Quotes and Sayings about Circumstance
"This is really high on the priority list of tribal concerns. This is a cash cow in many circumstances, and tribes are concerned about protection of tribal assets."
- Jack Abramoff
(Related: Circumstances, Protection)
"There are some circumstances in which the First Amendment interest comes up against another interest that is really important and in which we have to make a decision in a particular case as to which is more important."
- Floyd Abrams
(Related: Decision, Circumstances, First, Interest)
"When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations."
- Joseph Addison
(Related: Men, Circumstances, Enemies)
"It would be a mistake to link anything that Israel does to a certain circumstance. And it is a mistake to feel comfortable in any circumstance just because Israel did not act on it."
- Bashar al-Assad
(Related: Mistake, Act, Circumstance, Israel)
"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound."
- James Allen
(Related: Men, Circumstances)
"Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him."
- James Allen
(Related: Circumstances, Man)
"Circumstances do not determine a man, they reveal him."
- James Lane Allen
(Related: Circumstances, Man)
"Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal."
- Mario Andretti
(Related: Goal, Cause, Circumstances, May, Sight)
"No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning."
- Barbara de Angelis
(Related: Age, Life, Circumstances, Meaning)
"Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him."
- Thomas Aquinas
(Related: Circumstances, Justice, Man, Mind, Rectitude)
"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."
- Aristotle
(Related: Life, Accidents, Circumstances, Dignity, Grace, Man)
"Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone."
- Neil Armstrong
(Related: Circumstance, First)
"There are few circumstances which so strongly distinguish the philosopher, as the calmness with which he can reply to criticisms he may think undeservedly severe."
- Charles Babbage
(Related: Circumstances, May)
"In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it ability, coupled with exertion, even though unaided by patronage, cannot fail of obtaining reward."
- Charles Babbage
(Related: Talent, Ability, Circumstance, England, Law, Profession, Reward)
"A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances."
- Robert Baden-Powell
(Related: Circumstances, Smiles)
"Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much."
- Derek Bailey
(Related: Music, Circumstances, Theory)
"I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all."
- James A. Baldwin
(Related: History, Time, Circumstance)
"There are movies that require fantasy and slightly more fantastical acting. Lines that are good for certain movies, in real life circumstances, would be absolutely unbelievable things to really say, and you would look at these people like they're freaks for conversing that way. But somehow for certain styles of movies, it works, and it seems fine."
- Christian Bale
(Related: Life, Movies, People, Acting, Circumstances, Fantasy)
"I always felt myself to be an unlucky person like Donald, who is a victim of so many circumstances. But there isn't a person in the United States who couldn't identify with him. He is everything, he is everybody; he makes the same mistakes that we all make."
- Carl Barks
(Related: Circumstances, Mistakes, states, United)
"Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night."
- Dave Barry
(Related: Circumstances, Night)
"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance."
- Bruce Barton
(Related: Circumstance, Nothing)
"It must inquire not merely about the circumstances of the time in general, but in particular about the writer's position with regard to these things, the interests and motives, the leading ideas of his literary activity."
- Ferdinand Christian Baur
(Related: Time, Ideas, Circumstances, Leading, Literary, Motives, Writer)
"Across the country military families are facing dire financial circumstances due to longer than expected tours of duties. They are being penalized for their patriotism - no one should have to choose between doing right by their country and doing right by their families."
- Evan Bayh
(Related: Patriotism, Financial, Being, Circumstances, Country, Military, Right)
"The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances."
- Stephen Bayley
(Related: Ability, Circumstances, Man, Tradition, Value)
"You need education. You need subsistence protection. We need jobs and social security. These are preconditions under which it will perhaps be possible to deal with these complex circumstances."
- Ulrich Beck
(Related: Education, Circumstances, Jobs, Protection, Security, Will)
"Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy. Between aesthetic and religious rapture there is a family alliance. Art and Religion are means to similar states of mind."
- Clive Bell
(Related: Art, Family, Men, Religion, Alliance, Circumstance, Ecstasy, Mind, Religious, states)
"I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament."
- Tony Blair
(Related: Government, War, Circumstances, Parliament, Support)
"However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice."
- Tony Blair
(Related: Idea, Abortion, Choice, Circumstances, Woman)
"So interviews are a valuable tool, but under certain circumstances they'd be more valuable than others."
- Hans Blix
(Related: Circumstances)
"Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
(Related: Ambition, Circumstances, Thinking)
"Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities."
- George Boole
(Related: Change, Knowledge, Acquaintance, Certainty, Circumstances, Expectation, Theory)
"Most of the memorable events I have myself been exercised in; and, for the satisfaction of the public, will briefly relate the circumstances of my adventures, and scenes of life, from my first movement to this country until this day."
- Daniel Boone
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Country, Day, Events, First, Public, Satisfaction, Will)
"Our live set's become increasingly complex recently; we've been doing stuff that's been vastly too much information for most people to deal with and I think it's quite interesting watching how people behave in those situations, under those circumstances."
- Sean Booth
(Related: People, Circumstances, Information)
"This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live."
- Omar N. Bradley
(Related: Life, Decision, Act, Acting, Circumstances, Mind)
"It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances - but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal."
- Breyten Breytenbach
(Related: Circumstances, Example, Extreme, Rights, Human rights, May)
"There are moments when you feel free, moments when you have energy, moments when you have hope, but you can't rely on any of these things to see you through. Circumstances do that."
- Anita Brookner
(Related: Hope, Circumstances, Energy, Moments)
"We are constantly being put to the test by trying circumstances and difficult people and problems not necessarily of our own making."
- Terry Brooks
(Related: People, Being, Circumstances, Problems, Trying)
"You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change."
- Les Brown
(Related: Change, Goals, Circumstances, Present)
"Fortuitous circumstances constitute the moulds that shape the majority of human lives, and the hasty impress of an accident is too often regarded as the relentless decree of all ordaining fate."
- Olympia Brown
(Related: Accident, Circumstances, Fate, Majority)
"Evidence can vary depending on the circumstances, the weather, and how long it has been hanging around."
- Pat Brown
(Related: Circumstances, Weather)
"Under the circumstances, may I suggest another means of encouraging probity in elective office. I refer to term limitations, which can serve ends beyond that of saving congressional souls."
- James L. Buckley
(Related: Encouraging, Circumstances, Limitations, May, Office)
"Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind."
