Circumstances Quotes - page 53

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)
It is we ourselves who alone shall shape our destinies, rising always above the external circumstances and conditions which from time to time shall be thrown across our paths. View quote
Émile Coué
Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. View quote
Anne Lamott
According to Confucianism, the ideal life contains a large dose of respect for traditional ways. All these ideals can be fleshed out and painted in more or less attractive colours. Yet there is something uncomfortable about them, if only because there is little reason to suppose that there is any such thing as the ideal life. Since different people have different tastes and interests, and different cultures encourage different concerns, it seems unlikely that any 'ideal life' will be heavily contextualized: ideal for this person in these circumstances, perhaps, but not much more. View quote
Simon Blackburn
If you wait until circumstances justify your thinking pleasant thoughts, you are likely to wait forever. View quote
Maxwell Maltz
You really have to act your pants off to stay alive. I thrive on that; I rise to the occasion of the circumstances. View quote
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
I think in our global economy, uncertainty is ever increasing. So to accommodate to that, we need to build a dynamic economy and dynamic rules that can adapt to changing circumstances. View quote
Myron Scholes
To trust is a profound commitment, and to trust is to make oneself vulnerable... It's such an optimistic act, because you're putting your faith in the hands of someone or something which you expect to remain constant, even if the circumstances change. View quote
Tom Hiddleston
Under what circumstances is continuing to live like this the best option? Only if you have no belief that any alternative is possible. Only then. The celebrities feel better for taking part. The callers feel better for donating. The Haitians get a bit of aid that they should rightly have been given under the covenant of brotherhood that exists between us all, and we all just smile and pretend there's no alternative. There is another way. There is the way. To live in accordance with truth, to accept we are on a planet that has resources and people on it. We have to respect the planet so we can use the resources to nourish the people. Somehow this simple equation has been allowed to become extremely confusing. View quote
Russell Brand
In Darwin's time no serious attempt had been made to examine the manifestations of variability. A vast assemblage of miscellaneous facts could formerly be adduced as seemingly comparable illustrations of the phenomenon "Variation." Time has shown this mass of evidence to be capable of analysis. When first promulgated it produced the impression that variability was a phenomenon generally distributed amongst living things in such a way that the specific divisions must be arbitrary. When this variability is sorted out, and is seen to be in part a result of hybridisation, in part a consequence of the persistence of hybrids by parthenogenetic reproduction, a polymorphism due to the continued presence of individuals representing various combinations of Mendelian allelomorphs, partly also the transient effect of alteration in external circumstances, we see how cautious we must be in drawing inferences as to the indefiniteness of specific limits from a bare knowledge that intermediates exist. View quote
William Bateson
The Holocaust would have been unimaginable without the Nazi Party; the Nazi Party would have been unimaginable without Hitler; and Hitler's rise to power would have been unimaginable without the unique circumstances that brought the Weimar Republic to ruin. To hear Goldhagen tell it, mass murder was all set to go: a century-long build-up of eliminationist anti-Semitism simply had to express itself. But the moment when a historian says that something had to happen is the moment when he stops writing history and starts predicting the past. (Clive James)
Writers are completely out of touch with reality. Writers are a crazy person. We create conflict - for a living. We do this all the time, sometimes on a weekly basis; we create horrible, incredible circumstances and then figure a way out of them. That's what we do. View quote
Joss Whedon
In any problem where an opposing force exists and cannot be regulated, one must foresee and provide for alternative courses. Adaptability is the law which governs survival in war as in life ... To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it; the best chance of overcoming such obstruction is to have a plan that can be easily varied to fit the circumstances met. View quote
B. H. Liddell Hart
I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances. View quote
Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
Gradually only can some details of it be mastered when, under divine guidance we approach the subject with a quiet mind. Having therefore invoked the divine guidance, and adapted ourselves and our style to the divine circumstances, we shall acquiesce in all the suggestions that come to us. View quote
Iamblichus
There is nothing biologically unusual about a homosexual act of pseudocopulation. Many species indulge in this, under a variety of circumstances. View quote
Desmond Morris
Life is rough for a lot of people. Some people live in greater material circumstances than others, but life is rough for everybody. View quote
Karl Rove
Choice, not circumstances, determines your success. View quote
Robert Kiyosaki
I think that Ronald Reagan had it right, being against abortion except in certain limited, defined circumstances. View quote
John R. Bolton
Well, on tour I eat terribly, so I balance that by running a lot. And then I started to run with my fans in certain cities. It sounds very nerdy and un-rock n' roll, but I like it. It's fun, and it's better than meeting fans in weird, awkward circumstances. So I take them running with me. View quote
Ellie Goulding
Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts. (Napoleon Hill)
So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. View quote
Christopher McCandless
Nothing will ever die so long as it knows what to do under the circumstances, in other words so long as it knows its business. View quote
Samuel Butler (novelist)
Physical circumstances have very little to do with either our capacity to love or to attract love. View quote
Marianne Williamson
Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, 'What can I do? I'm basically a victim.' View quote
Stephen Covey