#concept

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions. ↗

— Jessamyn West

#easier #facts #fit #ignore #preconceptions

I'm fascinated by the whole concept of snake handling. When you read about the Pentecostal snake handlers, what strikes you the most is their commitment. ↗

— Lucinda Williams

#commitment #concept #fascinated #handling #i

The theory of relativity worked out by Mr. Einstein, which is in the domain of natural science, I believe can also be applied to the political field. Both democracy and human rights are relative concepts - and not absolute and general. ↗

— Jiang Zemin

#also #applied #believe #both #concepts

The last clear definite function of man—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need—this is man....For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man—when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live—for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live—for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#idea #john-steinback #man #the-grapes-of-wrath #change

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences. ↗

— Saint Augustine

#experiences #go #here #must #printed

We all have to lead our own life, and we only have the one life, and the only people who can live life not according to their own desires are those who have no desires--which is the majority, actually. People can say what they like, they can speak of abnegation, sacrifice, generosity, acceptance, and resignation, but it's all false. The norm is for people to think that they desire whatever comes to them, whatever they achieve along the way or whatever is given to them--they have no preconceived desires. ↗

— Javier Marías

#life #preconceptions #life

Our empirical criterion for a series of theories is that it should produce new facts. The idea of growth and the concept of empirical character are soldered into one. ↗

— Imre Lakatos

#concept #criterion #empirical #facts #growth

Our concept is not that America should operate alone or by itself in world affairs or in military affairs. ↗

— Douglas Feith

#alone #america #concept #itself #military

That's always an interesting concept when you try to make your dream into a reality and you come up against the facts of exactly what it is you're attempting to do. ↗

— Karl Urban

#always #attempting #come #concept #dream

God ceases to be God only for those who can admit the possibility of His non-existence, and that conception is in itself the most severe punishment they can suffer. ↗

— Giacomo Casanova

#ceases #conception #god #his #itself