- Edmund Burke
(Related: Circumstances, Effect, Mankind, Reality)
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
- Edmund Burke
(Related: Society, Policy, Being, Circumstances, Departure, Justice, Lies, Suspicion)
"Men seek for vocabularies that are reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality. And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality."
- Kenneth Burke
(Related: Men, Circumstances, End, Reality)
"People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circumstance that Ms. Schiavo is in. I want them to know I will do what I can, but there are limits to what any particular person - irrespective of the title they currently hold - can do."
- Jeb Bush
(Related: Faith, People, Circumstance, Deep, Limits, Want, Will)
"Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances."
- Samuel Butler
(Related: People, Circumstances, Dying)
"Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men."
- Lord Byron
(Related: Men, Circumstances)
"Circumstances don't make a person; they reveal him or her."
- Richard Carlson
(Related: Circumstances)
"The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which my memory can evoke; it will therefore commence when I had attained the age of eight years and four months."
- Giacomo Casanova
(Related: Age, History, Life, Circumstance, Memory, Months, Will, Years)
"In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions."
- Catherine II
(Related: Politics, Circumstances)
"I do not pretend to write much of a letter. You know under what circumstances I am writing."
- Joshua Chamberlain
(Related: Circumstances, Writing)
"However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbours, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account."
- Neville Chamberlain
(Related: War, Circumstances, May, Nation)
"Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances."
- Jackie Chan
(Related: Change, Control, Circumstances)
"I have the happy circumstance of either being accused of political grandstanding on the one hand or cover-ups on the other."
- Ben Chandler
(Related: Being, Circumstance)
"Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances."
- Iris Chang
(Related: People, Circumstances, Evil, Potential)
"These irresponsible acts, which cannot have any justification whatsoever, are to be fully condemned. In these appalling circumstances, I want to offer you the most sincere condolences, both in my name and in that of the French people."
- Jacques Chirac
(Related: People, Circumstances, Justification, Name, Want)
"Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Nature, Character, Circumstances, Habits, Heredity, Race)
"It's never easy with characters in these dark and grave circumstances but that's my job."
- Patricia Clarkson
(Related: Circumstances, Grave, Job)
"Should slavery be abolished there, (and it is an event, which, from these circumstances, we may reasonably expect to be produced in time) let it be remembered, that the Quakers will have had the merit of its abolition."
- Thomas Clarkson
(Related: Circumstances, May, Merit, Quakers, Slavery, Will)
"I thank you for your kind invitation to introduce me to the president of the Republic. Since I have not been out of my atelier for two months, I have no appropriate costume for this circumstance. Please excuse me."
- Camille Claudel
(Related: Circumstance, Months, President)
"To know all about anything is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances."
- William Kingdon Clifford
(Related: Circumstances)
"An atmosphere of beliefs and conceptions has been formed by the labours and struggles of our forefathers, which enables us to breathe amid the various and complex circumstances of our life."
- William Kingdon Clifford
(Related: Life, Beliefs, Circumstances)
"It is not impossible to think that the minds of philosophers sometimes act like those of other mortals, and that, having once been determined by diverse circumstances to adopt certain views, they then look for and naturally find reasons to justify these views."
- Morris Raphael Cohen
(Related: Act, Circumstances)
"Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores."
- Charles Caleb Colton
(Related: Circumstances, Commerce)
"To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness."
- Confucius
(Related: Soul, Virtue, Circumstances, Generosity, Gravity, Kindness, Practice, Sincerity)
"The historian's job is to aggrandize, promoting accident to inevitability and innocuous circumstance to portent."
- Peter Conrad
(Related: Accident, Circumstance, Job)
"We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances."
- Rachel Corrie
(Related: People, Circumstances)
"History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances."
- Donald Creighton
(Related: History, Character, Circumstances)
"The circumstances of human society are too complicated to be submitted to the rigor of mathematical calculation."
- Marquis De Custine
(Related: Society, Circumstances)
"Don't get yourself in certain circumstances or instances, because it's not a good feeling to be sitting in that chair where you've got 12 people that are in control of your life. You have an opportunity to be in control of your life for yourself by the decisions that you make."
- Puff Daddy
(Related: Life, People, Opportunity, Control, Circumstances, Decisions, Feeling)
"You don't underestimate either players or audience in any circumstances."
- Peter Maxwell Davies
(Related: Circumstances)
"Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it."
- Robertson Davies
(Related: People, Circumstances)
"The constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances."
- David Davis
(Related: War, Men, Peace, People, Circumstances, Constitution, Law, Protection, states, United)
"It has pleased and interested me to see how I could get along under difficult circumstances and with so much discomfort but as I say I was not sent out here to improve my temper or my health or to make me more content with my good things in the East."
- Richard H. Davis
(Related: Health, Circumstances, Content, Temper)
"Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Men, Circumstances, Man)
"Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Power, Control, Circumstances)
"Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances."
- Christopher Dodd
(Related: Ability, American, Chance, Circumstances, Effort, Freedom, Gender, Privacy, Race, Will)
"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."
- Hugh Downs
(Related: Circumstances)
"If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry."
- John Drinkwater
(Related: Poetry, Circumstance, Value, Word)
"Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think."
- Lawrence Durrell
(Related: Artists, Circumstances, May, Will)
"Any time you put a cast like this in compromising circumstances or shake it up a little bit, I think we're all pretty close so we draw on real emotion."
- George Eads
(Related: Time, Circumstances, Emotion, Pretty)
"It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us."
- George Eliot
(Related: Circumstance)
"In sum, thought and reflection have been rendered thoroughly pointless by the circumstances in which modern men and women live and act."
- Jacques Ellul
(Related: Men, Women, Thought, Act, Circumstances, Reflection)
"No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Change, Character, Circumstances)
"It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Men, Inspiration, Circumstances, Fact, Passion)
"How does one know if she has forgiven? You tend to feel sorrow over the circumstance instead of rage, you tend to feel sorry for the person rather than angry with him. You tend to have nothing left to say about it all."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
(Related: Circumstance, Nothing, Sorrow)
"The fleet being thus more inclosed will more readily observe the signals, and with greater facility form itself into the line of battle a circumstance which should be kept in view in every order of sailing."
- William Falconer
(Related: Battle, Being, Circumstance, Order, Will)
"I don't think I could ever do a network sitcom because the humor is often based on some trite circumstance. I don't want to be a part of a show where it's mostly about coming up with the jokes."
