Functions Quotes
More Functions Quotes
The mind is like an umbrella - it functions best when open.
walter gropius— As quoted in The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher, p. 129
[Islam] leaves no room of human legislation in an Islamic state, because herein all legislative functions vest in God and the only function left for Muslims lies in their observance of the God-made law.
abul ala maududi— 1967 Islamic Law and Constitution, Mawdudi's writings collected and translated into English by Khurshid Ahmad, p.77; quoted in: Charles J. Adam, "Mawdudi and the Islamic State," in John L. Esposito, ed., Voices of Resurgent Islam, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983) on page 125
Our exploration of emergent social structures across domains of human activity and experience leads to an over-arching conclusion: as an historical trend, dominant functions and processes in the Information Age are increasingly organized around networks. Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture. While the networking form of social organization has existed in other times and spaces, the new information technology paradigm provides the material basis for its pervasive expansion throughout the entire social structure.
— Manuel Castells (1996) The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture Volume I (Information Age Series). p. 500
Just as Banaras is a prototype for sacred India , her sacred features are prototypes for the divine roles of the city as a whole. Foremost among these features are the Ganga and the two famous cremation grounds ( Shmashans ) along her banks. Pilgrims commonly say that Banaras is like the Mother Ganga, who accepts and purifies anyone and anything that come to her and transforms them into herself… each of these features, - the Ganga, the Shmashans and the city as a whole – functions as a kind of cosmic sink, a sacred dumping ground…
— Ronald L. Barrett, in p.29, 34 (Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India (3 February 2008)])
I hesitate to say what the functions of the modern journalist may be, but I imagine that they do not exclude the intelligent anticipation of the facts even before they occur.
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (of Kedleston)— 1898 House of Commons, 29 Mar.
The same Being that fashioned the insect, whose existence is only discerned by a microscope, and gave that invisible speck a system of ducts and other organs to perform its vital functions, created the enormous mass of the planet thirteen hundred times larger than our earth, and launched it in its course round the sun, and the comet, wheeling with a velocity that would carry it round our globe in less than two minutes of time, and yet revolving through so prodigious a space that it takes near six centuries to encircle the sun!
brougham, henry, 1st baron brougham and vaux— Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895, pg. 274).
The purposes of functional charts is 1. to get an overall picture of the existing organizational structure 2. discover organizational weaknesses such as: a. confused lines of authority and responsibility b. duplication of functions c. inefficient allocation of personnel d. too extended a span of control e. lack of intermediate supervisory levels 3. discover organizational strengths which may be used in setting standards of good structure 4. provide a basis for planning 5. provide a basis for reorganization
— William Bouck Cornell (1928) Industrial organization and management. p. 120 ; Cited in: John J. Unterkofler (1954; p. 17)
Since high school I have been utterly fascinated by the “mystery” of and by the beautiful calculations that flow, seemingly without end, from complex numbers and functions of complex variables.
— Paul J. Nahin, in Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula: Cures Many Mathematical Ills (2011), Princeton University Press, p.xiii
The comprehensive picture drawn here of Vyasa in the MBh includes his functions as seer, priest, ascetic, and spiritual preceptor. Of all the epic’s, Vyasa is the one who most closely corresponds to the idea of brahminhood promulgated by the dharma literature and the MBh’s Shanti Parvan - The section of the epic having the greater similarity to the dharma literature.
— In pp.50-51 (Seer of the Fifth Veda: Kr?a Dvaip?yana Vy?sa in the Mah?bh?rata)
So much I feel my genial spirits droop, My hopes all flat, nature within me seems In her functions weary of herself.
john milton— 1671Samson Agonistes, l.594-6.
Would we if we could, educate and sophisticate pigs, geese, cattle? Would it be wise to establish diplomatic relations with the hen that now functions, satisfied with mere sense of achievement by way of compensation? I think we're property"
charles fort— p156
No government functions without the grease of corruption.
