c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Laws are always unstable unless they are founded upon the manners of the nation
—  manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.
She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties.
— Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
Nations as well as men require time to learn, whatever may be their intelligence or zeal.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
There is a natural prejudice which prompts men to despise whomsoever has been their inferior long after he has become their equal.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
The greatest difficulty in antiquity with that of altering the law; among the moderns, it is that of altering the manners.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
People think that other international languages are smarter and more business wise. But they have to understand that we have to preserve our culture.
— Enock Maregesi
Religion in art was a subtle business, best handled indirectly.
— Philip Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Now a theist, he thought he should behave like one, even if it meant him during "the fussy, time-wasting, botheration of it all! the bells, the crowds, the umbrellas, the notices, the bustle, the perpetual arranging and organizing," and, worst of all, the hymns and organ music.
— Philip Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
He wouldn't hear of anybody's paying taxes, though he was very patriotic.
— Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Culture in any place always goes top down, never bottom up. We need to step back and look at what kind of environment we have created for ourselves and those around us. It is tough to expect positive behavior in a negative environment. Where lawlessness becomes the law, honest citizens become cheats, crooks and thieves.
— Shiv Khera, You Can Win: A Step by Step Tool for Top Achievers
It was tempting to take refuge in feelings of British superiority, although I disliked myself for it and hoped it didn't show.
— John  Mole, It's All Greek to Me!: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina--and Real Greeks
The American Club was for those who preferred to have dinner at six and brunch on a Sunday and avoid the stress of dealing with Greeks and their language.
— John  Mole, It's All Greek to Me!: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina--and Real Greeks
When we heed God's Word, we are rejecting how the world tries to disciple us.
— Matt      Chandler
When straight-identified women have sex with women, the broader culture waits in anticipation for them to return to what is likely their natural, heterosexual state; when straight-identified men have sex with men, the culture waits in anticipation for them to admit that they are gay.
— Jane  Ward, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men
The path to the ethnic democratization of American society is through its culture, that is to say through its cultural apparatus, which comprises the eyes, the ears, and the "mind" of capitalism and is twentieth-century voice to the world. Thus to democratize the cultural apparatus is tantamount to revolutionizing American society itself into the living realization of its professed ideas. Seeing the problem in another way, to revolutionize the cultural apparatus is to deal fundamentally with the unsolved American question of nationality--Which group speaks for America and for the glorification of which ethnic image? Either all group images speak for themselves and for the nation, or American nationality will never be determined.
— Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership
Violence is violence and can in no way be misconstrued as discipline under any circumstance cultural or otherwise.
— Aysha Taryam
Your blanks have been filled in far differently from those of a child grown up in the filth and poverty
— John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me
There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age.
— Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
A matter neither sensual nor sensational is ignored by the art of today.
— E.M. Forster, A Room with a View
Liberalism is not fond of fun, or at least of many forms of fun that many people like.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
In Gladstone's mature years he lost faith not in God but in the ability of any government or state to act as the agent of God.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
Enough anecdotes make a pattern.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
A bad song you can't forget is called an earworm. The way to get rid of an earworm is to deliberately remember an equally awful song.
— Matt      Chandler
Alexander Hamilton reflected as early as the middle of the Revolutionary War that rallying at the last minute was part of the national character of his countrymen.
— John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
Murder was a fascination as always.
— Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
New York's perennial attraction was shopping.
— Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Established churches not infrequently formed an alliance with the aristocracy , joining arm in arm against change.
— John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
In the context of today, this WAS heroism.
— John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me
Not only was it impossible to truly belong in America, but he didn't fit in here anymore either. He was a dweller of two lands, accepted by none.
— Shilpi Somaya Gowda, The Golden Son: A Novel
Make this part of your brand DNA... Tell Your Story In a Way People Will Care.
— Ted Rubin
A Martial Artist may become A professional fighter but not every Fighter is capable of becoming A martial artist. Martial Arts are about restoration of physical and spiritual balance and fluidity; they are about observing restraints and 'setting example'. Every practice session is A reminder of the play of opposites (yin and yang), . . . .