- Sherilyn Fenn
(Related: Humor, Circumstance, Jokes, Network, Want)
"I didn't want a divorce but had to because of circumstance."
- Sarah Ferguson
(Related: Circumstance, Divorce, Want)
"A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often has no opportunity to exercise judgment."
- Marshall Field
(Related: Opportunity, Control, Circumstances, Exercise, Judgment, Man)
"Great joy, especially after a sudden change of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue."
- Henry Fielding
(Related: Change, Heart, Circumstances, Joy, Tongue)
"I work with the options I have in front of me and my reasons for choosing a job can vary enormously depending on the circumstances. Sometimes I take a job because it's a group of people I'm dying to work with, and sometimes it can be a desire to shake things up a bit and not to take myself too seriously."
- Colin Firth
(Related: Work, People, Circumstances, Desire, Dying, Job, Options)
"I engaged upon those activities because I believed that, in the dangerous circumstances which have been created in South Africa, it was my duty to do so."
- Bram Fischer
(Related: Circumstances, Duty)
"Whether you're winning or losing, it is important to always be yourself. You can't change because of the circumstances around you."
- Cotton Fitzsimmons
(Related: Change, Winning, Circumstances, Losing)
"It was hard enough to drive those heavy old cars back then under normal circumstances, but with a crazed monkey clawing you at the same time, it becomes nearly impossible!"
- Tim Flock
(Related: Time, Circumstances, Old)
"I never blamed Pinochet, or my torturers, or external circumstances."
- Fernando Flores
(Related: Circumstances)
"In a way, the American side descended to Saddam's level, which happens often in these types of circumstances. That is why the people in Iraq do not accept the current state of affairs."
- Dario Fo
(Related: People, American, Circumstances, Iraq, State)
"If all Europe lies flat while the Russian mob tramps over it, we will then be faced with a war under difficult circumstances, and with a very good chance of losing it."
- James Forrestal
(Related: War, Chance, Circumstances, Europe, Lies, Losing, Mob, Will)
"I think there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that we live in a world where people may have free will but have not invented their circumstances."
- Thomas Frank
(Related: People, Circumstances, Free will, May, Potential, World)
"The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances."
- Viktor E. Frankl
(Related: Attitude, Ability, Circumstances)
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
- Viktor E. Frankl
(Related: Attitude, Circumstances, Man, Woman)
"We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information."
- Benjamin Franklin
(Related: People, Circumstances, Heaven, Improvement, Information, Leisure, Man, Respect)
"Horrible things happen, but were they horrible? No, they were just circumstances of the world."
- Brendan Fraser
(Related: Circumstances, World)
"I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible."
- Milton Friedman
(Related: Circumstances, Reason, Taxes)
"When the circumstances are right, everything becomes a dance."
- Lynette Fromme
(Related: Dance, Circumstances, Right)
"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."
- Mohandas Gandhi
(Related: Peace, Circumstances)
"I am I plus my circumstances."
- Jose Ortega y Gasset
(Related: Circumstances)
"They have the ability to take a person's freedom from them. On certain situations, they have the ability to take a person's reputation. And under certain circumstances, they have the authority to take a person's life."
- Daryl Gates
(Related: Life, Ability, Authority, Circumstances, Freedom, Reputation)
"The rich are not born sceptical or cynical. They are made that way by events, circumstances."
- Paul Getty
(Related: Circumstances, Events)
"I am a realist as well as an idealist, and I think that it is incumbent upon those of us in opposition to try to work within what are always arduous circumstances to stretch the limits of the possible."
- Todd Gitlin
(Related: Work, Circumstances, Limits, Opposition)
"Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts."
- Ruth Gordon
(Related: Circumstances, Facts)
"Defendants are being evaluated based on numerical grid without any aggravating circumstances being considered. The effect has been to transfer the disparity from the judge to the prosecutor allowing for a great deal of leeway on indictments."
- Harold H. Greene
(Related: Being, Circumstances, Effect)
"An understanding is perhaps better than an alliance, which may stereotype arrangements which cannot be regarded as permanent in view of the changing circumstances from day to day."
- Edward Grey
(Related: Alliance, Circumstances, Day, May, Understanding)
"I came from poverty and was part of those circumstances."
- Pam Grier
(Related: Circumstances, Poverty)
"We live in an increasingly sophisticated world that makes it difficult to make simple comments on stuff. There are too many people on both sides of the border who are taking advantage of circumstances and the situation."
- Arlo Guthrie
(Related: People, Circumstances, World)
"You have a right to your opinion about the work that you're doing. An artist is as equally important as the director. If you believe that, you can work in any circumstances."
- Maggie Gyllenhaal
(Related: Work, Artist, Circumstances, Opinion, Right)
"I'm a victim of maybe circumstances, but look at how it worked out."
- Jessica Hahn
(Related: Circumstances)
"In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated."
- Margaret Halsey
(Related: Circumstances)
"There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with."
- William Halsey
(Related: Men, Circumstances)
"It will be quite satisfactory if you open them gradually, as the circumstances may require; but the President assures you that this will not be the case if you make a treaty with England first."
- Townsend Harris
(Related: Circumstances, EnglFirst, May, Open, President, Will)
"I love to sing and I do think that my strength as a singer is... I think I have a voice that is certainly sufficient under most any circumstances... but I think my strength is that I really am an actor and I really do have to own what I am saying."
- Gregory Harrison
(Related: Love, Strength, Actor, Circumstances, Saying, Voice)
"The next day I was put on paid leave from my new job at Louisiana State University. This is very painful to me, though once again I understand the circumstances in which my employers find themselves in light of these actions taken against me."
- Steven Hatfill
(Related: Actions, Circumstances, Day, Job, Light, State, University)
"We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love."
- William Hazlitt
(Related: Friend, Circumstance, Excellence, Self)
"As a result, the highly civilized man can endure incomparably more than the savage, whether of moral or physical strain. Being better able to control himself under all circumstances, he has a great advantage over the savage."
- Lafcadio Hearn
(Related: Control, Being, Circumstances, Man, Result)
"I have to keep reminding myself: If you give your life to God, he doesn't promise you happiness and that everything will go well. But he does promise you peace. You can have peace and joy, even in bad circumstances."
- Patricia Heaton
(Related: Happiness, Life, Peace, God, Circumstances, Joy, Promise, Will)
"In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud: Under the bludgeoning of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed."
- William Ernest Henley
(Related: Chance, Circumstance)
"Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate."
