Quotes about clearing
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Michael Howard photo

“Let us be clear. Prison works.”

Michael Howard (1941) British politician

It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists, and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice.
Colin Brown, "Howard seeks to placate 'angry majority'", The Independent, October 7, 1993
Speech to the Conservative Party conference, October 6, 1993

Dmitri Shostakovich photo

“I think it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. The rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as in Boris Godunov.”

It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing," and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing."
Page 183.
Testimony (1979)

Marcel Duchamp photo
Jeff Buckley photo
Martin Amis photo
Pierre Hadot photo

“With the advent of medieval Scholasticism, … we find a clear distinction between theologia and philosophia.”

Pierre Hadot (1922–2010) French historian and philosopher

Theology became conscious of its autonomy qua supreme science, which philosophy was emptied of its spiritual exercises, which, from now on, were relegated to Christian mysticism and ethics. Reduced to the rank of a “handmaid of theology,” philosophy’s role was henceforth to furnish theology with conceptual—and hence purely theoretical—material. When, in the modern age, philosophy regained its autonomy, it still retained many features inherited from this medieval conception. In particular, it maintained its purely theoretical character, which even evolved in the direction of a more and more thorough systemization. Not until Nietzsche, Bergson, and existentialism does philosophy consciously return to being a concrete attitude, a way of life and of seeing the world.
trans. Michael Chase (1995), p. 107
La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (2001)

David Icke photo

“We all see through different perceptions, but, certainly, the perception of David Icke has proven to be much more clear than the average man and woman out there.”

David Icke (1952) English writer and public speaker

Alex Jones in the 2009 interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpscVMiuTVY with Icke (starts at 1:00)
About Icke

Bill Bryson photo

“Making models was reputed to be hugely enjoyable… But when you got the kit home and opened the box the contents turned out to be of a uniform leaden gray or olive green, consisting of perhaps sixty thousand tiny parts, some no larger than a proton, all attached in some organic, inseparable way to plastic stalks like swizzle sticks. The tubes of glue by contrast were the size of large pastry tubes. No matter how gently you depressed them they would blurp out a pint or so of a clear viscous goo whose one instinct was to attach itself to some foreign object—a human finger, the living-room drapes, the fur of a passing animal—and become an infinitely long string. Any attempt to break the string resulted in the creation of more strings. Within moments you would be attached to hundreds of sagging strands, all connected to something that had nothing to do with model airplanes or World War II. The only thing the glue wouldn’t stick to, interestingly, was a piece of plastic model; then it just became a slippery lubricant that allowed any two pieces of model to glide endlessly over each other, never drying. The upshot was that after about forty minutes of intensive but troubled endeavor you and your immediate surroundings were covered in a glistening spiderweb of glue at the heart of which was a gray fuselage with one wing on upside down and a pilot accidentally but irremediably attached by his flying cap to the cockpit ceiling. Happily by this point you were so high on the glue that you didn’t give a shit about the pilot, the model, or anything else.”

Source: The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006), p. 81

Richard Feynman photo
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Guy Verhofstadt photo

“I think there will be huge support for Remain – that’s very clear. We’re going to see it... I’m pretty sure that there will be great support and certainly for the most pro-European party: the Lib Dems.”

Guy Verhofstadt (1953) former prime minister of Belgium

Liberal Democrats are 'only pro-European party in Britain', Guy Verhofstadt says https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liberal-democrats-brexit-eu-guy-verhofstadt-pro-remain-european-elections-a8907986.html (10 May 2019)
2019

Thomas Carlyle photo

“I purpose now, while the impression is more pure and clear within me, to mark down the main things I can recollect of my father. To myself, if I live to after-years, it may be instructive and interesting, as the past grows ever holier the farther we leave it. My mind is calm enough to do it deliberately, and to do it truly. The thought of that pale earnest face which even now lies stiffened into death in that bed at Scotsbrig, with the Infinite all of worlds looking down on it, will certainly impel me. It is good to know how a true spirit will vindicate itself with truth and freedom through what obstructions soever; how the acorn cast carelessly into the wilder-ness will make room for itself and grow to be an oak. This is one of the cases belonging to that class, "the lives of remarkable men," in which it has been said, "paper and ink should least of all be spared."”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

I call a man remarkable who becomes a true workman in this vineyard of the Highest. Be his work that of palace-building and kingdom-founding, or only of delving and ditching, to me it is no matter, or next to none. All human work is transitory, small in itself, contemptible. Only the worker thereof, and the spirit that dwelt in him, is significant. I proceed without order, or almost any forethought, anxious only to save what I have left and mark it as it lies in me.
1880s, Reminiscences (1881)

André Aciman photo
David Graeber photo
Elizabeth Warren photo
Steve Jobs photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Roberto Speranza photo

“We had prepared a plan in recent days (to deal with COVID-19), because it was clear what has happened could somehow happen.”