— Soke Behzad Ahmadi, Dirty Fighting : Lethal Okinawan Karate
To my mind, this embracing of what were unambiguously children's characters at their mid-20th century inception seems to indicate a retreat from the admittedly overwhelming complexities of modern existence. It looks to me very much like a significant section of the public, having given up on attempting to understand the reality they are actually living in, have instead reasoned that they might at least be able to comprehend the sprawling, meaningless, but at-least-still-finite 'universes' presented by DC or Marvel Comics. I would also observe that it is, potentially, culturally catastrophic to have the ephemera of a previous century squatting possessively on the cultural stage and refusing to allow this surely unprecedented era to develop a culture of its own, relevant and sufficient to its times.
— Alan Moore
Whereas, in the west, individuality and drive are considered positive qualities, they are not seen the same way, in Japan. In that country, if you are too much of a rugged individualist, it might actually indicate that you are a weak, unreliable character and that you are selfish, in a childish, willful kind of way.
— Alexei Maxim Russell, The Japanophile's Handbook
Never trust a German to get a sauce right. Their solution to everything is just add more butter.
— Kate Quinn, The Serpent and the Pearl
Longing for something fresh, for something no one else has said often leads to bad exegesis.
— Matt      Chandler, Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church
Addiction is to the habits of mind that technology allows us to practice.
— Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
As adults, we can develop and change our opinions. In childhood, we establish the truth of our hearts.
— Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
She had set it on the Internet, its own peculiar echo chamber.
— Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Politics is always driven by competing worries.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
Violence is temporary, but learning is permanent.
— Patrick Hennessey, The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time And Fighting Wars
Another anti-theoretical stratagem is to claim that in order to launch some fundamental critique of our culture, we would need to be standing at some Archimedean point beyond it. What this fails to see is that reflecting critically on our situation is part of our situation. It is a feature of the peculiar way we belong to the world. It is not some impossible light-in-the-refrigerator attempt to scrutinize ourselves when we are not there. Curving back on ourselves is as natural to us as it is to cosmic space or a wave of the sea. It does not entail jumping out of our own skin. Without such self-monitoring we would not have survived as a species.
— Terry Eagleton, After Theory
I see the cultural messaging everywhere that says an ordinary life is a meaningless life. . . . I know the yearning to believe that what I'm doing matters and how easy it is to confuse that with the drive to be extraordinary. I know how seductive it is to use the celebrity culture yardstick to measure the smallness of our lives. And I also understand how grandiosity, entitlement, and admiration-seeking feel like just the right balm to soothe the ache of being too ordinary and inadequate.
— Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
A cardinal tenet of conservatism is that social inertia is – and ought to be – strong. It discourages and, if necessary, defeats the political grandiosity of those who would attempt to engineer the future by rupturing connections with the past.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
Since much of American taxes prior to 1763 went to support the local clergy, one humorist suggested the opportunity to vote on that. If the minister was turned out, he could open a tavern and preach to his customers if he served them liquor.
— Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America
Americans in 1763 lived always in the shadow and presence of death. Death was not yet romanticized as it would be in the 19th century, nor yet sanitized as it would be in the 20th century.
— Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America
We look at the Ark of the Covenant and remember who we are.
— Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord
Look at the mirror! Who are you? You are not yourself, you are your culture! Do you want to be yourself? Then leave your prison and discover the paths beyond your path!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
This is what technology wants, it wants to be a symptom. Like all psychological symptoms, it obscures a problem by "solving" it without addressing it.
— Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
The Church should spend less time trying to be "relevant", which can come across as disingenuous, and more time trying to align their hearts to the authentic gospel message.
— Matt      Chandler, Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church
From visible habits we make inferences as to the invisible attributes of the soul. Therefore, statecraft is soulcraft.
— George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
The Temple-like structure at which our heroes seek answers has an interior environment more like a familiar tavern at which C. S. Lewis would be comfortable or, for that matter, at which Christ would be criticized for associating with sinners.
— Star Wars: The Force Awakens
That I growed up a man and not a beast says something for me.
— Charles Dickens, The Chimes
Without a doubt, it [Canada] is the land God gave to Cain.
— Mordecai Richler, Solomon Gursky Was Here
Shared history was the coin of the realm.