- Herodotus
(Related: Men, Circumstances)
"Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances."
- Herodotus
(Related: Men, Circumstances)
"Circumstances cause us to act the way we do. We should always bear this in mind before judging the actions of others. I realized this from the start during World War II."
- Thor Heyerdahl
(Related: War, Act, Actions, Cause, Circumstances, Mind, World, World war)
"If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be."
- John Heywood
(Related: Experience, Circumstances, Force, May, Will)
"Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together."
- Napoleon Hill
(Related: Circumstances, Responsibility)
"As Plotinus tells us, we elected the body, the parents, the place, and the circumstances that suited the soul and that, as the myth says, belongs to its necessity."
- James Hillman
(Related: Soul, Body, Circumstances, Myth, Necessity, Parents)
"The circumstances, including my body and my parents, whom I may curse, are my soul's own choice and I do not understand this because I have forgotten."
- James Hillman
(Related: Soul, Body, Choice, Circumstances, May, Parents)
"Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you."
- Augustine of Hippo
(Related: Time, Accidents, Attention, Circumstances, Connection)
"We had such a wonderful set of circumstances in Wilmington. Yes, the four of us became famous literally overnight, but we were in a small town and we always knew when people were coming down. We always knew when to behave."
- Katie Holmes
(Related: People, Circumstances, Famous)
"A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
(Related: Time, Thought, Circumstances, Content, Living, May, Skin, Word)
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant."
- Horace
(Related: Adversity, Circumstances, Effect)
"Under the ominous shadow which the second World War and its attendant circumstances have cast on the world, peace has become as essential to civilized existence as the air we breathe is to life itself."
- Cordell Hull
(Related: Life, Peace, War, Circumstances, Existence, Shadow, World, World war)
"He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he Is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance."
- David Hume
(Related: Circumstance, Circumstances, Temper)
"Again and again, to be sure, on the way to America, and under many other circumstances, man has passed through the most adverse climates and has survived, but he has flourished and waxed strong only in certain zones."
- Ellsworth Huntington
(Related: America, Circumstances, Man)
"There cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families."
- Helen Hunt Jackson
(Related: Blind, Circumstance, Connection, Majority)
"The message here is you cannot, under any circumstances, throw an object at an official. You just cannot do it."
- Stu Jackson
(Related: Circumstances)
"Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
- Henry James
(Related: Life, Ceremony, Circumstances, Tea)
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own."
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Change, Values, Circumstances, Conscience, Liberty, Man, May)
"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Circumstances, Nothing)
"Ultimately, your state of mind determines your circumstances. To realize the outcomes you want, it is critical to recognize and experience the transition from our present thoughts, habits, and actions to new thoughts, habits, and actions."
- Darren L. Johnson
(Related: Experience, Thoughts, Actions, Circumstances, Habits, Mind, Present, State, Want)
"We are all victims because of the circumstances, but I'm not sure what to say to any one who has lost a loved one. I know the feeling myself, and words just don't do much to ease the pain."
- Lonnie Earl Johnson
(Related: Circumstances, Feeling, Pain, Victims, Words)
"Unavoidable circumstances prevent me from giving you ample written instructions. Such however as may be deemed necessary will be prepared and sent to you at the City of Washington in a very few days."
- Anson Jones
(Related: Circumstances, Giving, May, Washington, Will)
"To lose a son under those circumstances - a violent death like my son went through, it just puts a burden on your heart."
- Brian Jones
(Related: Death, Son, Heart, Burden, Circumstances)
"We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future."
- Barbara Jordan
(Related: Change, Circumstances, Future, Innovation, Order, Party, Traditions)
"The circumstance is the incredible part, but I always knew in my heart that something was going to be out there, just for the world to notice me. It sounds so cocky, but it's happening."
- Kato Kaelin
(Related: Heart, Circumstance, World)
"They're not put on earth to be martyrs; they have to want to come out. It depends on your culture, where you work, where you live. Each person's circumstances are unique."
- Billie Jean King
(Related: Work, Circumstances, Culture, Earth, Martyrs, Want)
"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Related: Cause, Circumstances, Injustice, Philanthropy)
"Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth."
- Sally Kirkland
(Related: Truth, Care, Circumstances)
"Men like me, who merely wish to establish political freedom, will in such circumstances lose all their influence, and others will get influence who may become dangerous to all established interests whatsoever."
- Lajos Kossuth
(Related: Men, Circumstances, Freedom, Influence, May, Will)
"In my opinion, the form of Government may be different in different countries, according to their circumstances, their wishes, their wants. England loves her Queen, and has full motive to do so."
- Lajos Kossuth
(Related: Government, Circumstances, Countries, England, May, Motive, Opinion, Queen, Wishes)
"Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. The first is the ticking time bomb. An innocent's life is at stake. The bad guy you have captured possesses information that could save this life. He refuses to divulge. In such a case, the choice is easy."
- Charles Krauthammer
(Related: Life, Time, Choice, Circumstances, Evil, First, Information)
"Human nerves quickly get accustomed to the most unusual conditions and circumstances and I noticed that quite a number of men actually fell asleep from sheer exhaustion in the trenches, in spite of the roaring of the cannon about us and the whizzing of shrapnel over our heads."
- Fritz Kreisler
(Related: Men, Circumstances, Exhaustion, Nerves)
"I think that every so-called history book and film biography should be prefaced by the statement that what follows is the author's rendition of events and circumstances."
- Barbara Kruger
(Related: History, Biography, Circumstances, Events, Film)
"Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with."
- Steve Lacy
(Related: Work, People, Circumstances, Right)
"The free trade movement in the middle of the last century represents the first conscious recognition of these new circumstances and of the necessity to adapt to them."
- Christian Lous Lange
(Related: Circumstances, First, Necessity, Trade)
"In the event of a victory over Germany by Soviet Russia and England, Bolshevism in Europe would inevitably follow. Under these circumstances I would prefer to see Germany win the war."
- Pierre Laval
(Related: War, Victory, Circumstances, EnglEurope, Germany, Russia)
"Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances. For years we lived anyhow with one another in the naked desert, under the indifferent heaven."
- T. E. Lawrence
(Related: Circumstances, Evil, Heaven, May, Years)
"For fossils to thrive, certain favorable circumstances are required. First of all, of course, remnants of life have to be there. These then need to be washed over with water as soon as possible, so that the bones are covered with a layer of sediment."
- Richard Leakey
(Related: Life, Circumstances, First, Water)
"What we actually learn, from any given set of circumstances, determines whether we become increasingly powerless or more powerful."
