Quotes about position
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“Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

“It had been so good to see his enemy again. Positively heartwarming.

Hallmark really needed to start up a line of revenge cards, the kind that let you reach out to those you were going to come after with a vengeance.

- Lash”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Enshrined

Revenge

“Mmm. O positive, my favorite.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

“You see something you like?" I asked, echoing something I'd said to him ling ago, when he'd caught me in a compromising position at school.
"Lots," he said.
-Rose (Roza) to Dimitri”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

School

“Maybe you feel pressure to be positive because so many people rely on your good, fake-positive energy? If that's the case, screw everybody else. You're not a bottle of Valium.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

People, Feeling

“Were we incapable of empathy – of putting ourselves in the position of others and seeing that their suffering is like our own – then ethical reasoning would lead nowhere. If emotion without reason is blind, then reason without emotion is impotent.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

Source: Writings on an Ethical Life

Suffering

“As usual, in every scheme that worsens the position of the poor, it is the poor who are invoked as beneficiaries.”

Vandana Shiva (1952) Indian philosopher

“If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The Vanity of Existence

Life

“I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.”

Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) Co-founder of the Black Panther Party

“I try to maintain a positive attitude at all times, because clients notice little things like that, and if you're frowning and crying all the time and saying "why? why?", they get worried.”

John Swartzwelder book The Time Machine Did It

Source: The Time Machine Did It

Time, Cry

“And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic nor popular - but one must take it because it is right.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

Time

“One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

People, World, Education

“Which leaves us to the question, what is he up to?" Evanlyn said.
Will shrugged. "I suppose we'll find out soon enough," he said, and urged Tug forward to take up the point position once more.

They found out the following evening.”

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

Source: The Burning Bridge

Question

“Be a positive evidence collector”

Karen Salmansohn American writer

Think Happy: Instant Peptalks to Boost Positivity

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.”

Charles F. Haanel book The Master Key System

Source: The Master Key System

Beauty, Strong

“You're an intelligent person of great moral character who has taken a very courageous stand. I'm an intelligent person with no moral character at all, so I'm in an ideal position to appreciate it.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Intelligence, Courage, Personality

“Maybe the best thing to do with favorite books is to leave them be: to achieve such exalted position means that they entered your life at exactly the right time, in precisely the right place, and those conditions can never be recreated.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Life, Books, Time

“once you laugh at you own weaknesses, you can move forward. Comedy breaks down walls. It opens up people. If you're good, you can fill up those openings with something positive. Mabye…….. combat some the ugliness in the world.”

Goldie Hawn (1945) American actress, film director, and producer.

People, World

“I don’t want my thoughts to die with me, I want to have done something. I’m not interested in power, or piles of money. I want to leave something behind. I want to make a positive contribution - know that my life has meaning.”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

Life, Money

“Philosophy … is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena

Vol I
Source: Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)

Faith, Science

“Sweetheart, if it’s not too much of an imposition, I would be forever beholden to you if you could kindly assume a reclining position so I can screw your brains out.”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: Forbidden Nights with a Vampire

“He settled his hat back into position. She was a rookie in her first big game, and he’d never let her see how close she’d come to unseating a champion”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Heaven, Texas

Game

“I think that my job is to observe people and the world, and not to judge them. I always hope to position myself away from so-called conclusions. I would like to leave everything wide open to all the possibilities in the world.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

People, World, Hope, Thinking

“The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.”

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

Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904

Positive, Feeling, Motivational

“… One of the reasons so many women say "I'm not a feminist but…" (and then put forward a feminist position), is that in addition to being stereotyped as man-hating Amazons, feminists have also been cast as antifamily and antimotherhood.”

Susan J. Douglas (1950) writer

Women, Hate

“Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Walden (1854), p.18

Life

“I have strong feelings for you, I just haven't decided if their positive or negitive yet. A”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Feeling, Strong

“Fashion does not have to prove that it is serious. It is the proof that intelligent frivolity can be something creative and positive”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

Intelligence, Fashion

“Dogs are a gift to mankind. They are happy and joyful and loyal by nature. They are pure, positive energy and teach by example. That is all that's required of them.”

Alyson Nöel book Radiance

Source: Radiance

Dogs, Nature, Happiness

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

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

Knowledge

“Police are inevitably corrupted…. Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.”

Frank Herbert book God Emperor of Dune

Source: God Emperor of Dune

“If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.”

Les Brown (1945) American politician

“You weren't an accident. You weren't mass produced. You aren't an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the earth by the Master Craftsman.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: The Christmas Candle

“Knowledge is power, community is strength and positive attitude is everything”

Lance Armstrong (1971) professional cyclist from the USA

Communication, Knowledge

“There are really only two positions one can take toward anything in life: hope or fear. Hope strengthens, fear kills.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Variant: There are only really two positions one can take toward anything in life: hope or fear. Hope strengthens, fear kills.
Source: Darkfever

Life, Fear, Hope

“Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive, in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.”

