Quotes about limitation
page 17

Brooks Adams photo
Benedetto Croce photo

“Language is articulated, limited sound organized for the purpose of expression.”

Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) Italian writer, philosopher, politician

Benedetto Croce, quoted in: Geza Revesz, The Origins and Prehistory of Language, London 1956. p. 126

Ellsworth Kelly photo
Arnold Toynbee photo
Robert LeFevre photo
Betty Friedan photo
Herbert Marcuse photo
Perry Anderson photo
Georges Bataille photo
Donna Brazile photo
Paulo Freire photo

“One might say they failed to perceive the untested feasibility lying beyond the limit-situations which engendered their needs.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Paul Krugman photo
Stephenie Meyer photo
Simone Weil photo
Montesquieu photo

“The laws of Rome had wisely divided public power among a large number of magistracies, which supported, checked and tempered each other. Since they all had only limited power, every citizen was qualified for them, and the people — seeing many persons pass before them one after the other — did not grow accustomed to any in particular. But in these times the system of the republic changed. Through the people the most powerful men gave themselves extraordinary commissions — which destroyed the authority of the people and magistrates, and placed all great matters in the hands of one man, or a few.”

Source: Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence/11 - Wikisource, fr.wikisource.org, fr, 2018-07-07 https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Consid%C3%A9rations_sur_les_causes_de_la_grandeur_des_Romains_et_de_leur_d%C3%A9cadence/11,
Source: Montesquieu, Causes of the Greatness of the Romans, 2017-11-09, 2018-07-07 https://web.archive.org/web/20171109014358/http://www.constitution.org/cm/ccgrd_l.htm,
Source: Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (1876), Chapter XI.

Philip K. Dick photo
S. I. Hayakawa photo

“Jesus Christ is personally unknown to the vast masses of men on all continents. His influence is limited by the failure and indifference of his professed followers.”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 58

Neal Stephenson photo
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo
Antonio Negri photo
Tomi Lahren photo

“I'm for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”

Tomi Lahren (1992) American television and online video host

Stated on The View, as quoted by Elizabeth Nolan Brown in " Tomi Lahren, Pro-Choice Conservative, Not 'Incoherent' on Abortion https://reason.com/blog/2017/03/20/tomi-lauren-isnt-incoherent-on-abortion," Hit & Run Blog (Reason magazine, 20 March 2017).

Otto Pfleiderer photo
Roberto Mangabeira Unger photo
Isaac Asimov photo
Stephen Harper photo
Mircea Eliade photo
Roy Jenkins photo
Adi Shankara photo

“People accept their limitations so as to prevent themselves from wanting anything they might get.”

Celia Green (1935) British philosopher

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

“The usefulness of the models in constructing a testable theory of the process is severely limited by the quickly increasing number of parameters which must be estimated in order to compare the predictions of the models with empirical results.”

Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

Source: 1960s, Prisoner's dilemma: A study in conflict and cooperation (1965), p. 150

Herbert A. Simon photo
Harold Holt photo

“No matter how dynamic a campus work, unless a whole church is "totally committed," the campus ministry's impact would be limited.”

Kip McKean (1954) minister

http://www.kipmckean.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Revolution_through_Restoration_1_2_3.pdf, Revolution Through Restoration, 1992.
Revolution Through Restoration (1992-2002)

“Your greatest ministry innovation could come from your greatest limitation - if you have a sincere passion to reach and care for people.”

Craig Groeschel (1967) American priest

It – How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It (2008, Zondervan)

G. K. Chesterton photo
Fred M. Vinson photo
Bram van Velde photo

“What the eye can see won't get us very far. And what it can see is so limited, so restricted. But a gouache or an oil painting can be seen at a glance, can take in a whole world at a single glance.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

11 August 1972; pp. 90-91
1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)

Massimo Pigliucci photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Jack Vance photo
Christopher Titus photo

“I am a patriot, and I protest speed limits by exceeding them.”