— Chris Matthews, Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked
Our religion was the religion of a Book. Man must be educated on Earth for Heaven. John Quincy Adams
— Paul C. Nagel, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life
By our day, self-restraint was considered madness.
— Mark Sayers, Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm
Anecdotes came with his DNA.
— Chris Matthews, Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked
Disequilibrium is often instigated by the will to power, a sleepless drive in the human personality to control others, to force them to do what one wants, or not to do what one opposes.
— Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
Both sides had more confidence in their opponents' weaknesses than their own strength.
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government.
— Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Islam is in a formative period struggling to consolidate the vast reach won by both inspiration and force at its founding. Two centuries along, the faith of Muhammad hangs like an intricate veil: a religion still searching for institutional wholeness, a set of lessons to live by.
— Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
Once information slipped the bonds of gravity and friction, it tended to gather where it was most valuable.
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
Shaving was invented to kill time before a date.
— M*A*S*H Episode Guide Team, M*A*S*H EPISODE GUIDE: Details All 251 Episodes with Plot Summaries. Searchable. Companion to DVDs Blu Ray and Box Set.
He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check.
— Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. Ralph Waldo Emerson
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
A Pakistani exchange student's maternal American host "managed to summon the transforming question of her culture, built on the revolutionary idea that people are the sovereign, the boss, captains of their own fate.She said, simply, "But what do YOU think?
— Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
This is not an issue of geography. He IS of two worlds wherever he goes.
— Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
Disorder is the least tolerable up sinful conditions.
— Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God 51 times out of 100. But the remaining 49 times, it is the voice of the devil, or worse, the voice of a fool. Theodore Roosevelt
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
Why, since folly or perversity is expected of individuals, should we expect anything else from government?
— Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
It does not strike me as a good thing that the only person we can be so, so close to is the person we're dating.
— Chris Damian
By focusing on her career and taking a calculated approach to amassing power, Heidi violated our stereotypical expectations of women. Yet by behaving in the same manner, Howard lived up to our stereotypical expectations of men. The end result? Liked him, disliked her.
— Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
One of the highest marks of citizenship is fighting for the common defense.
— Richard Brookhiser, Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
Any man's life can be seen as a series of engagements with his fathers, Including the surrogates provided by life and literature.
— Richard Brookhiser, Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
You are being discipled by something.
— Matt      Chandler
The first 10 days of a cattle drive were the most critical, as a stampede was most likely when the cattle were closest to their habitual home.
— H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
The more you keep your door closed, the more you will rot! Open your door! Let different ideas, different beliefs, different cultures and different attitudes flow into your mind. Anything different will help you to enlarge your little world! By opening your door, you invite the whole universe to your tiny house! Enlarge your house and enrich yourself! As long as your door remains closed, you shall continue rotting in your poor world!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
Our problem right now is that we're so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there's a little utopia.
— Margaret Atwood
It always matters who the storyteller is. It’s a lens.
— James Still
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is Our young people look for quick answers and solutions
— Sunday Adelaja
She loves filming and taking photographs. I can imagine her making beautiful films in France or India or somewhere with a gorgeously colourful culture. She somehow reminds me of my favourite place in the world, she and Paris I can romanticize and immortalize in ceaseless poetry for the rest of my life.
— Moonshine Noire
In my own opinion, the average American's cultural shortcomings can be likened to those of the educated barbarians of ancient Rome. These were barbarians who learned to speak--and often to read and write--Latin. They acquired Roman habits of dress and deportment. Many of them handily mastered Roman commercial, engineering and military techniques--but they remained barbarians nonetheless. They failed to develop any understanding, appreciation or love for the art and culture of the great civilization around them.
— J. Paul Getty, How to Be Rich
Do not justify art, once you do, it limits the feelings it is apt to inflict. Art with Boundaries shadows all its principles.
— Unarine Ramaru
Explore Art without a campus, it is fulfilling in the unknown.
— Unarine Ramaru
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is People want to get something for nothing.
— Sunday Adelaja
Our government, media houses, schools, must focus on creating a new culture in our society. A culture of work. A culture of labour. A culture of diligence. A culture of hard work. A culture of perseverance. A culture of persistence. A culture of DIGNITY OF LABOUR.
