Undermine Quotes
More Undermine Quotes
For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wanderings of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind.He being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time.
Bible (Apocrypha)— Wisdom of Solomon 4:12-13.
The echo began in some indescribable way to undermine her hold on life.Coming at a moment when she chanced to be fatigued, it had managed to murmur, 'Pathos, piety, couragethey exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.'
— 1924 A Passage to India, ch.14.
America’s Christian conservative movement is confronted with this divide: small-government advocates who want to practice their faith independent of heavy-handed government versus big-government sympathizers who want to impose their version of 'righteousness' on others through the hammer of law.... Our movement must avoid the temptations of power and those who would twist the good intentions of Christian voters to support policies that undermine freedom and grow government.
dick armey— Christians and Big Government - Why faith requires freedom, 12 October 2006
"It's the fault of the liberals and the media and the Democrats, that from the very beginning have tried to undermine the will of the American people to fight this."
tom delay— Appearing on Hannity and Colmes December 12, 2006
The leaders of the Pahlavi regime, in an attempt to forestall the rising tide of the Islamic revolutionary movement, were hard at work to cast doubt on the question of the Imam Khomeini's position as a Marja'a (a top religious authority) and in this way, undermine public faith in his academic, political and religious competence.
yousef saanei—
Meantime I say to both sides of industry, 'Please don't support us with general expressions of good will and kind words, and then undermine us through unjustified wage increases or price increases. Either back us or sack us.'
james callaghan— Speech, Labour Party Conference, Brighton, 5 October 1977. Source: Labour Party Annual Conference Report 1977, page 217.
The intellectual's struggle to deny the obvious is never more desperate than when reality is unpleasant and at variance with his preconceptions and when full acknowledgment of it would undermine the foundations of his intellectual worldview.
anthony daniels— Seeing Is Not Believing (Autumn 2000)
"I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open..."
ralph ellison— Chapter 1 (Invisible Man (1952))
Foucault is an interesting case because I'm sure he honestly wants to undermine power but I think with his writings he reinforced it.
Michel Foucault— Noam Chomsky in Antasofia (2003)
The broader and more influential organisations of businessmen have acted to undermine the basic foundation of the free market system they purport to represent and defend.
Milton Friedman— Lecture "The Suicidal Impulse of the Business Community" (1983); cited in Filters Against Folly (1985) by Garrett Hardin
Appellate review is not a magic wand and we undermine public confidence in the judicial process when we make it look like it is.
alex kozinski— Concluding words of dissent from a denial of rehearing en banc in United States v. Ziegler, 2007.
The scene should be gently open'd, and his entrance made step by step, and the dangers pointed out that attend him from several degrees, tempers, designs, and clubs of men. He should be prepared to be shocked by some, and caress'd by others; warned who are like to oppose, who to mislead, who to undermine him, and who to serve him. He should be instructed how to know and distinguish them; where he should let them see, and when dissemble the knowledge of them and their aims and workings.
john locke— Sec. 94 (Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693))
Vanity and narcissism the compulsive need to be admired and praised undermine one's courage, for one then fights on someone else's conviction rather than one's own.
rollo may— p. 177 (Man’s Search for Himself (1953))
Whom do I hate most among the rabble of today? The socialist rabble, the chandala apostles, who undermine the instinct, the pleasure, the worker’s sense of satisfaction with his small existence–who make him envious, who teach him revenge. The source of wrong is never unequal rights but the claim of “equal” rights.
friedrich nietzsche— Sec. 57. (Helen Zimmern translation)
The concept that the Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections against arbitrary government are inoperative when they become inconvenient or when expediency dictates otherwise is a very dangerous doctrine and if allowed to flourish would destroy the benefit of a written Constitution and undermine the basis of our government.
— Justice Hugo Black, Reid v. Covert 354 U.S. 1 (1957)
DRM is used to lock consumers to proprietary technology. It is used to control supply and push higher prices. It is used to undermine practices we have long defined as fair use so they can be shifted to fee-based.
— MP3 Newswire, 2006. [6]
We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with a patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government.
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mr. Pictet (February 5, 1803), in Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1903), vol. 10, p. 356–57.
The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric…. A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Ritchie (December 25, 1820); Paul L. Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1899), vol. 10, p. 170–71 (1899). A similar statement is made in Jefferson's "Autobiography," Writings, vol. 1, p. 112–13 (1892).
Rock and Roll is a means of pulling the White Man down to the level of the Negro. It is part of a plot to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation.
— Secretary of the North Alabama White Citizens Council (c. 1956), quoted in: Dave Marsh, ?Kevin Stein (1981) The book of rock lists , p. 8.
If by "Property" is meant the personal possessions which the word suggests to nine-tenths of the population, the object of socialists is not to undermine property but to protect and increase it.
— R. H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society (1920)
Strategic results that undermine established terrorist campaigns demand broader scope and planning. In our case studies, popular support was more effectively reduced by the arrests of leaders than by their demise, and this is why efforts at targeted killing often backfire in the long run.
— Cronin, Audrey Kurth (2009). How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns. Princeton University Press. pp. 32-33. ISBN 0691139482.
Targeted killing further reduces moderates ability to control the extremists (or self police) since they lose credibility among the larger audience and undermine them overall.
— Bloom, Mia (2007). Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror. Columbia University Press. p. 100. ISBN 0231133219.
Today, there are still political and social networks that seek to undermine full equality for all Americans. Their messages are spread using the standard tools: prejudice, fear, disdain, misinformation, trivialization, patronizing stereotypes, demonization and even scare-mongering conspiracy theories. While many of the groups within these networks describe themselves as mainstream — and many disagree with one another — they all have helped spread bigoted ideas into American life.
chip berlet— "Into the Mainstream" in Intelligence Report (Summer 2003) at the Southern Poverty Law Center
Mass consumption, advertising, and mass art are a corporate Frankenstein; while they reinforce the system, they also undermine it. By continually pushing the message that we have the right to gratification now , consumerism at its most expansive encouraged a demand for fulfillment that could not so easily be contained by products…
ellen willis— "Introduction", Beginning To See the Light: Pieces of a Decade (1981)
Mass consumption, advertising, and mass art are a corporate Frankenstein; while they reinforce the system, they also undermine it. By continually pushing the message that we have the right to gratification now , consumerism at its most expansive encouraged a demand for fulfillment that could not so easily be contained by products;...
— Ellen Willis, "Introduction", Beginning to See the Light (1981).