Christopher Titus (1964) actor, writer, podcaster

Neverlution (2011)

Marcus Aurelius photo
Larry Wall photo

“And in the limiting case where the optimizer is completely broken because it's not implemented yet, we get to work around that too. Optionally…”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[20031217195433.GB31020@wall.org, 2003]
Usenet postings, 2003

William Cullen Bryant photo

“Here the free spirit of mankind, at length,
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's unchained strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race!”

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American romantic poet and journalist

The Ages http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16341/16341-h/16341-h.htm#page1, st. XXXIII (1821)

El Lissitsky photo
Max Scheler photo

“But this instinctive falsification of the world view is only of limited effectiveness. Again and again the ressentiment man encounters happiness, power, beauty, wit, goodness, and other phenomena of positive life. They exist and impose themselves, however much he may shake his fist against them and try to explain them away. He cannot escape the tormenting conflict between desire and impotence. Averting his eyes is sometimes impossible and in the long run ineffective. When such a quality irresistibly forces itself upon his attention, the very sight suffices to produce an impulse of hatred against its bearer, who has never harmed or insulted him. Dwarfs and cripples, who already feel humiliated by the outward appearance of the others, often show this peculiar hatred—this hyena-like and ever-ready ferocity. Precisely because this kind of hostility is not caused by the “enemy's” actions and behavior, it is deeper and more irreconcilable than any other. It is not directed against transitory attributes, but against the other person's very essence and being. Goethe has this type of “enemy” in mind when he writes: “Why complain about enemies?—Could those become your friends—To whom your very existence—Is an eternal silent reproach?” (West-Eastern Divan). The very existence of this “being,” his mere appearance, becomes a silent, unadmitted “reproach.””

Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher

Other disputes can be settled, but not this! Goethe knew, for his rich and great existence was the ideal target of ressentiment. His very appearance was bound to make the poison flow.
Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Richard Rorty photo
Herbert A. Simon photo

“If we accept values as given and consistent, if we postulate an objective description of the world as it really is, and if we assume that the decision maker's computational powers are unlimited, then two important consequences follow. First, we do not need to distinguish between the real world and the decision maker's perception of it: he or she perceives the world as it really is. Second, we can predict the choices that will be made by a rational decision maker entirely from our knowledge of the real world and without a knowledge of the decision maker's perceptions or modes of calculation. (We do, of course, have to know his or her utility function.)
If, on the other hand, we accept the proposition that both the knowledge and the computational power of the decision maker are severely limited, then we must distinguish between the real world and the actor's perception of it and reasoning about it. That is to say, we must construct a theory (and test it empirically) of the processes of decision. Our theory must include not only the reasoning processes but also the processes that generate the actor's subjective representation of the decision problem, his or her frame.”

Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

H.A. Simon (1986), " Rationality in psychology and economics http://www.kgt.bme.hu/targyak/msc/ng/BMEGT30MN40/data/JoBus-86-rationality-HSimon.pdf," Journal of Business, p. 210-11”
1980s and later

Clayton M. Christensen photo

“[T]he prediction of [my disruption] theory would be that Apple won't succeed with the iPhone. They've launched an innovation that the existing players in the industry are heavily motivated to beat: It's not [truly] disruptive. History speaks pretty loudly on that, that the probability of success is going to be limited.”

Clayton M. Christensen (1952–2020) Mormon academic

"Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma says iPhone will fail" in Jeremy's Blog (28 June 2007) http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/2007/06/28/clayton-christensens-innovators-dilemma-says-iphone-will-fail
2000s

Richard Dawkins photo
Thomas Young (scientist) photo

“A permanent alteration of form limits the strength of materials with regard to practical purposes, almost as much as fracture; since, in general, the force which is capable of producing this effect is sufficient, with a small addition, to increase it till fracture takes place.”