— Sunday Adelaja
Custom is a shroud that conceals everything. Not without first encountering the uncustomary will we be able to recognize what is customary and, more importantly, to change it. Such is the impulse behind our conversation with the vampryoteuthis
— Vilém Flusser, Vampyroteuthis Infernalis: A Treatise, with a Report by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is armed robbery and theft becomes the order of the day.
— Sunday Adelaja
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is they look down at people who are engaged in manual labour
— Sunday Adelaja
What the new government of Nigeria and other African governments must do, is to start a massive reorientation campaign in the culture of the dignity of labour.
— Sunday Adelaja
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is People don’t believe that hard work is worth it.
— Sunday Adelaja
What the culture of get rich quick does to our people is the escapist mentality becomes prevalent, giving birth to the syndrome of economic refugees.
— Sunday Adelaja
The depth of your art is subject to originality
—  Your own authentic style.
The road itself tells us far more than signs do.
— Tom Vanderbilt, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do
We will go no place where we cannot take our Master with us. While others take their liberty to sin, We will not renounce our liberty to rebuke and confront them.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students
I see that the culture that is prevalent right now in Nigeria and indeed Africa is the culture of GET RICH QUICK.
— Sunday Adelaja
The myth is not my own
—  I have it from my mother. Euripides
Her heart filled with boundless love that surged anew for her father. She felt like rushing to him and planting a quick kiss on his cheek the way she used to when she was a small girl. However, these villagers are not in the habit of kissing their offspring after they grow up. They show their love and affection by stroking their heads, addressing them in endearing words and blessing them.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
For a nation to be truly great, she must first identify her national values, enumerate her virtues and formulate her value system. But the most tasking of all these is to develop a culture in her people, that will best represent the proclaimed value systems of the nation.
— Sunday Adelaja
How to teach again what has been taught correctly it incorrectly 1000 thousand times, throughout the millenniums of mankind's prudent folly? That is the hero's ultimate difficult task. How to render back into light-world language the speech-defying pronouncements of the dark? Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold.
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces
I inherited curiosity from my Dad.
— Tom Clancy, Command Authority
According to the Buddha's doctrine that they believed in, it was not the caste that defined a person high or low. It was one's deeds that mattered.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Culture is the celebration of diversity. Let us therefore not deny our origin; but instead celebrate ours as a cultural mosaic not a tower of Babel , but a power of Babel
— Ali A. Mazrui, Cultural Forces in World Politics
He did not consider public opinion to be accurate at long range.
— Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
It is the culture that makes the difference. When there is no internal transformation, there cannot be external progress and development whatsoever.
— Sunday Adelaja
I'm Jewish in the way Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.
— A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Look at this charming donkey!
— Kenneth Clark
A new movement reinforced by activists such as Buddhist monks, physicians who practised traditional medicine, teachers, farmers, and laborers brought Prime Minister Bandaranaike into the political helm. The leaders of the Davulawatta community considered this election a personal achievement. They saw this as a people's government and appreciated its genuine interest in fulfilling the needs of the common people. They trusted that the present government would eradicate poverty and the caste discrimination, and work to promote self-esteem.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
The author finds any freaking, and remarkably objective, way to estimate religion's influence on American society before the Civil War. The population closely aligned with evangelical sympathies was three or four times the size of the voting population in 1860
— Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
Killing life in whatever way, will drag you along the hell's way.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
If the woman has the physical fitness and the meritorious luck to bear his children, the family was a fortunate one. Villagers always looked at sterility with a squinted eye, and its fault and the misfortune lay solely on the woman's part. As such, a childless woman often became culprit for her entire life.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Physical beauty or sexual attraction in a woman was not a criterion in deciding, strengthening, or the survival of such relationships of these villagers.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Cultural values change with times, unless they are built on an absolute standard of values and virtues. This standard must be afterwards well-guarded and protected.
— Sunday Adelaja
Maggie was ten years younger than him. Being cross-cousins, they lived in the same compound, in the same two houses that still existed. When their parents told him to take her for his wife, there was nothing for him to think deep into the matter. They simply obeyed their parents. Accordingly, she came over to sleep in his house. In this, manner they remained as man and wife for a period of over thirty years.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
In my opinion, one of the answers to the question of underdevelopment of nations, is in the CULTURE of DIGNITY OF LABOR.
