Exercised Quotes
More Exercised Quotes
During my tenure of power, myearnest wish has beento impress the people of this country with a belief that the legislature was animated bya sincere desire to frame its legislation upon the principles of equity and justice? Deprive me of power tomorrow, but you can never deprive me of the consciousness that I have exercised the powers committed to me from no corrupt or interested motives, from no desire to gratifyambition, or to attain any personal object.
— 1846 On the repeal of the Corn Laws, House of Commons, 15 May.
Through algebra you easily arrive at equations, but always to pass therefrom to the elegant constructions and demonstrations which usually result by means of the method of porisms is not so easy, nor is one's ingenuity and power of invention so greatly exercised and refined in this analysis.
isaac newton— The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton (edited by Whiteside), Volume 7; Volumes 1691-1695 / pg. 261.
Cello players, like other great athletes, must keep their fingers exercised.
— 2001In the Observer, 30 Dec.
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
john stuart mill— 1859 On Liberty.
Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity these, three and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised?
Florence Nightingale— 1852 'Cassandra' pt.1, part of an unpublished work Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth (revised and privately printed1859). Published as an appendix in Ray Strachey The Cause: A Short History of the Women's Movement in Great Britain (1928).
The special harm attaching to prior restraint is that the government can keep materials from reaching the public, so there can be no accountability, no judgment by the people that the power to suppress was wrongly exercised.
randal marlin— Chapter Six, Freedom Of Expression, p. 207
We have here no traditions and ancient venerable institutions; here, there are no aristocratic elements hallowed by time or bright deeds; here, every man is the first settler of the land, or removed from the settler one or two generations at the furthest; here, we have no architectural monuments calling up old associations; here, we have none of these old popular legends and stories which, in other countries, have exercised a powerful share in the government; here every man is the son of his own works. (Hear, hear.)
thomas d'arcy mcgee— Legislative Assembly, February 9, 1865
The core of the concept of a bribe is an inducement improperly influencing the performance of a public function meant to be gratuitously exercised.
noonan, john t., jr.— Introduction, p. xi
The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.
Adam Smith— Chapter X, Part II
The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.
Adam Smith— Chapter X, Part II
Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility. I condemn all manifest provocation that might dangerously fan passions.
jacques chirac— Statement made about free speech following the publication of Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed
Though it is folly to suppose that happiness is a matter of volition, and that we can make ourselves content and cheerful whenever we choose a theory that many poor hypochondriacs are taunted with till they are nigh driven mad yet, on the other hand, no sane mind is ever left without the power of self-discipline and self-control in a measure, which measure increases in proportion as it is exercised.
dinah maria mulock— Ch. 10. (A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858))
Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? "What sinews are those?" A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions.
epictetus— Book II, ch. 8.
Faith teaches that there is a right and wrong beyond mere opinion or desire. Most importantly, it teaches us that freedom is not an end in itself, that how freedom is exercised matters as much as freedom itself,
stephen harper— March 15th, 2009
To supply a thought is mental massage; but to evolve a thought of your own is an achievement. Thinking is a brain exercise and no faculty grows save as it is exercised.
elbert hubbard— p. 64 (The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927))
That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.
george mason— Article 7 (Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776))
Nature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be exercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused. The privilege, inborn and inalienable, that every man has of dying himself, and inflicting death upon another, was not given to us without a purpose. These are the last resources of an insulted and unendurable existence.
Herman Melville— Ch. 67 (White-Jacket (1850))
Rights give rise to legal claims. Ultimately, the more rights animals are granted, the greater the legal lien exercised on their behalf against the liberty and property of people.
ilana mercer— "In Defense of Vick, Man is the Only Top Dog," Orange County Register, September 2, 2007.
For the fundamental fact of human psychology is that society, instead of remaining almost entirely inside the individual organism as in the case of animals prompted by their instincts, becomes crystallized almost entirely outside the individuals. In other words, social rules, as Durkheim has so powerfully shown, whether they be linguistic, moral, religious, or legal, etc., cannot be constituted, transmitted or preserved by means of an internal biological heredity, but only through the external pressure exercised by individuals upon each other.
jean piaget— Ch. 2 : Adult Constraint and Moral Realism
The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.
— Walter Lippmann, “Why Should the Majority Rule?” Harper’s Magazine (New York, 1926)
That period was a very dreamland of culture. Under enlightened caliphs, the Arabs in Spain developed a civilization which, during the whole of the middle ages up to the Renaissance, exercised pregnant influence upon every department of human knowledge. (...) Yet this Spanish-Arabic period bequeathed to us such magnificent tokens of architectural skill, of scientific research, and of philosophic thought, that far from regarding it as a fancy's dream, we know it to be one of the corner-stone of civilization.
— Gustav Karpeles, Jewish Literature and Other Essays (1895), Kessinger Publishing, 2003, p.147
In order to a better understanding of the character of the Spanish Arabs, or Moors, who exercised an important influence on that of their Christian neighbours, the present chapter will be devoted to a consideration of their previous history in the Peninsula, where they probably reached a higher degree of civilization than in any other part of the world.
— William H. Prescott, History of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, of Spain, Richard Bentley, t.1, 1842, p.338
The sponsor may be viewed as a potentate with a strong influence over currents of thought in our society, exercised mainly through television [...] It has tended to displace or overwhelm other influences such as newspapers, school, church, grandpa, grandma. It has become the definer and transmitter of society's values.
— Erik Barnouw, The Sponsor: Notes On a Modern Potentate (Oxford University Press, 1978), page 74-75, ISBN 0-19-502614-4
Long exercised in woes.
— Homer, The Odyssey, Book I, line 2. Pope's translation.
"Discretion" means, when it is said that something is to be done within the discretion of the authorities that that something is to be done according to the rules of reason and justice, not according to private opinion2; according to law and not humour. It is to be not arbitrary, vague, and fanciful, but legal and regular. And it must be exercised within the limit, to which an honest man, competent to the discharge of his office, ought to confine himself.
— Lord Halsbury, L.C., Sharp v. Wakefield (1891), 64 L. T. Rep. 180 [1891], Ap. Ca. 173.
I must not forget that the discretion given to me must be exercised judicially, not fancifully or arbitrarily.
— Butt, J., Stoker v. Stoker (1889), L. R. 14 Pro. D. 61.
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
— John Stuart Mill, Ch. I: Introductory, p. 14-15, On Liberty (1859)
Marxian Socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of Opinion how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men, and, through them, the events of history.
john maynard keynes— John Maynard Keynes, The End of Laissez-faire (1926). Full text online