Roberto Speranza (1979) Italian politician

Roberto Speranza (2020) cited in " Italy announces first Covid-19 death; cases rise to 17 https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/02/567861/italy-announces-first-covid-19-death-cases-rise-17" on New Straits Times, 22 February 2020.

Kim Il-sung photo

“Socialism is a human ideal, an inevitable course of historical development, and therefore it is perfectly clear that socialism will rise again in the end.”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

With the century, vol. 7

George Ball (diplomat) photo
Joe Biden photo

“We got a real clear picture of what they all value. Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they're proposing. Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, 'unchain Wall Street.'”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

They're going to put y'all back in chains.
Campaign speech in Danville, Virginia, criticizing Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the Republican speech, quoted in * 2012-08-14
VP Biden Says Republicans Are 'Going to Put Y'all Back in Chains'
Jake Tapper
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/vp-biden-says-republicans-are-going-to-put-yall-back-in-chains/
2012

Joseph Goebbels photo
Gough Whitlam photo

“Let me make quite clear that I am for abortion and, in your case sir, we should make it retrospective.”

Gough Whitlam (1916–2014) Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia

After being heckled by a voter during a campaign trail.
Source: [Gough Whitlam dead: His memorable quotes, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019, https://www.smh.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-dead-his-memorable-quotes-20141021-1193jd.html, Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au, Murphy, D]
Source: [Gough Whitlam remembered for his quick wit, Mills, D; Rajca, J, news.com.au, News Corp Australia Network, https://www.news.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-remembered-for-his-quick-wit-and-that-tv-ad-for-leggos-pasta-sauce/news-story/007e66ff548bffb6b48cea049c16ff85, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019]

Bernie Sanders photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Raymond Williams photo
Raymond Williams photo
Jacinda Ardern photo

“DESOLATE are the mansions of the fair, the stations in Minia, where they rested, and those where they fixed their abodes! Wild are the hills of Goul, and deserted is the summit of Rijaam.
The canals of Rayaan are destroyed: the remains of them are laid bare and smoothed by the floods, like characters engraved on the solid rocks.
Dear ruins! Many a year has been closed, many a month, holy and unhallowed, has elapsed, since I exchanged tender vows with their fair inhabitants!
The rainy constellations of spring have made their hills green and luxuriant: the drops from the thunder-clouds have drenched them with profuse as well as with gentle showers:
Showers, from every nightly cloud, from every cloud veiling the horizon at day-break, and from every evening cloud, responsive with hoarse murmurs.
Here the wild eringo-plants raise their tops: here the antelopes bring forth their young, by the sides of the valley: and here the ostriches drop their eggs.
The large-eyed wild-cows lie suckling their young, a few days old—their young, who will soon become a herd on the plain.
The torrents have cleared the rubbish, and disclosed the traces of habitations, as the reeds of a writer restore effaced letters in a book;
Or as the black dust, sprinkled over the varied marks on a fair hand, brings to view with a brighter tint the blue stains of woad.
I stood asking news of the ruins concerning their lovely habitants; but what avail my questions to dreary rocks, who answer them only by their echo?”

Labīd (560–661) Sahabah and poet

Translated by C. J. Lyall, quoted in Arabian Poetry, p. 41-42. First Stanza, lines 1-10 https://archive.org/details/arabianpoetryfo00clougoog/page/n127/mode/2up
The Poem of Labīd (translated by C. J. Lyall in 1881)

Bernie Sanders photo
Johan Rockström photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“Let's be clear, the lack of health care and affordable medicine does not only threaten the health and well-being of the uninsured, it impacts everyone who comes in contact with them. In fact, what this crisis is beginning to teach us is that we are only as safe as the least insured person in America.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Press conference, Burlington, Vermont, quoted in * 2020-03-13

America 'only as safe as the least insured person,' Sanders says regarding coronavirus emergency

Seth McLaughlin

The Washington Times

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-only-safe-least-insured-bernie-sanders/
2020

John Denham photo

“My faith is strongest when the night sky is clear.”

Book: Cometan, the Omnidoxy

Marilyn Ferguson photo

“The business of the Aquarian Conspiracy is calm diagnosis of that illness—to make it clear that synthesis is needed—paradigm change rather than pendulum change.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Nine, Flying and Seeing: New Ways to Learn

Paul Hellyer photo
Elizabeth of the Trinity photo

“I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood that, everything became clear to me, and I would like to share this secret with all those I love so that they, too, might cling to God through everything, so that this prayer of Christ might be fulfilled: "Father, may they be made perfectly one!"”

Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880–1906) French Carmelite nun and mystic

Letters to Madame de Sourdon, L 122, 15 June 1902; as quoted in Always Believe in Love: Selected Writings of Elizabeth of the Trinity by Marian Murphy, 2017, p. 109 https://books.google.it/books?id=JX3LDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109.

“Mine is a message of hope. As I said, as I was surrounded by a loving family, cherished by all of them, one thing was clear – if your heart has a reason to keep beating, it will. My hope is that stories like mine can inspire more potential donors.”

Sudhir Choudhrie (1949) Indian businessman

"Heart to heart: Sudhir Choudrie discusses life after a transplant" https://www.easterneye.biz/heart-heart-sudhir-choudrie-discusses-life-transplant/, EasternEye (February 8, 2017)

Ken Ham photo

“I’m shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial life... Of course, secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions! The search for extraterrestrial life is really driven by man’s rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution!... And I do believe there can’t be other intelligent beings in outer space because of the meaning of the gospel. You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation. One day, the whole universe will be judged by fire, and there will be a new heavens and earth. God’s Son stepped into history to be Jesus Christ, the “Godman,” to be our relative, and to be the perfect sacrifice for sin—the Savior of mankind. Jesus did not become the “GodKlingon” or the “GodMartian!””

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the “Godman” as our Savior. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we see the Father through the Son (and we see the Son through His Word). To suggest that aliens could respond to the gospel is just totally wrong. An understanding of the gospel makes it clear that salvation through Christ is only for the Adamic race—human beings who are all descendants of Adam.

"We'll find a new Earth within 20 years" http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/07/20/well-find-a-new-earth-within-20-years/, Around the World with Ken Ham (July 20, 2014)
2010s, Around the World with Ken Ham

Michelle Goldberg photo

“Disaster response requires discipline and adherence to a clear chain of command, not the move-fast-and-break-things approach of start-up culture.”

Michelle Goldberg (1975) American journalist

Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness (April 2, 2020)

“The moral choices that Trump poses to anyone with a conscience or love of country are only made more clear by the ludicrous irony of his own story.”

Richard Wolffe (1968) American journalist

Let's drop the euphemisms: Donald Trump is a racist president (2018)

Max Müller photo

“It is quite clear that we cannot fix a terminum a quo, whether the Vedic hymns were composed 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine.”

Max Müller (1823–1900) German-born philologist and orientalist

Max Muller (Collected Works, Vol.II, p.91). Quoted in https://talageri.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-recorded-history-of-indo-european_27.html

Alfred de Zayas photo
William Cobbett photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
E.M. Forster photo
E.M. Forster photo
Waleed Al-Husseini photo
Thomas Henry Huxley photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty; and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s

Harish-Chandra photo

“In mathematics we agree that clear thinking is very important, but fuzzy thinking is just as important.”

Harish-Chandra (1923–1983) Indian American mathematician and physicist (1923–1983)

Harish-Chandra, cited in: Robert Langlands, "Harish-Chandra. 11 October 1923-16 October 1983." http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/31/198, in: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society of London, 31 (1985), 199-225. (quote from p. 211).

Sheldon Pollock photo
Friedrich Engels photo

“History has proved us, and all who thought like us, wrong. It has made it clear that the state of economic development on the Continent at that time [1848] was not, by a long way, ripe for the removal of capitalist production.”

Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) German social scientist, author, political theorist, and philosopher

Introduction (1895) https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/intro.htm to Marx's The Class Struggles in France (1848-50)

Benjamin Creme photo
Gillian Flynn photo

“I wanted to make it clear that the show’s about a matriarchy. I wanted it to be clear that power can be ugly, and a matriarchy is just as ugly as a patriarchy. It may look a little different, but power is bloody.”

Gillian Flynn (1971) American author and critic

On how the matriarchy is portrayed in Sharp Objects in “Gillian Flynn Isn’t Going to Write the Kind of Women You Want” https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/06/gillian-flynn-isnt-going-to-write-the-kind-of-women-you-want in Vanity Fair (2018 Jun 28)

Petina Gappah photo

“I think it’s become clear to people what my motivation is. I am not simply anti-government, and I’m not in opposition to any one person; I want to write about all the things that I think are making us into an unkind society…”

Petina Gappah (1971) Zimbabwean writer, journalist and business lawyer

On her motivations as a writer in “Petina Gappah: ‘I want to write about what makes us into an unkind society’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/13/petina-gappah-zimbabwe-writer-interview in The Guardian (2016 Nov 13)

Omar Khayyám photo

“Ah, my Belov'ed fill the Cup that clears
To-day Past Regrets and Future Fears:
To-morrow!”