— Sunday Adelaja
Carolina protected her so that Suneetha should remain a virgin until her wedding night. The worth of such purity in character was immeasurable in this society and culture. Therefore, she never even allowed Suneetha to go with other village girls when they went to the desolate cinnamon gardens to gather firewood.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Just as we seldom realize that we are growing old until we are already old, so do the contemporary actors in a major social change seldom realize that society is changing until the change has already come.
— James Burnham, The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World
Every book purchase made from Amazon is a vote for a culture without content and without contentment.
— Ursula K. Le Guin
When I was a stripper I realized that men and women are equally fucked over about sex but in such different areas, we're blind to the other's pain. So for certain kinds of guys, women are heartless bitches and cock teases and will bleed you dry before giving you a kiss. And for some women, men are asshole jerks who only want one thing. They'll love you and leave you. I don't see it that way. It's the culture keeping them equally ignorant and feeding them nonsense. And then saying, go of and get married!
— Nina Hartley
Here was a king who saw his subjects as peers and allies around whom he had growing up rather than semi-alien entities to be suspected and persecuted.
— Dan Jones, The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
The war brought some changes to Colombo. But it was the villages that changed far more than the towns.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
It was not to flaunt feelings of superiority that the elders of the Kaisaruwatte family clung to the traditions of their patrician lineage, but for self-preservation of themseleves and their way of life, now declining in the face of social change. It was their inability to adapt to change due to the rigidity of their adherence to tradition, that was also the cause of their decline.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ
A woman anticipates danger by instinct, rather than inductive reasoning. Due to this, when faced with danger due to passionate feelings related to their basic needs, women are impelled by reasoning, conditioned by instincts acquired from family traditions and the conventions of her social stratum, much more than men are.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Gamperaliya
A village woman from a poor family may violate the code of propriety, not because of poverty, but because she has been the victim of the menace of male predators. A woman from a family of the gentry, would never be the victim of such intimidation. Moreover the women of the gentry were bonded to follow their code of conduct and not to transgress, by generations of breeding.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Gamperaliya
An outsider's inquisitiveness to know another's private affairs is natural, but not so in children with respect to their parents. Children know the overt personal life of their parents. It is a crime for children to probe into mistakes made by their parents, like detectives looking for evidence of crimes. Any man can make mistakes, however good he may be. It is wrong for children to inquisitively probe into their parents' lives, and have fun or show anger over what they uncover. It is like digging into the heads of ancient statues in search of archaeological artefacts. Nanda spoke with anger.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Kaliyugaya
Tissa reflected that religion is divine poetry whilst morality is made up of customs and traditions that change with the place and the times. How do men who read the same books he reads, live on the same kind of food in the same world and social class, differ so much from him and from each other in mind and body? He concluded that his present state of body and mind that gives rise to his reflections cannot be just the outcome of books he read and the food he ate, nor his own efforts to adapt to his world and his social class. Human beings are born with an individuality that is unique to each, but this cannot be attributed to the presence or absence of a soul. The same individuality is there in each leaf, and one leaf differs from another. Yet all the leaves get the same nourishment from the roots of the tree, and the sun and the air.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Kaliyugaya
It did not occur to Kabalana that the behaviour of these two young men was not a consequence of their education and experiences in England. Kabalana did not have the objectivity in thinking to acknowledge this. What they acquired in England was an education that encouraged independent thought. The social environment encouraged independent thought, but also the expression of such thoughts without fear. The English people have no unchanging past. Scientific knowledge, the Arts and social conventions change even in a matter of weeks and months.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
How youMore people will learn about IBM from Wikipedia in the coming years than from IBM itself.
— Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
There's curd, but is it alright to eat curd after eating meat?" asked Weligama Hamine, placing the dish of vegetables in her hands on the table. "Our parents never allowed us to eat curd after meat.""There's no harm in eating curd, Amma," Aravinda said. "It may be a little harmful to eat curd after too much meat. Meats contains essential elements that take time to digest. This is also true of milk. That's why this belief would have grown. If we eat a large quantity of meat without rice, and follow with curd, there is a possibility of indigestion."Weligama Hamine accepted the professional knowledge of her son who had qualified in England. She however, did not abandon her own view completely.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
Why was Malin deliberately trying to hurt the feelings of his parents? Aravinda could not find an answer. Hurting his own parents' feelings was something alien to Aravinda. He lived among rural folk who encouraged children not to flout the wishes of parents and elders.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
Malin listened to Wickramanayake's gossip dispassionately. He did not accept Wickramanayake's opinion that it was the influence of Western customs and attitudes that prompted Savulugala, in his straitened economic circumstances, to allow his wife to befriend and exploit wealthy men. There were poor people in both town and village who exploited even their daughters to get money. Did these poor parents degrade themselves because they were enslaved by Western culture? It was the prevailing economic and social order that brought them to this.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
Chamari: "Aravinda, have you been to Kataragama?"Aravinda: "No, I've never been there."Chamari: "What? That's unbelievable for someone born in Deniyaya!"Aravinda: "Going to Kataragama is not a custom of the rural folk. It is the middle class and wealthy urban people, not the villagers, who venerate the Kataragama god. He is the god of the urbanities. The villagers have now started to imitate the urban people."Chamari:"I thought even villagers used to go to Kataragama long ago."Aravinda: "No, It came from the rich urban Sinhalese of the towns who followed the rich Hindus.
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
Love is thicker than blood, its blind to color, it is its own culture
— Evy Michaels
Families could often trace their lineage back several centuries. Their livelihood was earned from drum playing, a service considered to be dis-respectable. As members of a low caste, the drummers were forbidden to build decent houses. There were allowed to build wattle and daub huts, and to live rent-free on their patrons' properties. The right to own the country's land was restricted in this manner, a vicious condition that arose through tradition and was reinforced by law. Patterns of financial power and political hierarchy existed hand in hand.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Generally, that humble piece of furniture placed on the front veranda of the house officially belonged to the man of the household; the women never slept on it.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
In a front of each home garden the villagers fixed a triangular wooden lamp-house on the top of a pole planted on the ground to hold a small statue of Lord Buddha and some deities. They used to offer flowers at this small shrine and light a tiny clay oil lamp.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Master Salamon usually set off a little later as neither he nor other male members of their community were in the habit of walking on the road alongside their wives.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
The villagers considered it lucky to make the New Year's first money transaction with her because she was a prosperous person.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
When he had accompanied his father on drumming errands he noticed how high caste men and women treated them as inferior. They had to enter from the back door and wait near the kitchen or at a side veranda and sit on low benches or reed mats. They were never offered a decent seat. At meals times they were never invited to eat at the main table with the family or other guests. Instead, they had to eat the food served to them on the reed mat. This they ate in silence while the patrons sat at a lavishly laid table and enjoyed their food amidst chat and cheer.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Our innocent kids undergo much trouble. Not only do the children of high caste families look down upon our children calling them low caste brats, but even some teachers ridicule them. They beat our children for no reason.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
Even though we are supposed to be low caste and poor our vote also has the same value and validity as that of great people.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
She believed that people born to low caste families were meant to suffer. That was their karma. She had learnt that those who indulge in sinful activities in their previous birth, especially those who humiliated others, would be reborn to low caste families. She firmly believed also that one has to suffer until the sin was paid for through suffering and good deeds.
— Swarnakanthi Rajapakse, The Master's Daughter
The author says that one of the difficulties of modern parenting is the uncertainty of what parents are preparing children for. In traditional societies this was clear, as parents prepared children for a society and for roles much like their own. She writes, "There is no folk wisdom.
— Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
Any nation that wishes to enjoy the fruits of development and civilization, must follow the golden rules of this scripture as a national policy and culture.
— Sunday Adelaja
They don't know the distinction between taking care of a child and raising a child.
— Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
They glided out of the heat-haze on their camels like specters. There were twenty of them, and they were Tuareg. Their faces were hidden by black veils that left only slits for the eyes, and they wore purple robes that fluttered in the desert wind. They carried swords, muskets and seven-foot iron spears, and wore stilettos in sheaths on their left forearms. They were an impressive, sinister sight.
