#constrain

For what the lover would, that would the beloved; what she would ask of him that should he go before to grant. Without accord such as this, love is but a bond and a constraint. ↗

— Marie de France

#ask #before #beloved #bond #constraint

When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the President and unable to comment. But I promised reporters and the public that I would someday tell the whole story of what I knew. ↗

— Scott McClellan

#believing #comment #constrained #duties #exposed

I have been thinking ... that the social moulds civilization fits us into have no more relation to our actual shapes than the conventional shapes of the constellations have to the real star-patterns. I am called Mrs. Richard Phillotson, living a calm wedded life with my counterpart of that name. But I am not really Mrs. Richard Phillotson, but a woman tossed about, all alone, with aberrant passions, and unaccountable antipathies… ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#social-constraints #nature

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out. ↗

— Jeff Bezos

#constraints #drives #frugality #get #i

Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom. ↗

— Arthur Erickson

#constraints #euphoric #everything #freedom #gone

As a consequence, the Court ruled that the limits on campaign spending violated the First Amendment, but it accepted the $1,000 limit on individual contributions on the ground that the need to avoid the appearance of corruption justified this limited constraint on speech. ↗

— James L. Buckley

#amendment #appearance #avoid #campaign #consequence

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists. ↗

— Paul Farmer

#activists #causes #constraints #could #did

The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop. ↗

— John Updike

#after #breath #constraints #develop #first

At a minimum, in explaining evolutionary pathways through time, the constraints imposed by history rise to equal prominence with the immediate advantages of adaptation. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#advantages #constraints #equal #evolutionary #explaining

If we define optimism broadly as the tendency to maintain a positive outlook, then realistic optimism is the tendency to maintain a positive outlook within the constraints of the available "measurable phenomena situated in the physical and social world" (DeGrandpre, 2000, p. 733). With respect to fuzzy meaning, realistic optimism involves enhancing and focusing on the favorable aspects of our experiences. Examples include being lenient in our evaluation of past events, actively appreciating the positive aspects of our current situation, and routinely emphasizing possible opportunities for the future. With respect to fuzzy knowledge, realistic optimism involves hoping, aspiring, and searching for positive experiences while acknowledging what we do not know and accepting what we cannot know. ↗

— Sandra L. Schneider

#constraints #evaluation #opportunities #optimism #positivity