Quotes about Significance

Public Servant, Novelist, Author

The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe.

Ability - Certainty - Creativity - Facts - Imagination - Impression - Limits - Man - Oddity - Significance - Temperature - Trouble - Universe

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Honore de Balzac

Artist, Novelist, Novelist

If we study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment - giving to that word its exact significance.

Enchantment - Evolution - Failing - Giving - Nature - Possibility - Significance - Studying

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question whether the characters are not significant of themselves.

Linguistics - Significance - Travel

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Walt Whitman

Poet, Essayist, Journalist

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.

Art - Significance

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Jiddu Krishnamurti

Leader, Philosopher, Writer

Are you aware of the significance of every thought, of every reaction that you happen to have?

Awakening - Reaction - Significance - Spiritual

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Noam Chomsky

Linguist, Philosopher, Cognitive Scientist, Social Critic, Political Activist

Even in a largely depoliticized society such as the United States, with no political parties or opposition press beyond the narrow spectrum of the business-dominated consensus, it is possible for populate action to have a significant impact on policy, though indirectly. That was an important lesson for the Indochina Wars.

Actions - Politics - Pressure - Significance - State - Unions

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John C. Maxwell

Scientist, Clergyman, Author

Now more than ever I am aware that a person's significant birthdays can either mark the passage of time, or they can mark changes they've made in their lives to reach their potential and become the person they were created to be. With each passing year, I want to make good choices that make me a better person, help me become a better leader, and make a positive impact on others.

Choice - Help - Leadership - Making - Marking - Motivation - Significance - Wants

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Soren Kierkegaard

Philosopher, Theologian, Poet, Social Critic

It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.

Essence - Relationship - Significance - Tasks

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Isaac Asimov

Writer, Professor

At two-tenths the speed of light, dust and atoms might not do significant damage even in a voyage of 40 years, but the faster you go, the worse it is--space begins to become abrasive. When you begin to approach the speed of light, hydrogen atoms become cosmic-ray particles, and they will fry the crew. ...So 60,000 kilometers per second may be the practical speed limit for space travel.

Significance

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there, but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page.

Significance

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Historian, Novelist

Periods of rapid and fundamental change were never favourable for literature. Significant works, have nearly always and everywhere been created in periods of stability, be it good or bad.

Significance

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Napoleon Hill

Leader, Writer, Author

Here is a most significant fact-the subconscious mind takes any orders given it in a spirit of absolute FAITH, and acts upon those orders, although the orders often have to be presented over and over again, through repetition, before they are interpreted by the subconscious mind.

Facts - Giving - Mindset - Order - Repetition - Significance - Spirits

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Noam Chomsky

Linguist, Philosopher, Cognitive Scientist, Social Critic, Political Activist

There was unprecedented elite condemnation of the plans to invade Iraq. Sensible analysts were able to perceive that the enterprise carried significant risks for U.S. interests, however conceived.

Ability - Analysis - Enterprising - Interest - Invasion - Perception - Plan - Risk - Sense - Significance

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Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage-the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterologic al traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.

Chemistry - Man - Morals - Notions - Politics - Racism - Significance

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Noam Chomsky

Linguist, Philosopher, Cognitive Scientist, Social Critic, Political Activist

The U.S. directed the war against South Vietnam. There was a political settlement in 1954. But in the late '50's the United States organized an internal repression in South Vietnam, not using its troops, but using the local apparatus it was constructing. This was a very significant and very effective campaign of violence and terrorism against the Vietminh - which was the communist-led nationalist force that fought the French. And the Vietminh at that time was adhering to the Geneva Accords, hoping that the political settlement would work out in South Vietnam.

Communism - Organizing - Politics - Significance - State - Unions - Workout

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Jesse Jackson

Civil Rights Activist, Clergyman, Politician

There's great disparity between who goes to college and who goes to jail. Who lives long and who dies prematurely, is the defining issue of our time. And I submit to you, there's a significant race dimension, it is basically class-driven.

Death - Drive - Jail - Significance - Submission

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Thomas Aquinas

Friar, Philosopher, Priest, Theologian

If there were some solitary or feral man, the passions of the soul would be sufficient for him; by them he would be conformed to things in order that he might have knowledge of them. But because man is naturally political and social, there is need for one man to make his conceptions known to others, which is done with speech. So significant speech was needed if men were to live together. Which is why those of different tongues do not easily live together.

Communicate - Knowledge - Man - Politics - Significance - Speaking

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Rajneesh

Guru

Truth needs meditative eyes. If you don't have meditative eyes, then the whole life is just dull dead facts, unrelated to each other, accidental, meaningless, a jumble, just a chance phenomenon. If you see the truth, everything falls into line, everything falls together in a harmony, everything starts having significance.

Chance - Facts - Fall - Harmony - Life - Phenomena - Significance - Together - Truth - Whole

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Earl Nightingale

Radio Speaker, Author

In doing that which we most enjoy, we will probably make our most significant contribution to society, and the contribution we make to society determines our rewards.

Enjoying - Reward - Significance

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Tony Robbins

Actor, Author, Author

If you look around the world and I can tell you right now that the majority of the planet is focused on certainty and significance. And those two absolutely guarantee unhappiness. Because if you're driven by significance, it doesn't matter what you achieve, it's never enough.

Achievement - Certainty - Drive - Enough - Guarantee - Majority - Planet - Significance - Unhappy - World

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