— Michael Asher, Death in the Sahara: The Lords of the Desert and the Timbuktu Railway Expedition Massacre
Villagers saw me as a person when I played with them, as opposed to when I talked with them.
— Rebekah Nathan, My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student
We do not need to explain how the Aryans entered and settled in the Dravidian country (tira¯vit»a na¯» t»u), and subjugated and oppressed the Dravidians. Nor do we need to explain how before the Aryans entered the Dravidian country, the Dravidian country had a civilization and arts of the highest rank.
— Periyar E.V. Ramasamy
Violent crimes had increased from 120 per 100,000 in 1962 180 per 100,000 by 1964.
— Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
When I was packing those, I caught myself taking all the important, profound, and indispensable titles I could – nearly filled the box. But one of the more eccentric librarians at the internment compound I’d gotten permission to riffle had put up a whole shelf full of cubes of women writers or texts about women. She was convinced nobody could be truly educated unless they’d read them – though nobody I ever met had, except her, maybe. […]
— Samuel R. Delany, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Over a seven year span, only 10% of college slaying remained in place.
— Connie Eble
The deepest reason why the Church is weak and the world is dying is that there are not enough saints. No, that's not quite honest. The reason is that WE are not saints.
— Peter Kreeft, How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis
For the first time on Planet Earth (in 1964 America), a nation was made up of more college students than farmers. An unheard-of 42% of high school graduates sought higher education.
— Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
The average Harvard freshman in 1952 would have placed in the bottom 10 percent of the incoming class by 1960.
— Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
Just like today, the Protestants and their teachings had to fight with the prevalent order of the day which taught that: Work is only for making profit. Make money with minimum effort. The culture of the day viewed work as a burden to be avoided. The secular world of the time taught that you should do no more than what was enough for good living.
— Sunday Adelaja
Nobody loves a policeman until he needs one.
— Will Durant
The state is the soul of man enlarged under the microscope of history.
— Will Durant
Teddy White lamented that TV might spell the death of serious politics: to give a thoughtful response to serious questions, politician needed a good thirty seconds to ponder, but television allowed only five seconds of silence at best. DDB (ad men) found nothing to lament and the fact. They were convinced you could learn everything you needed to KNOW about a product, which in this case happens to be a human being, in half a minute – the speed not of thought but of emotion.
— Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
Culture is taking whatever background you come from and either running with it or running from it.
— Imani Nettles
It used to be that parents didn't have to be home. If a neighbor so I child misbehaving, it was considered appropriate for the neighbor to intervene. The parents would be grateful when they found out, and they would take the word of the neighbor if the child protested his innocence.Unmarried and divorced parents tend not to behave that way. Instead, they tend to try to be the good guy to their children.
— Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
Data can bear on policy issues, but many of our opinions about policy are grounded in premises about the nature of human life and human society that are beyond the reach of data.
— Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
Culture is taking the background you come from and either running with it or running from it.
— Imani Nettles
the most lovable of exceptional American qualities (is) our tradition of insisting that we are part of the middle class, even if we aren’t, and of interacting with our fellow citizens as if we were all middle class.
— Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
She had come to understand that American parenting was a juggling of anxieties, and that it came with having too much food: a sated belly gave Americans time to worry that their child might have a rare disease that they had just read about, made them think they had the right to protect their child from disappointment and want and failure. A sated belly gave Americans the luxury of praising themselves for being good parents, as if caring for one's child was the exception rather than the rule.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Peace is found when people stand for morality and rejectculture. Defend freedom at all costs and at all times and peacewill rule the world instead of tyrants.
— Jeremy Locke, The End of All Evil
Good form without knowing it is the best form of all.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Tarot is a practice rich with history and cultural knowledge. It is a science of the mind.
— Benebell Wen
Being well known for being well-known did not necessarily imply intelligence.
— David Halberstam
Lack of culture equals to parallel lives, however through art, oneness, sanity and sense of belonging is restored.
— Unarine Ramaru
Public symbols matter. They are one of the ways we tell each other, and the world, what we honor.
— Michael W. McConnell
I find myself constantly taking apart be taken-for-granted.
— Rebekah Nathan, My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student
All civilizations have needed a stable basis of short term value.
