard, it's perfect truth." ~Nora Roberts
#quotes #nora-roberts #beauty

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. ~Thomas Jefferson
#quotes #thomas-jefferson #freedom #government

I look at couples in the street who are in their sixties and have been together for 40 years, and they're my idols. That's Ice and me for sure. ~Coco Austin
#quotes #coco-austin #family #love

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven. ~Yiddish Proverb
#proverbs #yiddish-proverbs #equality #destiny

The morning after my high-school graduation found me up early job hunting. The dream of college I put on the back burner. ~Martha Reeves
#quotes #martha-reeves

A fable is a bridge which leads to truth. Follow it. ~Saudi Proverb
#proverbs #saudi-proverbs #stories

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. ~William Arthur Ward
#quotes #william-arthur-ward #risk

Though ugliness be the opposite of beauty, it is not the opposite to proportion and fitness; for it is possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions, and with a perfect fitness for any use. ~Edmund Burke
#quotes #edmund-burke #beauty

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. ~English Proverb
#proverbs #english-proverbs

The head of a ship however has not always an immediate relation to her name, at least in the British navy. ~William Falconer
#quotes #william-falconer #navy #ships

It is the end of art to inoculate men with the love of nature. ~Henry Ward Beecher
#quotes #henry-ward-beecher #art #nature

He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin. ~Steig Larsson
#quotes #steig-larsson #desire #addiction

Sometimes the personality or just the particular process of a director can really affect your quality of life as a composer in terms of how much time you spend away from your family or the amount of time you spend doing the type of work that you maybe don't consider as fun to do as other type of work. ~Christophe Beck
#quotes #christophe-beck #music

When I face the media, maybe I don't feel it now, here with you, because it's a different sort of interview, but when I face the media before or after the game, I feel it as part of the game. ~Jose Mourinho
#quotes #jose-mourinho #games

If you look back today over the last 25 years, it is a fact that we have had a progressive degeneration of our intelligence community in general; in particular in the field of human intelligence. ~Paul Bremer
#quotes #paul-bremer #intelligence #loss