Thomas Young (scientist) (1773–1829) English polymath

(1807) Nat. Phil. Vol. i, p. 14. as quoted by Robert Henry Thurston, Materials of Engineering (1884) Part III https://books.google.com/books?id=0p1BAAAAIAAJ p. 548.

Herbert Marcuse photo

“Ascending modern rationalism, in its speculative as well as empirical form, shows a striking contrast between extreme critical radicalism in scientific and philosophic method on the one hand, and an uncritical quietism in the attitude toward established and functioning social institutions. Thus Descartes' ego cogitans was to leave the “great public bodies” untouched, and Hobbes held that “the present ought always to be preferred, maintained, and accounted best.” Kant agreed with Locke in justifying revolution if and when it has succeeded in organizing the whole and in preventing subversion. However, these accommodating concepts of Reason were always contradicted by the evident misery and injustice of the “great public bodies” and the effective, more or less conscious rebellion against them. Societal conditions existed which provoked and permitted real dissociation. from the established state of affairs; a private as well as political dimension was present in which dissociation could develop into effective opposition, testing its strength and the validity of its objectives. With the gradual closing of this dimension by the society, the self-limitation of thought assumes a larger significance. The interrelation between scientific-philosophical and societal processes, between theoretical and practical Reason, asserts itself "behind the back” of the scientists and philosophers. The society bars a whole type of oppositional operations and behavior; consequently, the concepts pertaining to them are rendered illusory or meaningless. Historical transcendence appears as metaphysical transcendence, not acceptable to science and scientific thought. The operational and behavioral point of view, practiced as a “habit of thought” at large, becomes the view of the established universe of discourse and action, needs and aspirations. The “cunning of Reason” works, as it so often did, in the interest of the powers that be. The insistence on operational and behavioral concepts turns against the efforts to free thought and behavior from the given reality and for the suppressed alternatives.”

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), pp. 15-16

William O. Douglas photo

“It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies. We need all the ingenuity we possess to avert the holocaust.”

William O. Douglas (1898–1980) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

"The One Un-American Act," Speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York, on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award
Other speeches and writings

Daniel Levitin photo
Hugo Black photo
African Spir photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Dinah Craik photo
Jane Roberts photo
Vanna Bonta photo

“Our true enemies are: ignorance and limitation.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

The Impact of Space Activities Upon Society (ESA Br) European Space Agency (2005)

Ralph Klein photo

“You know, my science is limited to the fact that I know that eons ago there was an ice age … I know that for sure. I know that at one time, the Arctic was the tropics. And I guess I wonder what caused that? Was it dinosaur farts? I don’t know.”

Ralph Klein (1942–2013) Canadian politician

Source: Creeps, bums and a foot in the mouth: Some of former premier Ralph Klein’s more colourful moments http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/creeps-bums-and-a-foot-in-the-mouth-some-of-kleins-more-colourful-moments/

George Sutherland photo
John P. Kotter photo

“Analytical tools have their limitations in a turbulent world. These tools work best when parameters are known, assumptions are minimal, and the future is not fuzzy.”

John P. Kotter (1947) author of The heart of Change

Introduction to the 2002 edition, p. 12
The Heart of Change, (2002)

Roberto Mangabeira Unger photo
Sylvia Earle photo
Albert Einstein photo

“The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can't grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.”