— Jay Weiser
Their lot in life, their station, became a part of their personalities and helped to for my worldview.
— John Kasich, Every Other Monday: Twenty Years of Life, Lunch, Faith, and Friendship
Bobby Kennedy said that when he had been a boy there were three major influences on children – the home, the church, and the school – and now there was a fourth – television.
— David Halberstam, The Powers That Be
Newspapers might have as much to do in shaping the course of public events as politicians,
— David Halberstam, The Powers That Be
In describing the ways that religious and other types of communities appropriate and understand their histories, among both fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists, the sociologist Anthony Giddens utilizes the term “reflexivity” and states that it is the characteristic of “all human action.” Reflexivity takes place when individuals and/or communities utilize their perceptions of their histories as a way of guiding their present and future actions. For Giddens, tradition is a means of “handling time and space, which asserts any particular activity or experience with the community of past, present, and future, these in turn being structured by recurrent social practices.” In light of this, tradition is a set of entities which religious communities and cultures continually reconstruct within certain parameters. Religions are not completely static in that almost every new generation reinvents the religious and cultural inheritance from the generations that preceded it.
— Jon Armajani, Modern Islamist movements: history, religions, and politics
If the norm of the society is corrupted, then objective journalism is corrupted too, for it must not challenge the norm. It must accept the norm.
— David Halberstam, The Powers That Be
Education was central to reporting.
— David Halberstam, The Powers That Be
Vaccination was, and is, thoroughly infused with our politics, our social values, and our cultural norms. By acknowledging and understanding the divergent reasons why we've vaccinated in the past, however, we just may ensure the continued success of vaccination in the future.
— Elena Conis
Until he (Time's founder Henry Luce) arrived, news was crime and politics.
— David Halberstam, The Powers That Be
The longer she spent in America, the better she had become at distinguishing, sometimes from looks and gait, but mostly from bearing and demeanor, that fine-grained mark that culture stamps on people. (Chapter 17)
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Rebelling against the status quo was one of the definitions of conservatism.
— Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
I simply decided once and for all to liberate myself from the anxiety of notoriety and the urge to be a part of that circle of successful people, those who believe they have won who-knows-what
— Elena Ferrante
In a servant leadership culture we learn by choice or example that if we want to be great, we have to serve others respectfully.
— Vern Dosch, Wired Differently
All topics should be studied through the lens of the Gospel.
— C.J. Mahaney
Anthropologist Gary Weaver suggested looking at culture as a kind of iceberg: one portion is clearly visible above the surface of the water, while the much larger chunk of ice is hidden below. The part above the water can be considered surface culture––what we can physically see or hear, including behavior, words, customs, language, and traditions. Underneath the water, invisible to all, is the deep culture. This place includes our beliefs, values, assumptions, worldview, and thought processes.
— David C. Pollock, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds
When we think of the word culture, obvious representations such as how to dress, eat, speak, and act like those around us come to mind. But learning culture is more than learning conformity to external patterns of behavior. Culture is also a system of shared concepts, beliefs, and values. It is the framework from which we interpret and make sense of life and the world around us.
— David C. Pollock, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds
Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience.
— Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
There are heroes and schmucks in all worlds. The most important thing is whether you are willing to engage in moral struggle against yourself.
— David Brooks
Believe it or not, philosophy has consequences.
— Jonathan V. Last
Sin is the native language in every ZIP code.
— Matt      Chandler, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change
Caregivers, like all of us, inevitably reflect their culture's attitude toward children and life. The story goes that when Pearl Buck was a child in China, someone asked how she compared her mother to her Chinese amah. Buck replied, "If I want to have a story read, I go to my mother. But if I fall down and need to be comforted, I go to my amah." Her mother's culture valued teaching and learning, while her amah's placed a greater value on nurture. Even as a child, Buck instinctively knew the difference.
— David C. Pollock
He had to grow his own NCOs.
— Tom Clancy, Executive Orders
When their voices didn't reach my ears,I rebelled against my own skin too young to realize that without their stories I would starve.
— Kiana Davis, Digging For Roots
Authentic leadership is at the root of cultures of great innovation, engagement, outstanding client experiences, and growth.
— Henna Inam, Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead