“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.”
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Alain de Botton 146
Swiss writer 1969Related quotes
“I wanted a different way in which to tell my stories.”
2000s, GameSpy interview
Context: I wanted a different way in which to tell my stories. Coming up with concepts for computer games gives me another avenue of creative expression. It's not just me telling the story, it's me designing the idea for a story and letting the players write their own ending.
“So this is the difference between telling a story and being in one, he thought numbly, the fear.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 6, “The Price of Remembering” (p. 49)
"Official Report to the I.I.A.S.", p. 126
Papers of the Adams Family (1939)
Source: Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings
Source: 2015, Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (June 2015)
Context: I know that Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views on this issue. Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs. All of us who welcome today’s news should be mindful of that fact; recognize different viewpoints; revere our deep commitment to religious freedom. But today should also give us hope that on the many issues with which we grapple, often painfully, real change is possible. Shifts in hearts and minds is possible. And those who have come so far on their journey to equality have a responsibility to reach back and help others join them. Because for all our differences, we are one people, stronger together than we could ever be alone. That’s always been our story. We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.
“[A] fellow from Texas can tell the difference between grass-roots and AstroTurf.”
Apparent 1985 coining of the term astroturfing, meaning "creating or operating fake 'grass-roots' campaigns"
Cited in [Young, Henry, 2 November 2009, Astroturf Lobbying Organizations: Do Fake Grassroots Need Real Regulation, Illinois Business Law Journal, http://www.law.uiuc.edu/bljournal/post/2009/11/02/Astroturf-Lobbying-Organizations-Do-Fake-Grassroots-Need-Real-Regulation.aspx, 2010-03-27]
“Can you tell the difference between them?”
Said to United States President Barack Obama after being told that Obama had met with the Chinese and Russian ambassadors along with David Cameron, "Prince Philip makes a faux pas" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXKMIDbUbQ8 at Youtube (1 April 2009)
2000s
"HIV and AIDS: Have We Been Misled?; Questions of Scientific and Journalistic Responsibility," http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/slquestions.htm Yale Scientific (Fall 1994), reprinted in Challenges (Springer, 1997, ISBN 0387948619, p. 70