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

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 10

George W. Bush photo
Josh Marshall photo

“With all the efforts now to disassociate President Bush from conservatism, I am starting to believe that conservatism itself — not the political machine, mind you, but the ideology — is heading toward that misty land-over-the-ocean where ideologies go after they've shuffled off this mortal coil. Sort of like the way post-Stalinist lefties used to say, "You can't say Communism's failed. It's just never really been tried."But as it was with Communism, so with conservatism. When all the people who call themselves conservatives get together and run the government, they're on the line for it. Conservative president. Conservative House. Conservative Senate.What we appear to be in for now is the emergence of this phantom conservatism existing out in the ether, wholly cut loose from any connection to the actual people who are universally identified as the conservatives and who claim the label for themselves.We can even go a bit beyond this though. The big claim now is that President Bush isn't a conservative because he hasn't shrunk the size of government and he's a reckless deficit spender.But let's be honest: Balanced budgets and shrinking the size of government hasn't been part of conservatism — or to be more precise, Movement Conservatism — for going on thirty years. The conservative movement and the Republican party are the movement and party of deficit spending. And neither has any claim to any real association with limited or small government. Just isn't borne out by any factual record or political agenda. Not in the Reagan presidency, the Bush presidency or the second Bush presidency. The intervening period of fiscal restraint comes under Clinton.”

Talking Points Memo (2006-06-13) http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008733.php

D. V. Gundappa photo
William Kristol photo
Margaret Mead photo

“We now face five years of an unbridled Conservative government that is intent on swingeing cuts, further attacks on society’s most vulnerable and on our NHS. This will severely limit what can be achieved but I am determined to work tirelessly to do what I can to make sure local people are heard in Parliament and protected from the worst of what is to come.”

Jo Cox (1974–2016) UK politician

Column: Jo Cox – After a hard day’s night, the real work starts http://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/local/column-jo-cox-after-a-hard-day-s-night-the-real-work-starts-1-7264438 (16 May 2015)

Ron DeSantis photo
David D. Friedman photo
James Madison photo
Charles Babbage photo
Charles Stross photo
Adolf Hitler photo
George Packer photo
Géza Révész photo

“Ebbinghaus: Language is a system of conventional signs that can be voluntarily produced at any time.
Croce: Language is articulated, limited sound organized for the purpose of expression.
Dittrich: Language is the totality of expressive abilities of individual human beings and animals capable of being understood by at least one other individual.
Eisler: Language is any expression of experiences by a creature with a soul.
B. Erdmann: Language is not a kind of communication of ideas but a kind of thinking: stated or formulated thinking. Language is a tool, and in fact a tool or organ of thinking that is unique to us as human beings.
Forbes: Language is an ordered sequence of words by which a speaker expresses his thoughts with the intention of making them known to a hearer.
J. Harris : Words are the symbols of ideas both general and particular: of the general, primarily, essentially and immediately; of the particular, only secondarily, accidentally and mediately.
Hegel: Language is the act of theoretical intelligence in its true sense, for it is its outward expression.
Jespersen: Language is human activity which has the aim of communicating ideas and emotions.
Jodl: Verbal language is the ability of man to fashion, by means of combined tones and sounds based on a limited numbers of elements, the total stock of his perceptions and conceptions in this natural tone material in such a way that this psychological process is clear and comprehensible to others to its least detail.
Kainz : Language is a structure of signs, with the help of which the representation of ideas and facts may be effected, so that things that are not present, even things that are completely imperceptible to the senses, may be represented.
De Laguna: Speech is the great medium through which human co-operation is brought about.
Marty: Language is any intentional utterance of sounds as a sign of a psychic state.
Pillsbury-Meader: Language is a means or instrument for the communication of thought, including ideas and emotions.
De Saussure: Language is a system of signs expressive of ideas.
Schuchardt. The essence of language lies in communication.
Sapir: Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.”

Géza Révész (1878–1955) Hungarian psychologist and musicologist

Footnote at pp. 126-127; As cited in: Adam Schaff (1962). Introduction to semantics, p. 313-314
The Origins and Prehistory of Language, 1956

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
B. W. Powe photo
Emma Watson photo

“Empathy and the ability to use your imagination should have no limits.”

Emma Watson (1990) British actress and model

MTV Movie and TV Awards, "Emma Rosa Parks Watson" http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447451/emma-watson-new-rosa-parks-gender-neutral-awards-hollywood-virtue-signaling, (May 9, 2017)

Claude Adrien Helvétius photo
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo photo
Norbert Wiener photo
George Mason photo

“That the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Article 14
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Nanak photo