Quotes about attempt (2041 quotes, page 21)

“[A] danger, in its ultimate results scarcely less disastrous than pestilence and famine...distracts that country [Ireland]. A portion of its population is attempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which has favoured the power and prosperity of both. It is to be hoped that all men of light and leading will resist this destructive doctrine. The strength of this nation depends on the unity of feeling which should pervade the United Kingdom and its widespread dependencies.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Election address; letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Marlborough (8 March 1880), quoted in The Times (9 March 1880), p. 8

Dependency , Country , Light , Hope

“I think there's a few things that we need to be doing. So one is we have to stop treating leaders like superheroes. We are ordinary people attempting to do extraordinary things”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

Thinking , People

“Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.”

Michael Haneke (1942) Austrian film director and screenwriter

[Ignoramous, Lamos, Watch "24 Realities Per Second" Michael Haneke Documentary, http://filmslie.com/24-realities-per-second-michael-haneke-documentary/, FilmsLie.com, 10 August 2016]

Truth

“The carnivorous life is denounced by the tenderer and more enlightened elements of mankind, and so those under indictment begin to rake and scrape to see what they can turn up in vindication of their beloved and imperilled rapacities. They find, happily, that Nature is 'red in tooth and claw,' that man has 'canine teeth,' and that human beings are without the five stomachs of the ruminantia. Of course, man is a carnivorous animal; couldn't be anything else if he wanted to be; would probably peter out if he attempted it; and it is not necessary to try to be anything else, anyway, if he could be, for he is in harmony with the all-wise and perfectly lovely regime of bloody Nature already. Mighty slim pegs on which to suspend a life of crime, considering that their substance is purely imaginary! But sufficient for those who have made up their minds beforehand to be satisfied with whatever there is.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), Is Man a Plant-Eater?, pp. 111–112

Nature , Animals , Love , Life

“The truth is that the connection of Ireland with England has been full of trouble, and I fear there is no remedy. ... It is a chronic disease, and even if it is not to be cured we have proved in the past that we can get on with it and yet carry on our Empire to a vast pitch of prosperity. What has been done in the past can be done in the future. ... [D]o not let us attempt to cure it by a measure which will put this island into a condition which never during 700 years of our history has existed—which will hand over those who have had the courage to defend us to the maltreatment of their worst enemies, and which will establish at our very doors a post—a hostile post—which will be at the pleasure of any foreign power which may sometimes be hostile to us.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Courage , Hostility , History , Past

“I believe in the supreme excellence of righteousness; I believe that the law of righteousness will triumph in the universe over all evil; I believe that in the attempt to fulfil the law of righteousness, however imperfect it must remain, are to be found the inspiration, the consolation, and the sanctification of human existence.
We live in order to finish an, as yet, unfinished universe, unfinished so far as the human, that is, the highest part of it, is concerned. We live in order to develop the superior qualities of man which are, as yet, for the most part latent.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Life and Destiny (1913)

Parting , Law , Evil , Universe

““I’m attempting to learn a little Welsh. Its very important to learn about culture of the people. In a sense it feels like I have turned full circle as I was born in a Celtic country.”

George Stack (1946) Irish Roman Catholic archbishop

Archbishop George Stack installed as Archbishop of Cardiff - Special Interview https://rcdow.org.uk/news/new-archbishop-of-cardiff/ (2011)

Country , Sense , Feeling , People

“So the biggest lesson for me was to write what you want. People are going to have their opinions—good and bad. The reality is you’re not going to please everyone, and if you attempt to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. If anything, you can have fun doing it.”

