Limitations Quotes
More Limitations Quotes
Every artist knows that there is no such thing as "freedom" in art. The first thing an artist does when he begins a new work is to lay down the barriers and limitations; he decides upon a certain composition, a certain key, a certain relation of creatures or objects to each other. He is never free, and the more splendid his imagination, the more intense his feeling, the farther he goes from general truth and general emotion.
willa cather— "Light on Adobe Walls"
Our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible.
edsger w. dijkstra— Dijkstra (1968) "A Case against the GO TO Statement" cited in: Bill Curtis (1981) Tutorial, human factors in software development. p. 109
Citizens of a modern society need [...] more than that ordinary "common sense" which was defined by Stuart Chase as that which tells you that the world is flat. They need to be systematically aware of the powers and limitations of symbols, especially words, if they are to guard against being driven into complete bewilderment by the complexity of their semantic environment. The first of the principles governing symbols is this: The symbol is NOT the thing symbolized; the word is NOT the thing; the map is NOT the territory it stands for. (editor's link)
s. i. hayakawa— pp. 29-30
— See also: The Meaning of Meaning (1923)
— See also: Science and Sanity (1933)
Konev was a Russian who had begun his military career as a commissar, and he was a strong brutal character of great energy but limited education, unable to express himself well on paper. He realized his own limitations and sorted out operative and tactical problems on the spot, leaving all other matters to his staff.
ivan konev— Albert Seaton
Analytical tools have their limitations in a turbulent world. These tools work best when parameters are known, assumptions are minimal, and the future is not fuzzy.
john kotter— Introduction to the 2002 edition, p. 12
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
james thurber— "The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961). The piece was "a response" to an award Thurber received from the Ohioana Library Association in 1953.
Being an art form, verse cannot be "free" in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principle.
william carlos williams— As quoted in Free Verse .Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics 2nd ed (1975)
But when reason and the study of history began revealing the irrationality, the limitations, and the merely transitory nature of the capitalist order, bourgeois ideology as a whole and with it bourgeois economics began abandoning both reason and history.
paul a. baran— Chapter One, A General View, p. 4
[Boulding grasps the significance of sociobiology's emphasis on biogenetics] that there are biogenetic factors in learning capacity and potential can hardly be denied... [yet] biogenetically imposed limits to human learning... seem to be much more remote... than are the limitations imposed by the biogenetic structure."
kenneth boulding— p.21 as cited in: W.R. Brown and M.J. Schaefermeyer (1980) "Progress in communication as a social science". In: Dan Nimmo eds. Communication Yearbook 4. p.38
When we reverence anything in the mature, it is their virtues or their wisdom, and this is an easy matter. But we reverence the faults and follies of children. We should probably come considerably nearer to the true conception of things if we treated all grown-up persons, of all titles and types, with precisely that dark affection and dazed respect with which we treat the infantile limitations.
gilbert keith chesterton— A Defence of Baby-Worship
I'm a big believer that as much as possible, and there's obviously political limitations, freedom of migration is a good thing.
bill gates— "Bill Gates backs immigration reform on Mexico trip" Reuters (21 March 2007)
A man must know his limitations.
david gemmell— Ch. 10 (Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde)
In limitations he first shows himself the master, And the law can only bring us freedom.
— Was Wir Bringen (1802)
Nature is objective, and nature is knowable, but we can only view her through a glass darkly and many clouds upon our vision are of our own making: social and cultural biases, psychological preferences, and mental limitations (in universal modes of thought, not just individualized stupidity).
stephen jay gould— p. 8 (Full House (1996))
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.
rollo may— Ch. 6 : On the Limits of Creativity, p. 115
Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers? No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to childkillers.
vladimir putin— In response to those who called Putin to enter talks with Chechen separatists after the Beslan school hostage crisis, in September 2004"Putin rejects "child-killer talks"". BBC News. 2004-09-07. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
He had imperfections, prejudices, limitations, but when we have recognised them all, he remains the greatest literary critic that the world has seen.
charles augustin sainte-beuve— Edmund Gosse "The Prince of Critics", in More Books on the Table (London: William Heinemann, 1923) p. 13.
Philosophy is not politics, and we do our best, within our all-too-human limitations, to seek the truth, not to score points against opponents. There is little satisfaction in gaining an easy triumph over a weak opponent while ignoring better arguments against your views.
peter singer— 'Last Generation': A Response, New York Times, June 16, 2010.
They [free market policies] were never based on solid empirical and theoretical foundations, and even as many of these policies were being pushed, academic economists were explaining the limitations of markets for instance, whenever information is imperfect, which is to say always.
joseph e. stiglitz— "Bleakonomics" The New York Times Sunday Book Review (2007-09-30)
Where force is necessary, one should make use of it boldly, resolutely, and right to the end. But it is as well to know the limitations of force; to know where to combine force with manoeuvre, assualt with conciliation.
— Leon Trotsky in What Next? (Quotes)
A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
— Abraham Lincoln, First inaugural address (March 4, 1861). Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 4, p. 268, Rutgers University Press (1953, 1990)
We must not expect too much from legislation, social service with the masses, or even preaching of the Gospel to large congregations. All of these have their advantages, but they also have their limitations. Nothing can adequately take the place of personal effort with individuals.
— p.71 (Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920))
Music always transcends national , verbal , mental and philosophical limitations which account for its universal appeal beyond cultures ... (But) comparison requires common features or parameters of which few are shared between Classical Carnatic music and genuine Classical Western music.
— Ludwig Pesch, in p.41 (Another Garland (Biographical Dictionary of Carnatic Composers & Musicians) (Book II))
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.
rollo may— Rollo May, The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 6 : On the Limits of Creativity, p. 115
Because any arrangement of squares, circles, and connecting lines has limitations in what it may portray, the organization chart is best regarded as an illustration accompanying a description of the departments, boards, bureaus...
— Bureau of Municipal Research (Philadelphia, Pa.) (1932) Philadelphia's government, 1932, an organization chart and description. p. 1
Our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra (1968) "A Case against the GO TO Statement" cited in: Bill Curtis (1981) Tutorial, human factors in software development. p. 109
Those who violate the rules of a language do not enter new territory; they leave the domain of meaningful discourse. Even facts in these circumstances dissolve, because they are shaped by the language and subjected to its limitations.
paul karl feyerabend— Paul Karl Feyerabend, Conquest of Abundance, p. 20 (2001 [posthumous])
Every being which is endowed with reason, and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving from rectitude and justice.
— On First Principles, Bk. 1, ch. 5; vol. 1, p. 45.