- Blaine Lee
(Related: Circumstances)
"To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities."
- Bruce Lee
(Related: Circumstances, Hell)
"The first thing I do when I read a part is see if I can identify emotionally with a character. If I make that connection, everything else is just working on knowing their life circumstances and manifesting those through practice and research."
- Joshua Leonard
(Related: Life, Character, Circumstances, Connection, First, Practice, Research)
"Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity."
- Georg C. Lichtenberg
(Related: Talent, Performance, Circumstances, Deeds, Spirit, Stupidity)
"When it was my turn, I just skated out and heard this huge cheer. It was very touching considering the bad circumstances under which I had left the team and that I had been away for four years."
- Ted Lindsay
(Related: Circumstances, Years)
"Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary."
- Mario Vargas Llosa
(Related: Life, Lie, Dream, Circumstances, Illusion, Literary)
"I'm interested in why people compromise when they shouldn't. It comes back to what V's about in a sense. We've all got ideals, but given the right circumstances, we'll forget about them and put them behind us. I'm very interested in why people do that."
- David Lloyd
(Related: People, Circumstances, Compromise, Forget, Ideals, Right, Sense)
"In order to figure out how to make atoms compute, you have to learn how to speak their language and to understand how they process information under normal circumstances."
- Seth Lloyd
(Related: Atoms, Circumstances, Information, Language, Order)
"Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise."
- Samuel Lover
(Related: Circumstances)
"I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures."
- Rob Lowe
(Related: Men, Circumstances, Events, Force, Tradition)
"Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Example)
"Circumstances made me the theatrical personality I am, which many people believe is also a part of my personal life."
- Bela Lugosi
(Related: Life, People, Circumstances, Personality)
"Planets are too dim to be detected with existing equipment, far away, except in these very special circumstances where they're seen by their gravitational effect."
- Murray Gell Mann
(Related: Circumstances, Effect)
"Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances."
- Orison Swett Marden
(Related: Success, Achievement, Failure, Circumstances, Effort)
"So often we try to alter circumstances to suit ourselves, instead of letting them alter us, which is what they are meant to do."
- Mother Maribel
(Related: Circumstances)
"Our Lord did not try to alter circumstances. He submitted to them. They shaped his life and eventually brought him to Calvary. I believe we miss opportunities and lovely secrets our Lord is waiting to teach us by not taking what comes."
- Mother Maribel
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Secrets, Waiting)
"It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves."
- Karl Marx
(Related: Change, Nature, Circumstances, Laws)
"Until fighting ends and there are conditions, which allow the free expression of will by the people, there can be no elections and elections are not held in these circumstances anywhere in the world."
- Aslan Maskhadov
(Related: People, Circumstances, Elections, Expression, Fighting, Will, World)
"We are responsible for actions performed in response to circumstances for which we are not responsible."
- Allan Massie
(Related: Actions, Circumstances)
"At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood."
- Joyce Maynard
(Related: Home, Circumstances, Woman, World)
"While goals are chosen, a purpose is discovered. Our purpose is something we have been doing all along, and will continue to do, regardless of circumstances, until the day we die."
- Peter McWilliams
(Related: Goals, Purpose, Circumstances, Day, Will)
"A pregnant woman facing the most dire circumstances must be able to count on her doctor to do what is medically necessary to protect her from serious physical harm."
- Barbara Mikulski
(Related: Circumstances, Harm, Woman)
"A child too, can never grasp the fact that the same mother who cooks so well, is so concerned about his cough, and helps so kindly with his homework, in some circumstance has no more feeling than a wall of his hidden inner world."
- Alice Duer Miller
(Related: Mother, Circumstance, Fact, Feeling, World)
"The concept of romantic love affords a means of emotional manipulation which the male is free to exploit, since love is the only circumstance in which the female is (ideologically) pardoned for sexual activity."
- Kate Millett
(Related: Love, Circumstance, Manipulation, Romantic)
"Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two cultures and their life experiences are utterly different."
- Kate Millett
(Related: Life, Circumstances)
"We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic."
- Mary Wortley Montagu
(Related: Circumstances, Nothing, Romantic)
"Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Success, Circumstances, Majority, Succeed)
"Historical methodology, as I see it, is a product of common sense applied to circumstances."
- Samuel E. Morison
(Related: Circumstances, Common sense)
"And I am also here to say that if something were to happen, we are prepared to respond swiftly, to respond effectively, and to respond strongly. That is our tradition as a country. And that is a tradition that we will uphold, regardless of any circumstance because this nation is one that is very, very strong and, indeed, extraordinarily resilient."
- Janet Napolitano
(Related: Circumstance, Country, Nation, Tradition, Will)
"I would finally renounce my delusional hypotheses and revert to thinking of myself as a human of more conventional circumstances and return to mathematical research."
- John Forbes Nash, Jr.
(Related: Circumstances, Research, Thinking)
"However, they did not treat the reasons that led to this condition. I believe that the conditions in the Palestinian territories are alway capable of explosion because the same circumstances are there."
- Hassan Nasrallah
(Related: Circumstances)
"You are an extremely valuable, worthwhile, significant person even though your present circumstances may have you feeling otherwise."
- James Newman
(Related: Circumstances, Feeling, May, Present)
"Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
(Related: God, Church, Circumstances, Grave, Want)
"We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within."
- Earl Nightingale
(Related: Circumstances)
"In the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again."
- Melita Norwood
(Related: Circumstances)
"I'm like a decathlete who does all of the events he's used to, but is being forced by certain circumstances to focus on three events, and being forced to focus on events that he wasn't that interested in, and also weren't his strongest events."
- Michael Nyman
(Related: Being, Circumstances, Events, Focus)
"In specific circumstances the period of aging decline can set in earlier in a particular organ than in the organism as a whole which, in a certain general or theoretical sense, is left a cripple or invalid."
- Wilhelm Ostwald
(Related: Circumstances, Sense)
"We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure."
- Peter O'Toole
(Related: Adventure, Beginning, Circumstances, Day, First)
"Man is the creature of circumstances."
- Robert Owen
(Related: Circumstances, Man)
"Instead of focusing on that circumstances that you cannot change - focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can."
- Joy Page
(Related: Change, Circumstances, Focus)
"You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself."
- Joy Page
(Related: Change, Experience, Life, Circumstances, May)
"War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes."
- Thomas Paine
(Related: War, Wisdom, Progress, Circumstances, End, Taxes)
"Libertarians typically argue that particular obligations, at least under normal circumstances, must be created by consent; they cannot be unilaterally imposed by others."
- Tom G. Palmer
(Related: Circumstances)
"Libertarians argue that no normal adult has the right to impose choices on other normal adults, except in abnormal circumstances, such as when one person finds another unconscious and administers medical assistance or calls an ambulance."
- Tom G. Palmer
(Related: Medical, Choices, Circumstances, Right, Unconscious)
"Every man should have laws of his own, I should think; commandments of his own, for every man has a different set of circumstances wherein to work - or worry."
- Gilbert Parker
(Related: Work, Circumstances, Laws, Man, Worry)
"In so far as such a theory is empirically correct it will also tell us what empirical facts it should be possible to observe in a given set of circumstances."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Circumstances, Facts, Theory, Will)
"Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations."
- Jean Paul
(Related: Action, Circumstances)
"Living is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances."
- Cesare Pavese
(Related: Mistake, Circumstances, First, Living, Right, Will)
"A man's character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer."
- Hesketh Pearson
(Related: Age, Character, Circumstances, Man, Obvious, Old, Youth)
"As a civilian during the Second War, I was exposed to danger in circumstances which removed any distinction between the man in and the man out of uniform."
- Lester B. Pearson
(Related: War, Circumstances, Danger, Man)
"So I think in those circumstances, there's some potential that you could see a big pendulum swing like 1994, which people you thought weren't vulnerable all of the sudden get in trouble."
- John Podesta
(Related: Thought, People, Circumstances, Potential, Trouble)
"I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people."
- Sidney Poitier
(Related: People, Circumstance)
"Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom, and nature."
- Marcus V. Pollio
(Related: Nature, Work, Consistency, Circumstance, Custom, Detail)
"Well, right now, I'm very fascinated with 1920s Berlin. I mean, probably the more interesting thing would be to go to the beginning of civilization or precivilization - like polytheistic times. It would be interesting to see what came before modern religion and culture - what circumstances created the environment or the need for it."
- Natalie Portman
(Related: Religion, Civilization, Beginning, Circumstances, Culture, Environment, Now, Right)
"People think that because a novel's invented, it isn't true. Exactly the reverse is the case. Biography and memoirs can never be wholly true, since they cannot include every conceivable circumstance of what happened. The novel can do that."
- Anthony Powell
(Related: People, Biography, Circumstance)
"There is little correlation between the circumstances of people's lives and how happy they are."
- Dennis Prager
(Related: People, Circumstances)
"In plain words: now that Britain has told the world that she has the H-Bomb she should announce as early as possible that she has done with it, that she proposes to reject in all circumstances nuclear warfare."
- J. B. Priestley
(Related: Circumstances, Now, World)
"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."
- Nido Qubein
(Related: Circumstances, Present)
"Many a time a man cannot be such as he would be, if circumstances do not admit of it."
- Jean Racine
(Related: Time, Circumstances, Man)
"Meanwhile, our young men and women whose economic circumstances make military service a viable career choice are dying bravely in a war with no end in sight."
- Charles Rangel
(Related: Men, War, Women, Career, Choice, Circumstances, Dying, End, Military, Service, Sight)
"One of the misperceptions that exists in the Muslim world, which needs to be fixed, is the perception that Muslims in America are - are - are living in - in very, very, very bad circumstances. They cannot practice religion freely. It is not the truth at all. The fact is, we are practicing. We fast, we pray, we do our prayers."
- Feisal Abdul Rauf
(Related: Religion, Truth, Perception, Muslim, America, Circumstances, Fact, Living, Needs, Practice, World)
"Gentlemen can now only behave as such, or be tolerated as such, in circumstances that are manifestly contrived or unreal."
- Simon Raven
(Related: Circumstances, Gentlemen, Now)
"Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations."
- Sam Rayburn
(Related: Action, Circumstances)
"It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always have the same effect in the same circumstances."
- Thomas Reid
(Related: Nature, Circumstances, Effect, Fact, Influence, Laws, Motives, Question)
"Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations."
- Charles Richter
(Related: Circumstance)
"I am clearly vulnerable on the question of socializing under circumstances not appropriate for a married man."
- Chuck Robb
(Related: Circumstances, Man, Question)
"McCain I'd vote against under any circumstance."
- Pat Robertson
(Related: Circumstance, Vote)
"What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance."
- Theodore Roethke
(Related: Soul, Circumstance, Madness, Nobility)
"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of."
- Jim Rohn
(Related: Change, Circumstances, Responsibility, Seasons, Wind)
"In the course of the reform, some new circumstances that we had not anticipated have appeared."
- Zhu Rongji
(Related: Circumstances, Reform)
"Claims of right and insistence upon obligations may depend upon treaty stipulations, or upon the rules of international law, or upon the sense of natural justice applied to the circumstances of a particular case, or upon disputed facts."
- Elihu Root
(Related: Circumstances, Facts, Justice, Law, May, Right, Rules, Sense)
"You mustn't forget the circumstances I have been brought up in, the little education I have had."
- Isaac Rosenberg
(Related: Education, Circumstances, Forget)
"Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret."
- Miguel Angel Ruiz
(Related: Change, Circumstance, Regret, Self, Will)
"If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give."
- Bertrand Russell
(Related: Happiness, Life, Circumstances)
"The Italian prose tale had begun to exercise that influence as early as Chaucer's time: but circumstances and atmosphere were as yet unfavourable for its growth."
- George Saintsbury
(Related: Growth, Circumstances, Exercise, Influence, Prose)
"If all the circumstances of acting are made to easy, then there's no grain of sand to make the pearl."
- Peter Sarsgaard
(Related: Acting, Circumstances)
"Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry."
- Jean-Paul Sartre
(Related: Age, History, Poetry, Circumstances, Class, Nation, Race)
"At that time we were very definitely told that under no circumstances should there be any secret chapters or any other secrecy in the life of the Party, but that everything should be done publicly."
- Fritz Sauckel
(Related: Life, Time, Circumstances, Party, Secrecy)
"The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances."
- C. P. Scott
(Related: Circumstances)
"When I'm playing a character like Jonathan in Ripley's Game I want to be in the moment when he's feeling pain; this very ordinary person who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances."
- Dougray Scott
(Related: Character, Circumstances, Feeling, Pain, Want)
"Under no circumstances would it be right for me to go with MGM. Irene shares my opinion."