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer

Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.
Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)

Milton Friedman photo

“I have been impressed time and again by the schizophrenic character of many businessmen. They are capable of being extremely far‐sighted and clear‐headed in matters that are internal to their businesses. They are incredibly short sighted and muddle‐headed in mat ters [sic!] that are outside their businesses but affect the possible survival of business in general. This short sightedness is strikingly exemplified in the calls from many businessmen for wage and price guidelines or controls or incomes policies. There is nothing that could do more in a brief period to destroy a market system and replace it by a centrally controlled system than effective governmental control of prices and wages. The short‐sightedness is also exemplified in speeches by business men on social responsibility. This may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the ptirsuit [sic!] of profits is wicked and im moral [sic!] and must be curbed and controlled by external forces. Once this view is adopted, the external forces that curb the market will not be the social consciences, however highly developed, of the pontificating executives; it will be the iron fist of Government bureaucrats. Here, as with price and wage controls, business men seem to me to reveal a suicidal impulse.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Sept. 1970)

Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
J.B. Priestley photo
Edmund Burke photo
Helena Roerich photo
Dorothy Thompson photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Philip Larkin photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Mary Winsor photo
Benito Mussolini photo
Robert Walpole photo
Théodore Guérin photo
Prevale photo

“The distance often makes it clear how true a love is. Those who love deeply never fear a storm, they only fear that love will go out.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La distanza spesso fa capire quanto sia vero un amore. Chi ama profondamente non teme mai una tempesta, teme solo che l'amore si spenga.
Source: prevale.net

Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“In the Pfizer contract it's very clear: 'we're not responsible for any side effects.'”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

If you turn into a crocodile, it's your problem.
2020

James Clear photo
George Marshall photo
George Marshall photo
Theodore Kaczynski photo
Gautama Buddha photo

“It's clear we can't vaccinate our way out of this.”

Peter A. McCullough (1962) American cardiologist and medical professor

July 29, 2021 on the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle ([Fox's effort to undermine vaccines has only worsened, Savillo, Rob; Monroe, Tyler, August 19, 2021, Media Matters for America, https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-effort-undermine-vaccines-has-only-worsened]; [Laura Ingraham guest: “It's clear we can't vaccinate our way out of this”, Media Matters Staff, July 29, 2021, https://www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingraham/laura-ingraham-guest-its-clear-we-cant-vaccinate-our-way-out, Media Matters for America])

Hanoi Hannah photo

“Isn't it clear that the war makers are gambling with your lives, while pocketing huge profits?”

Hanoi Hannah (1931–2016) Vietnamese radio personality

At a 1967 broadcast directed to U.S. troops, as quoted in "'Hanoi Hannah,' Whose Broadcasts Taunted And Entertained American GIs, Dies" in NPR (6 October 2016) https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/05/496662815/hanoi-hannah-whose-broadcasts-taunted-and-entertained-american-gis-dies-at-87
During Vietnam War

Justo Gallego Martínez photo

“I do it for faith. That's clear, no?”

Justo Gallego Martínez (1925–2021) Ex-monk and sole builder of a cathedral in Spain

Madrid man builds cathedral from junk https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12088560 (30 December 2010)

William Henry Davies photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Rebecca Lim photo

“The only thing I can say is, I'm not someone who draws a very clear line. I'm actually a very forgiving person. Once the trust is broken, it's difficult for me to mend the trust. I'm also someone who really believes that action speaks louder than words.”

Rebecca Lim (1986) Singaporean actress

As quoted in "My conscience is clear: Rebecca Lim on 'misunderstanding' with ex-BFF Desmond Tan" in Asia One (28 October 2020) https://www.asiaone.com/entertainment/my-conscience-clear-rebecca-lim-misunderstanding-ex-bff-desmond-tan

Gregory of Nyssa photo
Matt Ridley photo
Greg McKeown (author) photo

“If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“I have never met a single European who had a clean, clear-cut understanding of the principles of strictly limited government.”

Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) American academic

Source: Leonard Read Journals, July 1, 1949 https://history.fee.org/leonard-read-journal/1949/leonard-e-read-journal-july-1949/

Li He photo

“The desert sands look white as snow;
The crescent moon hangs like a bow.
When would the steed in golden gear
Gallop all night through autumn clear?”

Li He (790–816) Chinese writer

"Twenty-three Horse Poems", 5 (《马诗二十三首(其五)》), in Song of the Immortals: An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, trans. Xu Yuanchong (Penguin Books, 1994), p. 91
Original: (zh-CN) 大漠沙如雪,燕山月似钩。
何当金络脑,快走踏清秋。

“A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing for him to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)