Undermining Quotes
More Undermining Quotes
Both Bush as well as Tony Blair are undermining an idea [the United Nations]. Is this because the secretary general of the United Nations [Ghanaian Kofi Annan] is now a black man? They never did that when secretary generals were white.
nelson mandela
The danger is not only that these austerity measures are killing the European economies but also that they threaten the very legitimacy of European democracies – not just directly by threatening the livelihoods of so many people and pushing the economy into a downward spiral, but also indirectly by undermining the legitimacy of the political system through this backdoor rewriting of the social contract.
ha-joon chang— The Guardian, "The root of Europe's riots", 28 September 2012.
To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
theodore roosevelt— Seventh State of the Union (3 December 1907).
The idea of preaching the gospel to all nations alike, regardless of nationality, of internal divisions as to rank and color, complexion and religion, constituted the beginning of a new era in history. You cannot preach the gospel in its purity over the world, without proclaiming the doctrine of civil and religious liberty, without overthrowing the barriers reared between nations and clans and classes of men, without ultimately undermining the thrones of despots, and breaking off the shackles of slavery, without making men everywhere free.
— Albert Barnes, p. 289. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
A lot of street crime is horrible, but in terms of the dislocation, the undermining of the family — the corporate criminals, many of whom reside in Congress and the White House — are getting away literally with murder.
jerry brown— Jerry Brown on Crime Control, We the People Radio Network archives, October/November 1995
The effect of Judaism's vigorous promotion of monotheism, and the dignity that this doctrine conferred on all humankind, as created in God's image, coupled with the discipline, warnth and security offered by the Jewish way of life, cannot be overestimated as a powerful catalyst for the undermining and eventual destruction of Graeco-Roman paganism.
jeffrey cohen— Preface, p.ix
I just haven’t been conditioned into thinking that the right answer can’t be a simple one. When I told you you’d been contaminated I meant by that attitude, which is wider-spread than the common cold and just as undermining. Did nobody ever point out to you that the only liberty implied by free will is the opportunity to be wrong?
john brunner— continuity (38) “Not For Sale But Can Be Had On Application”
The habit of seen the public rule, is gradually accustoming the American mind to an interference with private rights that is slowly undermining the individuality of the national character. There is getting to be so much public right, that private right is overshadowed and lost. A danger exists that the ends of liberty will be forgotten altogether in the means.
james fenimore cooper— On Individuality
When people feel their insignificance as individual persons, they also suffer an undermining of their sense of human responsibility.
rollo may— p. 31 (Psychology and the Human Dilemma (1967))
Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used.
richard rorty— "Philosophical Convictions." The Nation, June 14, 2004.
Bush is now undermining the United Nations. He is acting outside it, not withstanding the fact that the United Nations was the idea of President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Both Bush, as well as Tony Blair, are undermining an idea which was sponsored by their predecessors.
— Nelson Mandela, in a speech at the International Women's Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa (29 January 2003), prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
theodore roosevelt— Theodore Roosevelt, Seventh Annual Message, December 3, 1907
Our thesis now is that the Portuguese seafarers and scientists of the 15th and 16th centuries made an important contribution to the rise of modern science by unintentionally undermining the belief in scientific authorities and by strengthening the confidence in an empirical, natural, historical method.
— Reijer Hooykaas, "The Portuguese Discoveries and the Rise of Modern Science" in Selected Studies in History of Science (1983)
I readily admit that the law which requires presumption or custom to be carried back for a period of nearly 700 years, is a bad and mischievous law, and one which is discreditable to us as a civilised and enlightened people, but such is the law; and while it so continues, I consider myself, in administering it, as bound to administer it as I find it; nor do I feel myself warranted in undermining or frittering it away by subtle fictions or artificial presumptions inconsistent with truth and fact.
— Cockburn, C.J., Bryant v. Foot (1867), 15 W. R. 425; S. C. L. R. 2 Q. B. Ca. 179.
Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure... are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free government.
— Charles Carroll, letter to James Mchenry, November 4, 1800.
Same sex marriage is not a human right. ... [U]ndermining the traditional definition of marriage is an assault on multiculturalism and the practices in those communities.
stephen harper— Hansard, February 16, 2005
undermining experience, embellishing experience, rearranging and enlarging experience into a species of mythology.
philip roth— Opening letter to Nathan Zuckerman.Referring to the life of a fiction writer