- David O. Selznick
(Related: Circumstances, Opinion, Right)
"The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Adversity, Circumstances, Man, Mind, Pressure)
"On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit."
- Ayrton Senna
(Related: Circumstance, Day)
"Tear man out of his outward circumstances; and what he then is; that only is he."
- Johann G. Seume
(Related: Circumstances, Man)
"We have to mainstream everybody. No matter what their circumstances when they were growing up. Part of that is knowing that after they're finished with school, everybody in this country gets up and goes to work."
- Donna Shalala
(Related: Work, Circumstances, Country, Growing up, School)
"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them."
- George Bernard Shaw
(Related: People, Circumstances, Want, World)
"I feel very confident that Americans flying in the air are safe and that only under the most dire of circumstances would our pilots ever even request permission to do that."
- Hugh Shelton
(Related: Americans, Circumstances, Flying)
"I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself."
- Charles Simeon
(Related: God, Thought, Circumstance, Reason)
"They tend to be pretty abstract ones then, like doing what will have the best consequences; obviously you wouldn't specify what consequences are best, they may be different in some circumstances, so at a lower, more specific level, you may well get differences."
- Peter Singer
(Related: Circumstances, Consequences, May, Pretty, Will)
"A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying."
- B. F. Skinner
(Related: Mistake, Failure, Circumstances, May, Trying)
"As a teenager I had no idea that I had the potential to win an Olympic gold medal and my athletic career developed only by lucky circumstances."
- Peter Snell
(Related: Idea, Career, Circumstances, Gold, Potential)
"Optimism is not inherently a superior way of viewing the world. Certainly doctors will say it might be better for one's physical health to be an optimist. But, morally speaking it may not be appropriate in certain circumstances."
- Todd Solondz
(Related: Health, Optimism, Circumstances, Doctors, May, Will, World)
"But one day, when I was still young, I was parted from my family and left my native country. I hunted and searched for music, and destiny turned me into the object of my hunt. The circumstances of life became my 'antlers' and prevented me from returning home."
- Georg Solti
(Related: Family, Home, Life, Music, Circumstances, Country, Day, Destiny)
"I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters."
- Mira Sorvino
(Related: People, Hope, Circumstances, Variety)
"Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich."
- Sonia Sotomayor
(Related: Life, Circumstances)
"I don't know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change."
- Nicholas Sparks
(Related: Change, Love, People, Circumstances)
"We, too, must change as circumstances evolve."
- Baldwin Spencer
(Related: Change, Circumstances)
"We have learnt through experience that when an electrical ray strikes the surface of an atom, an electron, and in some circumstances a second and even a third electron, can be detached."
- Johannes Stark
(Related: Experience, Circumstances)
"Obviously dunking on Horace Grant and Michael, in those circumstances, is just an incredible thing to happen. I'm happy I was able to make that play, and I'm fortunate I was in that position where I could make that happen for my team."
- John Starks
(Related: Circumstances, Play)
"We were trained to live by our wits, in any circumstance."
- William Stephenson
(Related: Circumstance)
"Privacy under what circumstance? Privacy at home under what circumstances? You have more privacy if everyone's illiterate, but you wouldn't really call that privacy. That's ignorance."
- Bruce Sterling
(Related: Home, Circumstance, Circumstances, Ignorance, Privacy)
"To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man - and also a nation."
- Adlai E. Stevenson
(Related: Act, Circumstances, Man, Nation)
"There has been a huge advance in technology, which has improved the safety of the cars incredibly, but there are still some heavy crash impacts and in certain circumstances there is still the chance of fire today."
- Jackie Stewart
(Related: Technology, Chance, Circumstances, Fire, Safety, Today)
"He's a novice, but he's had these - he's experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started - he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam."
- James Stockdale
(Related: Leadership, Circumstances, First, Vietnam)
"Everyone confesses that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us; but most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
(Related: People, Body, Circumstances, Mind)
"At the first general meeting of this Corporation in 1820, his Lordship presided; a circumstance, which may well be considered an era in the history of the Church of Upper Canada."
- John Strachan
(Related: History, Church, Canada, Circumstance, First, May, Meeting)
"When the satisfaction or the security of another person becomes as significant to one as one's own satisfaction or security, then the state of love exists. Under no other circumstances is a state of love present, regardless of the popular usage of the term."
- Harry Stack Sullivan
(Related: Love, Circumstances, Popular, Present, Satisfaction, Security, State)
"Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill."
- Charles R. Swindoll
(Related: Education, Money, People, Attitude, Appearance, Circumstances, Past, Skill)
"In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you."
- Amy Tan
(Related: America, Circumstances)
"Every people have gods to suit their circumstances."
- Henry David Thoreau
(Related: People, Gods, Circumstances)
"The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure, the symptom of welfare."
- Edward Thorndike
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Intellect, May, Pleasure, Welfare)
"Despite Japan's desires and efforts, unfortunate differences in the ways that Japan, England, the United States, and China understood circumstances, together with misunderstandings of attitudes, made it impossible for the parties to agree."
- Hideki Tojo
(Related: Circumstances, England, states, United)
"In dealing with the China problem, the British and American side, which had particularly strong interests in China, should have based its judgments about the origins of the problem on direct observation of the actual circumstances at the time."
- Hideki Tojo
(Related: Time, American, Circumstances, Observation)
"I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil."
- Arnold J. Toynbee
(Related: Advertising, Circumstances, Evil)
"I met Jesse Owens once. He was a remarkable individual, and I have tremendous respect for what he did in the Olympics under the circumstances."
- Lee Trevino
(Related: Circumstances, Remarkable, Respect)
"Circumstances give in reality to every political principle, its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind."
- David Trimble
(Related: Circumstances, Effect, Mankind, Reality)
"There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances."
- Leon Trotsky
(Related: Peace, War, Circumstances, Rules)
"Dwell upon the brightest parts in every prospect... and strive to be pleased with the present circumstances."
- Abraham Tucker
(Related: Circumstances, Present)
"If thou art master to thyself, circumstances shall harm thee little."
- Martin Farquhar Tupper
(Related: Art, Circumstances, Harm)
"Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it."
- Ivan Turgenev
(Related: Circumstances, Force, Road)
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
- Mark Twain
(Related: Circumstances, Prayer, Profanity)
"Manuel Rosales is being unjustly persecuted. He won't return to Venezuela under these circumstances, because Peru will never expel him."
