Mean Quotes - Page 253

According to a Pew poll, 49% of young Americans have a favorable view of socialism. What is socialism? it is a system that leads to mass misery, mass impoverishment, and human slaughter. That's what it means. Yet almost half of the young think it's benign.

Most artists work all the time, they do actually, especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to do? I mean you do.

It makes little sense to spend a month teaching decimal fractions to fourth-grade pupils when they can be taught in a week, and better understood and retained, by sixth-grade students. Child-centeredness does not mean lack of rigor or standards; it does mean finding the best match between curricula and children's developing interests and abilities.

When a Jew, in America or in South Africa, talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the government of Israel.

Courage is willingness to take the risk once you know the odds. Optimistic overconfidence means you are taking the risk because you don't know the odds. It's a big difference.

If you remain unsettled by a piece of writing, it means you are not watching the story from the outside; you've already taken a step toward it.

Music means different things to different people and sometimes even different things to the same person at different moments of his life.

I mean, people listen to music, and they like that, but I think in England, a lot of people don't like contemporary art.

I'm now nearly 79. At 16 I took responsibility for Tibet and lost my freedom. At 24 I lost my country and became a refugee. I've met difficulties, but as the saying goes: 'Wherever you're happy, you can call home, and whoever is kind to you is like your parents.' I've been happy and at home in the world at large. Living a meaningful life isn't just a matter of money; it's about dedicating your life to helping others.

Oh the innocent girl in her maiden teens knows perfectly well what everything means.

I never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel. I mean, they're in a barrel, you've already caught them. The hard work's done, they can't escape. So if you want them dead, just drain the water out. Why bring guns into it?

HD doesn't mean anything to me. It's a technical thing. It's like demographics. A lot of people know about it.

A guy can tell a girl he's in love with her until he's blue in the face. Words don't mean anything to a woman when her head's full of doubt. You have to show her.

I think, as human beings, we at times overvalue the intellect and we undermine the body. I don't mean a body externally and the shape of a body. I mean the intelligence of a body, the memories that a body can store, how a body feels emotion, and how a body processes emotion.

I think that you've got to be prepared to write a load of nonsense to start with and then you can tart it up. The business of getting going, getting started, is enormously important, and this can be physical. Solvitur Ambulando as the Romans used to say, which means the solution comes through walking.

We have no other means of recognising a work of art than our feeling for it.

If old age means a crown of thorns, the trick is to wear it jauntily.

So it seems that because of every syndrome and disorder we've invented in the past twenty years, the Los Angeles Times reported that 63% of American families are now considered dysfunctional. My God! That means we're the majority. We're normal! It's the people who have the mommy, the daddy, the brother, the sister, the little white picket fence - those people are the freaks, man!

Human imagination is not simply our means of reaching out to God but God's means of manifesting himself to us.

How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, "This guy is dangerous?" That's not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?

If your wife went out with Brad Pitt, you'd want to prove yourself, you know what I mean?

Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.

Elegance means appreciating things as they are. There is a sense of delight and of fearlessness. You are not fearful of dark corners.

Very beautiful situations have developed using chaos as part of the enlightened approach. There is chaos of all kinds developing all the time... If you are trying to stop those situations, you are looking for external means of liberating yourself, another answer. But if we are able to look into the basic situation, then chaos is the inspiration, confusion is the inspiration.

I think we left out one of the really important elements contributing to the dynamism of society, and that is the right to privacy. I mean something more than the right to shave in private. I mean the right to join what I want to join, to do what I want to do, or not to do what I might do without giving anyone a reason, either in advance or afterwards. That does not mean that I am seeking for irresponsibility socially.