Quotes about general
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“History had a slow pulse; man counted in years, history in generations”

Source: Darkness at Noon

“Not daring to flee since my general location has just been broadcast to any killer who cares. I mean, I know it's cold out here and not everybody has a sleeping bag.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Sleep

“The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!”

Wilkie Collins book Armadale

Source: Armadale

Books

“Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Crack-Up

Source: Quoted, The Crack-Up (1936)
Context: Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.

History, Intelligence, Idea, Time

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1760s, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
Source: The Works Of John Adams, Second President Of The United States
Context: Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees, of the people; and if the cause, the interest, and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute other and better agents, attorneys and trustees.

People, Understanding, Nature, Knowledge

“I like reading in a pub rather than a library or study, as it's generally much easier to get a drink.”

Pete McCarthy (1951–2004) British travel writer

Source: McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

Drink, Study, Reading

“You are all a lost generation," Gertrude Stein said to Hemingway. We weren't lost. We knew where we were, all right, but we wouldn't go home. Ours was the generation that stayed up all night.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Source: Selected Letters

Home, Night

“You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow

People, Behavior, Learning

“I don't really know if it's the right thing to do, making new life. Kids grow up, generations take their place. What does it all come to? More hills bulldozed and more ocean fronts filled in? Faster cars and more cats run over? Who needs it?”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 15, The Song Is Over

Life, Cars, Cats

“She did what girls generally do when they don't feel the part: she dressed it instead.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

Feeling, Girl, Parting

“No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Life, Women, Men, Understanding

“The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”

Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005) American politician

Future

“Pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

Help

“Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

People

“We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings.”

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919) American artist, writer and activist

Source: Wild Dreams of a New Beginning

Reading

“In general, generalization is to lie, to tell lies.”

B.S. Johnson book The Unfortunates

The Unfortunates

Lie

“The voices blend and fuse in clouded silence: silence that is infinite of space: and swiftly, silently the sound is wafted over regions of cycles of cycles of generations that have lived.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Silence

“A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: Do the Work

Love, Hope, Passion

“Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from on generation to the next. Books save lives.”

Laurie Anderson (1947) American musician

Books, World, Literature, Learning

“Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Forget solar energy—if you could harness denial, it would power the world for generations.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: Challenger Deep

World, Forgetting

“While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman.”

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) Italian author and poet

Men

“Where else? I belong to a lost generation and am comfortable only in the company of others who are lost and lonely.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Wise, People

“Oh, no-" They weren't even on the runway, and Jonah's father was already immersed in his BlackBerry. "Remember those 'Live Large with the Wiz Generation' posters? Well, guess how that translates into Chinese- 'Jonah Wizard Makes Your Ancestors Fat'.”

Gordon Korman book The Emperor's Code

Source: The Emperor's Code

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees

God, People, Forgiveness

“An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades.”

Michael Shermer (1954) American science writer

Religion, Sense, Science

“My hate is general, I detest all men;
Some because they are wicked and do evil,
Others because they tolerate the wicked,
Refusing them the active vigorous scorn
Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.”

Molière The Misanthrope

Source: The Misanthrope

Men, Hate, Evil

“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

People, Law, Nature

“A lot of my generation are living out the un-lived lives of our mothers.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

“One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We cannot be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Courage

“You know when people say fine, it generally means ‘leave me the hell alone because I don’t want to talk about what’s really bothering me.' (Susan)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

People, Hell

“It was not polite for a Temujai general to allow his emotions to show.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

“Reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.”

Joe Haldeman book The Forever War

Source: The Forever War (1974), Chapter 10 (p. 46)
Context: Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there... the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.

Reality, Study

“The problem with labels is that they lead to stereotypes and stereotypes lead to generalizations and generalizations lead to assumptions and assumptions lead back to stereotypes.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Problem

“You have an interesting history. Now people can generally be classified in to two groups: the mediocre realists and the mediocre dreamers. You clearly belong to the letter. Your fate is and will always be the fate of dreamers.”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 17, The Strange Man's Strange Tale

Fate, People, History

“Dances are generally more fun to think about and get ready for than they actually are when you get there.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver

Thinking, Dance

“Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Boy

“Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that is left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die. April 9, 1916 Sorbonne”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Birth

“Hey, Effie, watch this!" says Peeta. He tosses his fork over his shoulder and literally licks his plate clean whit his tongue making loud, satisfied sounds. Then he blows a kiss out to her in general and calls, "We miss you, Effie!”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Kiss

“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

War

“Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.”