- Javier Valle-Riestra
(Related: Being, Circumstances, Will)
"We are doing everything we can to protect the food supply. And I can tell you that we're making decisions based upon sound science and good public policy, given the circumstances that we are now in."
- Ann Veneman
(Related: Food, Science, Policy, Circumstances, Decisions, Now, Public, Public policy, Sound)
"We had a single find of BSE in this country. And we believe that what we're doing is appropriate action taken in an abundance of caution under the circumstances. And I believe it's the right thing to do."
- Ann Veneman
(Related: Action, Abundance, Caution, Circumstances, Country, Right)
"Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances."
- Virgil
(Related: Circumstances)
"Indiscriminate attacks on civilians ought, under all circumstances, to be illegal in war as in peacetime."
- Gijs de Vries
(Related: War, Circumstances)
"Through the harsh design of fate, Florida was dealt the unfortunate circumstances of bearing the brunt of not one but two hurricanes, and it appears more dark clouds are poised to visit the Sunshine State."
- Ginny B. Waite
(Related: Design, Circumstances, Clouds, Fate, State, Visit)
"The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power."
- Henry A. Wallace
(Related: Power, Circumstances, Desire, Environment, Gain, Order, Play, Prejudice, Thinking)
"How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians."
- Horace Walpole
(Related: Circumstances, Historians, Shakespeare)
"It has from the beginning been carried on with as much vigor and as great care of our trade as was consistent with our safety at home and with the circumstances we were in at the beginning of the war."
- Robert Walpole
(Related: Home, War, Beginning, Care, Circumstances, Safety, Trade)
"The secret of happiness is the determination to be happy always, rather than wait for outer circumstances to make one happy."
- J. Donald Walters
(Related: Happiness, Determination, Circumstances)
"Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances."
- J. Donald Walters
(Related: Happiness, Attitude, Determination, Circumstances, Mind)
"Technology has saved us money in some circumstances, but it has really afforded us the ability to cover stories from locations we might not have been able to in the past."
- Jim Walton
(Related: Money, Technology, Ability, Circumstances, Past)
"If we were in a similar circumstance in the future I would want to make sure that our reporting was at least as diverse as it was during this most recent war."
- Jim Walton
(Related: War, Circumstance, Future, Want)
"Character, not circumstances, makes the man."
- Booker T. Washington
(Related: Character, Circumstances, Man)
"I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances."
- Martha Washington
(Related: Experience, Happiness, Circumstances, Misery)
"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances."
- Martha Washington
(Related: Happiness, Circumstances, Misery)
"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."
- Martha Washington
(Related: Circumstance, May, Misery, Unhappiness)
"Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time."
- Thomas J. Watson
(Related: Time, People, Circumstances)
"Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your profession."
- Isaac Watts
(Related: Time, Circumstances, Profession)
"Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable."
- Daniel Webster
(Related: Circumstances, Opinion)
"I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances."
- Simone Weil
(Related: Circumstances, Play)
"Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish."
- Adam Weishaupt
(Related: Purpose, Circumstance, Constitution, Superstition, Tyranny, Will)
"A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail."
- Paul Wellstone
(Related: Politics, People, Circumstances)
"I'm always watching people over a short time frame, putting them in an extreme position. Sometimes you don't see the humanity in a person because the time frame is so short and the circumstance so extreme."
- Irvine Welsh
(Related: Time, People, Circumstance, Extreme, Humanity)
"Whatever life we have experienced, if we can tell our story to someone who listens, we find it easier to deal with our circumstances."
- Margaret J. Wheatley
(Related: Life, Circumstances)
"The nature of the task needs to be renewed so people just don't feel that all the hard work is in the same groove all the time, under the same circumstances and in the same environment."
- Timothy White
(Related: Nature, Work, Time, People, Circumstances, Environment, Hard work, Needs)
"Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude."
- Alfred North Whitehead
(Related: Life, Purpose, Circumstances, Infinite, Possibilities)
"Let everyone regulate his conduct... by the golden rule of doing to others as in similar circumstances we would have them do to us, and the path of duty will be clear before him."
- William Wilberforce
(Related: Circumstances, Duty, Will)
"Darwin based his theory on generalizations that were strictly empirical. You can go out and see that organisms do vary, that variations are inherited, and that every organism is capable of increasing its numbers in sufficiently favorable circumstances."
- George C. Williams
(Related: Circumstances, Numbers, Theory)
"The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago."
- E. O. Wilson
(Related: Circumstance, Interest, Plants, Rain, Years)
"I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both of my parents were very sorry."
- Norman Wisdom
(Related: Circumstances, Parents)
"I was born in very sorry circumstances."
- Norman Wisdom
(Related: Circumstances)
"People care and are willing to help me out my desperate circumstances."
- Sam Worthington
(Related: People, Care, Circumstances, Help)
"Youth is a quality, not a matter of circumstances."
- Frank Lloyd Wright
(Related: Quality, Circumstances, Youth)
"Fortunately any of the songs we've recorded can be extremely fulfilling to perform depending on the variety of circumstances that surround any given show."
- Dwight Yoakam
(Related: Circumstances, Songs, Variety)
"You learnt that, whatever you are doing in life, obstacles don't matter very much. Pain or other circumstances can be there, but if you want to do a job bad enough, you'll find a way to get it done."
- Jack Youngblood
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Job, Obstacles, Pain, Want)
"I had no idea that I would ever get involved with something like lending money to poor people, given the circumstances in which I was working in Bangladesh."
- Muhammad Yunus
(Related: Money, People, Idea, Circumstances, Poor)
"Had we really succeeded therefore in altering the period of vibration, which Maxwell, as I have just noted, held to be impossible? Or was there some disturbing circumstances from one or more factors which distorted the result?"
- Pieter Zeeman
(Related: Circumstances, Result)
"There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other. As a filmmaker, I want to entertain people first and foremost. If out of that comes a greater awareness and understanding of a time or a circumstance, then the hope is that change can happen."
- Edward Zwick
(Related: Change, Time, People, Hope, Awareness, Circumstance, Fact, First, Reason, Understanding, Want)
"There is something universal in the theme of a man trying to save his family in the midst of the most terrible circumstances. It is not limited to Sierra Leone. This story could apply to any number of places where ordinary people have been caught up in political events beyond their control."
- Edward Zwick
(Related: Family, People, Control, Circumstances, Events, Man, Trying)