Instances Quotes
More Instances Quotes
The rise of the welfare state, on the one hand, and of the military bureaucracy, on the other, are instances of the manner in which technology is enforcing a socialization of life.
robert heilbroner— Chapter IV, Part 1, A Recapitulation, p. 177
It from bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom at a very deep bottom, in most instances an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the resistering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe .
john archibald wheeler— From the paper "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links" which appeared in Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information edited by Wojciech H. Zurek (1990), p. 5.
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.
Abigail Adams— Letter to her sister, Mary Smith Cranch (1784).
Not a step can we take in any direction without perceiving the most extraordinary traces of design; and the skill everywhere conspicuous is calculated in so vast a proportion of instances to promote the happiness of living creatures, and especially of ourselves, that we feel no hesitation in concluding that, if we knew the whole scheme of Providence, every part would appear to be in harmony with a plan of absolute benevolence.
brougham, henry, 1st baron brougham and vaux— Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 261.
Only a personal experience of it, or a prolonged study of men who have passed into the new life, will enable us to realize what this actually is; but it has seemed to the present writer that to pass in review, even briefly and imperfectly, instances in which the condition in question has existed would be worth while.
Richard Maurice Bucke— First Words.
There are also many instances where people hostile to the Soviet state are attempting by means of deceit and provocation to poison the minds of our citizens and compel them to believe in monstrous lies.
filipp golikov— Quoted in "Behind the Iron Curtain," by George Moorad (1946)
In many instances the conduct of colored workmen, and those who have spoken for them, has not been in asking or demanding that equal rights be accorded to them as to white workmen, but somehow conveying the idea that they are to be petted and coddled and given special consideration and special privilege. Of course that can't be done.
samuel gompers— The Samuel Gompers Papers: The American Federation of Labor and the Great War, 1917-18. Stuart Bruce Kaufman, Peter J. Albert, and Grace Palladino, eds. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006, p. 348.
Never lose hope, be persistent and stubborn and never give up. There are many instances in history where apparent losers suddenly turn out to be winners unexpectedly, so you should never conclude all hope is lost.
theodore kaczynski— Interview with Ted Kaczynski
Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.
william whewell— Part 2, Book 11, ch. 5, sect. 3, art. 10
How sad, that the group with the most access to the truth chose in several strategic instances to look the other way.
john ashcroft— p. 263 (Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice (2006))
No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. Broadly, we can afford to sink those sorts of knowledge which continue to be true regardless of changes in the environment, but we must maintain in an accessible place all those controls of behavior which must be modified for every instance. The economics of the system, in fact, pushes organisms toward sinking into the unconscious those generalities of relationship which remain permanently true and toward keeping within the conscious the pragmatic of particular instances.
Gregory Bateson— p.143, as cited in: Lawrence S. Bale (1992) "Gregory Bateson’s Theory of Mind: Practical Applications to Pedagogy". November 1992. p.20
All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth.
Edmund Burke— No. 1, volume v, page 286.
Madness, like small fish, runs in hosts, in vast numbers of instances.
philip kindred dick— Page 236 (The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982))
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air however slight lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
william o. douglas— To Young Lawyers Section of the Washington State Bar Association, The Douglas Letters : Selections from the Private Papers of Justice William O. Douglas (1987), edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and Philip E. Urofsky, p. 162.
In the history of medicine, there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described.
william osler— In reference to "On Chorea" (1872) by George Huntington on what is now known as Huntington's Disease, as quoted in "Huntington's Chorea" by Irwin A. Brody and Robert H. Wilkins in Archives of Neurology Vol. 17, No. 3 (1967). The acclaim Huntington received for this paper, his first, from Osler and others, he would later refer to as an "unsought, unlooked for honor."
...no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
karl popper— Ch. 1 "A Survey of Some Fundamental Problems", Section I: The Problem of Induction, p. 27
I remember reports that the American and English newspapers were very happy about the fact that so many were killed in Dresden. There are many instances of barbarity and cruelty on the part of the Allies which I could tell you.
julius streicher— To Leon Goldensohn, June 15, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
In the absence of truth there is no necessity, and this observation may serve as an index to the position of the modern egotist. Having become incapable of knowing, he becomes incapable of working, in the sense that all work is a bringing of the ideal from potentiality into actuality. … The modern worker does not, save in rare instances, respond to the ideal in the task.
richard weaver— p. 73 (Ideas have Consequences (1948))
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.
alfred de zayas— United Nations General Assembly - Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order [27]
Every one must see daily instances of people who complain from a mere habit of complaining.
— Richard Graves, Olla Podrida 6 October 1787
In some instances, alimony has become akin to a social-welfare program provided by working women to their ex-husbands.
— Diane Garnick by Wall Street Journal[3]
Now and then, an extraordinary case may turn up, but constitutional law, like other mortal contrivances, has to take some chances, and in the great majority of instances, no doubt, justice will be done.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Blinn v. Nelson, 222 U.S. 1, 7 (1911).
As it seems to me, in Perl you have to be an expert to correctly make a nested data structure like, say, a list of hashes of instances. In Python, you have to be an idiot not to be able to do it, because you just write it down.
— Peter Norvig, August 2000, on comp.lang.functional
As it seems to me, in Perl you have to be an expert to correctly make a nested data structure like, say, a list of hashes of instances. In Python, you have to be an idiot not to be able to do it, because you just write it down.
— Peter Norvig, August 2000, on comp.lang.functional
Is it not a wiser course, since reconciliation has come in so many instances, still to hope for it, still to go on with our new truths, trusting that they also will in time be found harmonious with all others? Thus we avoid the damage which the very appearance of an opposition to natural truth is calculated to inflict on any system presumed to require such support.
— Note: see Natural theology & Natural law
— p.390
Fugue states or severe headaches prior to or after overt necrophilic behavior have also been reported. Coupled with the fact that alcohol (one of the factors associated with necrophilia) can induce temporal lobe abnormalities, and that temporal lobe abnormalities are associated with a number of other paraphilias , it may be reasonable to deduce that temporal lobe anomalies may be responsible for some instances of necrophilia.
— Anil Aggrawal, in Necrophilia: Forensic and Medico-legal Aspects, CRC Press, 15 December 2010, p.29
If we see [our lives] from the outside, as the influence and popular dissemination of the social sciences and psychiatry has persuaded more and more people to do, we view ourselves as instances of generalities, and in so doing become profoundly and painfully alienated from our own experience and our humanity .
— Susan Sontag, “On Style,” Against Interpretation, p. 29
"Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected Him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such."
— Cowper