Jason Tanamor (1975) Filipino-American Author and Writer

Esquire Philippines Interview (2020)

Bad luck , Reality , People

“Germany and England have undertaken all steps to avoid a European war. ... [W]e have lost control and the landslide has begun, As a political leader I am not abandoning my hope and my attempts to keep the peace as long as my démarche in Vienna has not been rejected.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Speech to the Prussian Ministry of State (30 July 1914), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), p. 69

War , Peace , Hope

“A man may fulfil the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

Question

“The world is miserable because men live beneath themselves; the error of modern man is that he wants to reform the world without having either the will or the power to reform man, and this flagrant contradiction, this attempt to make a better world on the basis of a worsened humanity, can only end in the very abolition of what is human, and consequently in the abolition of happiness too. Reforming man means binding him again to Heaven, reestablishing the broken link; it means tearing him away from the reign of the passions, from the cult of matter, quantity and cunning, and reintegrating him into the world of the spirit and serenity, we would even say: into the world of sufficient reason.”

Frithjof Schuon book Understanding Islam

[1998, Understanding Islam, World Wisdom, 26, 0-941532-24-0]
Miscellaneous, Modernity

Tear , Men , Happiness , Passion

“Society creates the victims that it afterwards vainly attempts to get rid of.”

Emma Goldman book Anarchism and Other Essays

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), The Traffic in Women

“Reason quite properly rejects contradiction, but rationalism abhors mystery, which every heresy attempts in its own way to resolve.”

Michael Horton (theologian) (1964) American theologian

Source: Pilgrim Theology (2013), p. 177

Way

“Art is most simply and most usually defined as an attempt to create pleasing forms. Such forms satisfy our sense of beauty and the sense of beauty is satisfied when we are able to appreciate a unity or harmony of formal relations among our sense-perceptions.”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

The Meaning of Art, London : Faber & Faber, 1931
Other Quotes

Beauty , Art , Sense

“The attempt to better one's condition is always praiseworthy; but it is only base and ignoble to attempt to cover one's condition with an idle smack of something larger.”

Donald Grant Mitchell (1822–1908) American writer

Source: My Farm of Edgewood (1863), P. 287

“To categorize some people as indigenous and others as alien, to argue about the identity of the first inhabitants of the subcontinent, and to try and sort out these categories for the remote past, is to attempt the impossible.”

Romila Thapar (1931) Indian historian

Introduction, xxiv.
Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300

Past , People

“As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie. It is an attempt to deny, circumvent or otherwise escape from the consequences of the interlacing of the roots of things with one another.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Philosophy
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XX - First Principles

Sleep , Lie , Dogs

“A novel, or indeed any work of art, is not intended to be a literal transcription from Nature. ... Life is a series of false values. There it is always the little things that are greatest. Art attempts to remedy this. It may be defined as an expurgated edition of Nature.”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

Writing on Charles Dickens, in "In Defence of an Obsolete Author" in William and Mary College Monthly (November 1897), VII, p. 3-4

Art , Nature , Falseness , Life

“I might like to try things I haven’t attempted before, whether it’s working with new production teams or utilising my own ideas for innovative designs. I would enjoy a path like that, where I can take part in the creative process.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "Liu Wen opens up about fame, responsibility and finding meaning in her career" in Vogue https://vogue.sg/liu-wen-cover-vogue-singapore-leslie-zhang/ (1 March 2021)

Idea , Parting

“Some even attempt to achieve political ambitions by seizing party and state power, engaging in activities to split the party, and seriously threatening the nation’s political stability.”

Wang Qishan (1948) Chinese politician

Source: "China’s second most powerful man warns of dissent and corruption in the Communist Party" in Quartz https://qz.com/851218/wang-qishan-chinas-second-most-powerful-man-warns-of-dissent-and-systematic-corruption-inside-the-communist-party/ (1 December 2016)

“We strongly condemn all attempts to rewrite history, reduce the number of victims and minimize contribution to the defeat of Nazism and fascism, as well as attempts to rehabilitate those ideologists.”

Ivica Dačić (1966) Serbian politician

Source: "Ivica Dacic: Serbia and Russia are more than just historical friends and allies" in The State Duma http://duma.gov.ru/en/news/51667/ (2 June 2021)

History

“Keeping up with attempting to attending as many events as you are invited but age personality interest are some factors that determine if one attends though. NETWORKING is so key in this field.”