Scott Westerfeld book Pretties

Source: Pretties

People, Nature, Problem, Sense

“Imagine the amazing good fortune of the generation that gets to see the end of the world. This is as marvelous as being there in the beginning.”

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher

World, Imagination

“Unheralded we came into this world. Unheralded we will go out. But while we are in this world, we do such deeds that even if this generation does not remember, the next generation cannot forget.”

Vikas Swarup (1961) Indian novelist and diplomat

Source: Al Milyūnayr Al Mutasharrad =Slumdog Millionaire

World, Forgetting

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Variants: I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots. I fear the day when technology overlaps our humanity. It will be then that the world will have permanent ensuing generations of idiots. 1995 film Powder includes a similar quotation attributed to Einstein: It’s become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity. Although it is a popular quote on the internet, there is no substantial evidence that Einstein actually said that. It does not appear in "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Press nor in any reliable source. " Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/19/tech-surpass/" concluded that it probably emerged as a meme on the internet as late as 2012. Misattributed

World, Fear

“In general, I feel if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.”

John Rogers Searle (1932) American philosopher

Feeling, Understanding

“Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.”

Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British journalist

Fear

“How fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

World

“Everything is banal in experience, fleeting in duration, sordid in content; in all respects the same today as generations now dead and buried have found it to be.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Dead

“We defend ourselves with descriptions and tame the world by generalizing.”

Iris Murdoch book The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

World

“Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process — a way of solving problems”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Kennedy's "focus on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution of human institutions." was quoted by Barack Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
1963, American University speech
Context: I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal. Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace — based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions — on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace — no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process — a way of solving problems.

Peace, Way, Problem, Change

“Maybe in the general scheme of things he couldn't find any meaning in life, but on a smaller scale it was okay. Not always, but a lot of the time.”

Etgar Keret (1967) Israeli and polish writer and screenwriter

Source: The Girl on the Fridge

Life, Time

“The boys at school are so degenerate that it makes one feel pessimistic about the future of the male gender in general.”

Regina Doman (1970) American writer

Source: The Shadow of the Bear

School, Feeling, Boy, Future

“.. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Thinking

“There is no shame in loving: it is the sign of a generous heart, and pain the price of an open soul.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

Source: The Naming

Love, Pain, Soul, Heart

“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Game, Tree, Time

“In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“The young gentleman is correct," he said.
Halt raised an eyebrow. "He may be correct, and he is undoubtedly young. But he's no gentleman."

~Halt and General Sapristi speaking of Will”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“We are not trapped by our thoughts. What we generally do, however, is create thoughts that trap us.” (p.162)”

Joshua David Stone (1953–2005) American writer

Source: A Beginner's Guide to the Path of Ascension (The Ascension Series)

“You are stingy with our words," she accused, then laughed gayly as she swept around, tossing over her shoulder a roguish look that drew the length of him. "But I am more generous, my lord. You are indeed a fine sight."
-Aislinn”

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (1939–2007) American writer

Source: The Wolf and the Dove

“If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Love, Idea, Heart

“There are three things that none of the young men of the present generation can do. They can't sit over their wine; they can't play at wist; and they can't pay a lady a compliment.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Men, Wine

“Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Law

“But if the general opinion of Mankind is optimistic then we're in for a period of extreme popularity for science fiction. If the general opinion is pessimistic, fantasy is going to hold its own.”

David Eddings (1931–2009) American novelist

Science

“A man has as many social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Personality

“Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”

Jonathan Swift The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces

Source: The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces

World

“Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1770s
Source: Letter to Abigail Adams (27 April 1777), published as Letter CXI in Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife (1841) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 218

Pain, Hope, Freedom

“I gather that he nearly knocked you down, damaged your property, and generally made a nuisance of himself, and that you instantly concluded he must be some relation to me.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Gaudy Night

Source: Gaudy Night

“A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.”

Raymond Chandler book Pearls are a Nuisance

Source: Pearls are a Nuisance

“Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Truth, Idea

“I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

Men, Reality, Appearance

“In general, people only ask for advice that they may not follow it; or, if they should follow it, that they may have somebody to blame for having given it.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Variant: As a general rule... people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.
Source: The Three Musketeers

People