Genuinely Quotes
More Genuinely Quotes
Representative democracy frequently manifests a disconnect between parliamentarians and the people, so that parliamentarians have agendas that do not correspond with the wishes of the electorate. This has led in many countries to apathy, cynicism and large-scale absenteeism in elections. What is needed is not only parliaments, but parliamentarians who genuinely represent the wishes of the electorate.
— Alfred-Maurice de Zayas 2013 Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order [
Sometimes, I genuinely enjoy having conversations with journalists; enjoying the few moments of intimacy with a stranger is fascinating to me. But once in a while that backfires and you're suddenly reading something that has a bent on it that you didn't feel was in the least bit a part of the conversation that you thought you were having. Then you get overly protective and say very little and then you come out of the hole again.
gillian anderson— The Observer staff (October 1, 2000 ) "Review: Interview: The truth is out here: X-files star Gillian Anderson has rejected the lure of Hollywood for the austere style of cult British director Terence Davies. What is she thinking of...", The Observer.
Being superficially different is the goal of so many of the products we see . . . rather than trying to innovate and genuinely taking the time, investing the resources and caring enough to try and make something better.
jonathan ive— In The Globe and Mail newspaper (January 2007)
The criminal law has, from the point of view of thwarted virtue, the merit of allowing an outlet for those impulses of aggression which cowardice, disguised as morality, restrains in their more spontaneous forms. War has the same merit. You must not kill you neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism.
bertrand russell— Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 17: Fear, p. 175.
And then he gives me a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me.
Suzanne Collins— Hunger Games (2008, pg. 72)
When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered.
tony benn— As quoted in The Times (13 November 1976)
I recently had to wait two and a half hours in a doctor's office, just waiting to be seen. I literally was genuinely thinking "Well, maybe this is a time loop", because nothing seemed to be happening, no progress of any kind seemed to be being made, so I think we've all fallen into those time loops.
jane espenson— Interview at "Loopy" at BBC (2002)
A genuinely political society, in which discussion and debate are an essential technique, is a society full of risks.
moses i. finley— Chapter 4, Socrates and After, p. 140
“Well, hell,” said Jael more genuinely, “the war. If there isn’t one, there just was one, and if there wasn’t one, there soon will be one. Eh? The war between Us and Them.
joanna russ— Part 8, Chapter 6 (pp. 163-164)
For me, to represent people who represent the future of Canada and the great challenges we will face over the coming decades — this is where I wanted to start. … I'm a teacher; I'm a convenor; I'm a gatherer; I'm someone who reaches out to people and is deeply interested in what they have to say. And people see that I'm not faking it. I'm actually genuinely committed to this dialogue that we're opening up, and this understanding that needs to happen in order to be an effective MP.
justin trudeau— On winning his riding nomination in Quebec, as quoted in "Trudeau wins Montreal riding nomination" in CBC News (30 April 2007)
We all like to think of ourselves as a standard, and I can see that it is genuinely difficult for the English middle class to suppose that the working class is not desperately anxious to become just like itself. I am afraid this must be unlearned.
Raymond Williams— Culture and Society (1958)
I genuinely feel that the survival of this country lies in democracy and democracy alone.
muhammad zia-ul-haq— As quoted in "Mohammad Zia ul-Haq : Unbending Commander for Era of Atom and Islam" in The New York Times (18 August 1988)
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. … Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.
— Eric Hoffer, in The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 11: Brotherhood
The Popular Unity government represented the first attempt anywhere to build a genuinely democratic transition to socialism a socialism that, owing to its origins, might be guided not by authoritarian bureaucracy, but by democratic self-rule.
salvador allende— Editorial by the North American Congress on Latin America (July 2003)
Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.
aldous huxley— Wanted, A New Pleasure
A child born today in the United Kingdom stands a ten times greater chance of being admitted to a mental hospital than to a university ... This can be taken as an indication that we are driving our children mad more effectively than we are genuinely educating them. Perhaps it is our way of educating them that is driving them mad.
ronald david laing— p. 104 (The Politics of Experience (1967))
In the next ten years we will have to continue to make changes which will make the whole of this country a genuinely classless society.
john major— Today newspaper, 24 November 1990.
When inward life dries up, when feeling decreases and apathy increases, when one cannot affect or even genuinely touch another person, violence flares up as a daimonic necessity for contact, a mad drive forcing touch in the most direct way possible.
rollo may— Ch. 1 : Introduction : Our Schizoid World, p. 31
It was queer. All over England young men were eating their hearts out for lack of jobs, and here was he, Gordon, to whom the very word 'job' was faintly nauseous, having jobs thrust unwanted upon him. It was an example of the fact that you can get anything in this world if you genuinely don't want it.
george orwell— Ch. 3 (Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936))
Numerous are the academic chairs, but rare are wise and noble teachers. Numerous and large are the lecture halls, but far from numerous the young men who genuinely thirst for truth and justice. Numerous are the wares that nature produces by the dozen, but her choice products are few.
— Albert Einstein, “On Academic Freedom,” Ideas and Opinions (1954)
A genuinely democratic society requires a secular ethos: one that does not equate morality with religion, stigmatize atheists, defer to religious interests and aims over others or make religious belief an informal qualification for public office. Of course, secularism in the latter sense is not mandated by the First Amendment. It's a matter of sensibility, not law.
— Ellen Willis, "Freedom from Religion", The Nation (February 19, 2001)
Like so many other office workers of the world, I will obey my master, the clock, and will obediently nod to my co-workers and make small talk about sports, kids and weather - all things I'm not genuinely interested in.
— Chapter 1, p. 1 (Working Class Zero (2003))
A neutral observer would have no difficulty in identifying instances of disconnect between government and people, most obviously in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes where civil society’s voices are muzzled and where peaceful protests are prohibited or severely suppressed,24 but also to a lesser degree in democracies, particularly “representative democracies” that do not genuinely represent, business-driven democracies and so-called “lobby-democracies”, where elected officials tend to be more responsive to the lobbies than to the population.
— United Nations General Assembly - Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order [27]
And as far as the budget goes, it's time for responsible Republicans who share these goals -- and there are a number of folks out there who I think are decent folks, I've got some disagreements with them on some issues, but I think genuinely want to see the economy grow and want what's best for the American people -- it's time for those Republicans to step up and they've got to decide what they want to prioritize.
— Barack Obama, White House (16 September 2013).[1]
Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind , yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.
— Eric Hoffer, in The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 11: Brotherhood
If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or eleven who's intensely erotically attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual ... then I would not call it pathological in any way.
— John Money, in an interview for Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia, 1991. — Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia, Vol. II, nr 3 (spring 1991), p. 5.
"As Hellenic Nationalists, we express complete support with our Serb brothers, which was genuinely expressed in the past and we declare our solidarity in the common struggle for National Dignity and Sovereignty. Kosovo is Serbia!"
— Golden Dawn Statement [posted on the Serbian Consulate in Thessaloniki], 1 March 2008, Thessaloniki
There is a difference between questioning policy and questioning motives. [...] no one should poison the public square by attacking the patriotism of opponents [...] Let me say it plainly: I not only concede, but I am convinced that President Bush believes genuinely in the course he urges upon us.
— Ted Kennedy, September 27, 2002 [14]
The Theatre of the Absurd ... can be seen as the reflection of what seems to be the attitude most genuinely representative of our own time. The hallmark of this attitude is its sense that the certitudes and unshakable basic assumptions of former ages have been swept away, that they have been tested and found wanting, that they have been discredited as cheap and somewhat childish illusions.
— Martin Esslin, in The Theatre of the Absurd (1961)