Adenike Oyetunde (1986) Nigerian founder of amputees united

Source: https://www.hernetwork.com.q-a-adenikeoyetunde Adenike Oyetunde on question and answer section at Her Network.

Personality , Age

“The new world we are attempting to create must destroy oppression of any type. The value of this new system will be determined by the status of the person who was low man on the totem pole.”

Frances M. Beal (1940) American activist

Source: "Black Women's Manifesto; Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" (1969)

Personality , World

“Running counter to the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation and Taiwan compatriots, Taiwan separatists’ attempts to seek ‘Taiwan independence’ are doomed to fail.”

Zhu Fenglian (1977)

Source: "Mainland Condemns ‘Taiwan Independence’ Separatist Schemes" in China Today http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/zdtj/202006/t20200612_800209787.html (12 June 2020)

“I can but repeat now the statement, even at the risk of shocking some readers, that the Puritans were beguiled into the worst of their errors of policy, bigotry, and intolerance, by their belief in and their attempt to follow the teacings which they found in the Bible.”

George Edward Ellis (1814–1894) American Unitarian clergyman and historian (1814-1894)

[The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1685, https://books.google.com/books?id=toM-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31, 31, 1888, Houghton, Mifflin, 978-0-7222-0646-1]

Error

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”

Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931) French psychologist

Source: Psychologie des Foules [The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind] (1895)

Truth

“If a theory claims to be able to explain some phenomenon, but does not generate even an attempt at an explanation, then it should be banished.”

Michael J. Behe (1952) American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate

Source: Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996), p. 186

“Philosophy is the attempt to formulate principles or categories which the philosopher already possesses, in common with everyone else, but in an unformulated state.”

Otis Hamilton Lee (1902–1948) American philosopher

Source: [10.1086/286600, Philosophy and Science, Philosophy of Science, 7, 7–17, 1940, Lee, Otis]

“Unless the French are thoroughly reduced, no solid peace can be obtained, and no attempt ought to be encouraged of opening a negotiation, which even has the effect of destroying all energy in those who ought to look forward to the continuance of war.”

George III of the United Kingdom (1738–1820) King of Great Britain and King of Ireland

Source: Letter to Lord Grenville (25 October 1795), quoted in The Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq, Volume III (1899), p. 143

Peace , War

“You heard of Hell—well, I was sent from it
I went to it, servin' a sentence for murderin' instruments
Now I'm tryin' to repent from it
But when I hear the beat, I'm tempted to make another attempt at it
I'm infinite”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Infinite"
1990s, Infinite (1996)

Hell

“I have been opposed to vivisection for many years; not just because it is unbelievably barbaric and unforgivably cruel but also because it is worthless, wasteful, inaccurate, uninformative and dangerously misleading. The cruelty is indefensible and an affront to human dignity, but in a desperate attempt to justify their evil practices many vivisectors still claim that what they do helps save human lives. They are lying. The truth is that animal experiments kill people and animal researchers are responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children every year; they are also directly responsible for a massive amount of human suffering.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Why Animal Experiments Must Stop" (1991), in animalliberationfront.com http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Vivisection/waems.htm.

Lying , Death , Women , Men

“Besides, we should never attempt to balance anybody's misery against somebody else's happiness.”

Karl Popper book Conjectures and Refutations

Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), pp. 486-487

Happiness

“We must give up the idea of trying to please everybody. That is impossible, and the attempt is a mere waste of time. We must be content to walk in Christ's steps, and let the world say what it likes.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Vol. I, Luke VII: 31–35, p. 230
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Luke (1858–1859)

World , Idea , Time , Christ

“[I]f it's just you, attempting to come up with a "good idea" before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation.”

David Allen book Getting Things Done

Source: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001), Ch. 3

Idea

“... nowhere else in the world did reality have as much effective power as in the camp, nowhere else was reality so real. In no other place did the attempt to transcend it prove so hopeless and so shoddy.”