Carlos Fuentes— La Silla del Águila (The Eagle's Throne) (2003)
The people are beginning to fear that the Irish Government is merely a machinery for their destruction; that, for all the usual functions of Government, this Castle-nuisance is altogether powerless; that it is unable, or unwilling, to take a single step for the prevention of famine, for the encouragement of manufactures, or providing fields of industry, and is only active in promoting, by high premiums and bounties, the horrible manufacture of crimes!
john mitchel— Article in The Nation newspaper on 8 November,1845, titled "The Detectives",on the Administration of Government in Ireland
There is a huge body of evidence to support the notion that me and the police were put on this earth to do extremely different things and never to mingle professionally with each other, except at official functions, when we all wear ties and drink heavily and whoop it up like the natural, good-humored wild boys that we know in our hearts that we are..These occasions are rare, but they happen — despite the forked tongue of fate that has put us forever on different paths...
hunter s. thompson— "Fear and Loathing in Elko" Rolling Stone (23 January 1992)
No system of balance functions automatically.
kenneth waltz— Chapter VII, Some Implications Of The Third Image, p. 210
Our time has produced a need for contrast. This has been achieved not only in the external appearance of plastic expressions of coulor and matter, but also, and chiefly, in the tempo of life and in the techniques related to the daily, mechanical functions of life; namely standing, walking, driving, to lying and sitting – in short, every action which determines the content of architecture.
theo van doesburg— 'Painting: from composition towards counter-composition'. in 'Painting and plastic art', De Stijl, series XIII, 73-4, 1926, pp. 17-18
Too often critics seem more intent on seeking new ways to alter Congress than to truly learn how it functions. They might well profit from the advice of Thomas Huxley, who said a century ago: "Sit down before facts as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion or you shall learn nothing."
jerry ford— Address at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (3 November 1966); published in Gerald R. Ford,Selected Speeches (1973) edited by Michael V. Doyle
Now in all of us, however constituted, but to a degree the greater in proportion as we are intense and sensitive and subject to diversified temptations, and to the greatest possible degree if we are decidedly psychopathic, does the normal evolution of character chiefly consist in the straightening out and unifying of the inner self. The higher and the lower feelings, the useful and the erring impulses, begin by being a comparative chaos within us they must end by forming a stable system of functions in right subordination. Unhappiness is apt to characterize the period of order-making and struggle.
william james— Lecture VIII, "The Divided Self, and the Process of its Unification"
How is the mind which functions on knowledge how is the brain which is recording all the time to end, to see the importance of recording and not let it move in any other direction? Very simply: you insult me, you hurt me, by word, gesture, by an actual act; that leaves a mark on the brain which is memory. That memory is knowledge, that knowledge is going to interfere in my meeting you next time obviously.
jiddu krishnamurti— p. 19 (A Wholly Different Way of Living (1970))
The peculiar (or own) value that such and such activity can have for a man rather really depends ("dépend bien plutôt", Fr.) on the spirit in which it was deployed (or displayed, - "déployée", Fr.) than its importance or its scope. Thus the most humble work (or task, - "besogne", Fr.) can be accomplished by a great genius, whereas the highest functions (or offices), such as to rule over a whole people, can be practised in a petty (or mean or stingy) spirit of personal glorification, as it is frequently seen.", Fr.)
african spir— p. 49 (Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937))
Because we cannot yet (1) characterize all the possible experimental designs along quantitative scales and (2) generate cost-of-error functions, comparisons must be made in specific contexts rather than by use of analytic optimizing.
— p.340 as cited in: Philosophica gandensia, Vol.6-7 (1968). p.141
We are still spellbound by a tradition that arranged psychological faculties hierarchically, relegating ‘sensuousness’ that is, perception to a lower position in comparison to higher, reflective functions of reason and understanding. The most advanced versions of ‘conceptual art’ still follow this tradition. By refusing to base themselves in sensuously perceptible distinctions between works of art and other objects, these works seek to avoid reducing art to the realm of sense perception.
— Niklas Luhmann, Eva M. Knodt (trans.) (2000) Art As a Social System Stanford University Press, p.5
The technical and commercial functions of a business are clearly defined, but the same cannot be said of the administrative function. Not many people are familiar with its constitution and powers; our senses cannot follow its workings - we do not see it build or forge, sell or buy - and yet we all know that, if it does not work properly, the undertaking is in danger of failure.
— Henri Fayol (1900) Henri Fayol addressed his colleagues in the mineral industry 23 June 1900.
One should understand that the Atman is always like the King, distinct from the body , senses, mind and intellect, all of which constitute the matter (Prakriti); and is the witness of their functions.
— Adi Shankara, in Atma Bodha (Self-Knowledge)
The judicial ought to be kept entirely distinct from the legislative and executive power in the State. This separation is necessary both to secure the independence of the judicial functions and to prevent their being influenced by the interests of party or by the voice of the people.
— Lord Brougham; see the British Constitution, 322, 323.
"A chord is by no means an agglomeration of intervals. It is a new unit which, although dependent on the formative power of the single interval, is felt as being self-existent and as giving to the constituent intervals meanings and functions which they otherwise would not have."
— Paul Hindemith (1952: 72). A Composer's World. Cambridge, Mass.