Jean Améry (1912–1978) Austrian essayist

At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities (1966)

Reality , World

“Sensing the approaching danger, the snail flees. But in a world of snail paces, the conch is something of a Ferrari. It calls for desperate measures. Exhausted by the effort of its last-ditch attempt, the tulip snail is slowly... gunned... down.”

David Attenborough (1926) British broadcaster and naturalist

"Tidal Seas"
Blue Planet (2001)

Sense , World , Effort

“I think anyone who at 26 is going to attempt to be a professional ballerina is going to physically kill themselves. Baths are what I looked forward to, every single night! And a glass of wine!”

Mila Kunis (1983) American actress

"An Interview With The Black Swan — Mila Kunis" https://medium.com/hope-lies-at-24-frames-per-second/an-interview-with-the-black-swan-mila-kunis-c365cb3c33e0 (11 May 2011)

Night , Thinking , Wine

““MENS REA”:
On January 16, 1944, the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and one of his deputies, Randolph Paul, personally visited the President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to coerce him to finally act and do something to help refugees escaping The Holocaust. More diplomatic efforts had failed, so Morgenthau's approach strengthened. The report brought to the President reveals a desperate and necessary act to coerce a response from an administration that was systematically and overtly preventing both private and official help for the victims escaping Hitler. The report documents a pattern of attempts by the State Department to obstruct rescue opportunities and block the flow of Holocaust information to the United States. Morgenthau warned that the refugee issue had become “a boiling pot on [Capitol] Hill,” and Congress was likely to pass the rescue resolution if faced with a White House unwilling to act. Roosevelt understood the deep implications and pre-empted Congress by establishing the War Refugee Board. The result was “Executive Order 9417” creating the War Refugee Board, issued on January 22, 1944”

A.E. Samaan

Source: From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848

Housing , Personality , Men , War

“More to the point, one cannot understand The Holocaust without understanding the intentions, ideology, and mechanisms that were put in place in 1933. The eugenics movement may have come to a catastrophic crescendo with the Hitler regime, but the political movement, the world-view, the ideology, and the science that aspired to breed humans like prized horses began almost 100 years earlier. More poignantly, the ideology and those legal and governmental mechanisms of a eugenic world-view inevitably lead back to the British and American counterparts that Hitler’s scientists collaborated with. Posterity must gain understanding of the players that made eugenics a respectable scientific and political movement, as Hitler’s regime was able to evade wholesale condemnation in those critical years between 1933 and 1943 precisely because eugenics had gained international acceptance. As this book will evidence, Hitler’s infamous 1933 laws mimicked those already in place in the United States, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Canada.
So what is this scientific and political movement that for 100 years aspired to breed humans like dogs or horses? Eugenics is quite literally, as defined by its principal proponents, an attempt at “directing evolution” by controlling any aspect of human existence that affects human heredity. From its onset, Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and the man credited with the creation of the science of eugenics, knew that the cause of eugenics had to be observed with religious fervor and dedication. As the quote on the opening pages of this book illustrates, a eugenicist must “intrude, intrude, intrude.” A vigilant control over anything and everything that affects the gene pool is essential to eugenics. The policies could not allow for the individual to enjoy self-government or self-determination any more than a horse breeder can allow the animals to determine whom to breed with. One simply cannot breed humans like horses without imbuing the state with the level of control a farmer has over its livestock, not only controlling procreation, but also the diet, access to medical services, and living conditions.”

A.E. Samaan

Source: H.H. LAUGHLIN: American Scientist. American Progressive. Nazi Collaborator.

Books , World , Law , Dogs

“You only get to hesitate in the first attempt, it becomes easier the more you do it.”

Yusuf Cornelius Otijenu

“Only an ignorant person does not know the difference between criticism and humiliation. All attempts to demean, hurt, and put down with sarcasm, harsh words, curses, and mockery that deny manners and politeness. All actions that provoke anger, irritation and cause hurt feelings are not a form of criticism but humiliation.”