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

Men, Books, Knowledge

“but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life

“It is only when the correct practice is followed for a long time, without interruptions and with a quality of positive attitude and eagerness, that it can succeed.”

Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises

Source: Yoga-Sutras

Time

“I refuse to "look up." Optimism nauseates me. It is perverse. Since man's fall, his proper position in the universe has been one of misery.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

Optimism, Universe

“Kindness eases change.
Love quiets fear.
And a sweet and powerful
Positive obsession
Blunts pain,
Diverts rage,
And engages each of us
In the greatest,
The most intense
Of our chosen struggles.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents

Love, Pain, Fear, Rage

“The universe is a million billion light-years wide, and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. This is the position of the universe with regards to human life.”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

Life, Light, Universe

“In life two negatives don't make a positive. Double negatives turn positive only in math and formal logic. In life things just get worse and worse and worse.”

Robert McKee (1941) American academic specialised in seminars for screenwriters

Source: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

Life

“To give up our imaginary position as the center, to renounce it, not only intellectually but in the imaginative part of our soul, that means to awaken to what is real and eternal, to see the true light and hear the true silence.”

Simone Weil book Waiting for God

Source: Waiting for God

Soul, Imagination, Light, Silence

“None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)”

Cornel West book Race Matters

Source: Race Matters

World

“Time eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at the level of art.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Art, Time

“Did you know I have always suspected that men were idiots," Daphne ground out, "but I was never positive until today.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Duke and I

Men

“Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally on our planet, serves a thousand different functions, all of them positive. To make marijuana against the law is like saying that God made a mistake. Like on the seventh day God looked down, "There it is. My Creation, perfect and holy in all ways. Now I can rest. [Gives shocked expression] Oh my Me! I left fuckin' pot everywhere. I should never have smoked that joint on the third day. Hehe, that was the day I created the possum. Still gives me a chuckle. But if I leave pot everywhere, that's gonna give people the impression they're supposed to … use it. Now I have to create Republicans."”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

" … and God wept", I believe is the next part of that story.
Chicago '91 (1991)

God, People, Law, Way

“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.”

Washington Irving book Tales of a Traveller

Tales of a Traveler (1824), Preface, p. 7.
Source: Tales of a Traveller

Travel, Change

“Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Personality

“Are you sure I can’t catch it? (Nick)
I’m positive. Believe me, I know my zombies. (Bubba)
(Nick scoffed.) ‘Is it just me or is that like saying I know my elves and fairies?’ (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

Attitude, Positive, Life

“She stopped and leant her elbows against the parapet of the embankment. He did likewise. There is at times a magic in identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Time

“… like a grain of sand that gets into an oyster's shell. What if the grain doesn't want to become a pearl? Is it ever asked to climb out quietly and take up its old position as a bit of ocean floor?”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.”

Maya Angelou book Mom & Me & Mom

Source: Mom & Me & Mom

Love, Star, Strong

“Stephen had spared no expense in making himself more unhappy, his own position as a rejected lover clearer.”

Patrick O'Brian (1914–2000) English novelist

Source: H.M.S. Surprise

Lovers

“Indeed, it's futile to try and use Holy Scripture to support any political position. I deeply distrust anyone who does. Just look at what an Islamic Republic is like.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Support

“Positive, adj. Mistaken at the top of one's voice.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Mmm. O positive, my favorite.”
“Is it? I thought it was a cabernet sauvignon.”
“So it is,” said Adrian, straight-faced. “My mistake.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

“Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Truth, Art, Reality, Study

“The energy of hatred won't get you anywhere; but the energy of forgiveness, which reveals itself through love, will transform your life in a positive way.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Love, Life, Way, Forgiveness

“When pain brings you down, don't be silly, don't close your eyes and cry, you just might be in the best position to see the sun shine.”

Alanis Morissette (1974) Canadian-American singer-songwriter

Pain, Sun, Cry

“When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position.”

John Maynard Keynes book The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Source: The Economic Consequences of the Peace

“Accentuaute the positives - medicate the negatives.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Source: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.”

Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician

Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

Dreams, Reality

“As far as he was concerned, there were only two good positions for a human. A female on her back. And a male facedown not breathing.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Help

“The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: On Love

Life, Fear, Memory

“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Time

“You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“Remember to use positive affirmations. I am not a dork is not one of them.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

“Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

“The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules—but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on The Book of the Law

Way

“Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being.”

Laura Lippman book What the Dead Know

Source: What the Dead Know

Reading

“In my few short years I learned that seeing what's positive about a situation is a lot more fun and gets you a lot further than looking for what might be wrong with it.”

D.J. MacHale book The Lost City of Faar

Source: The Lost City of Faar

Learning

“The old saying holds. Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist

"Overseas Financial Policy in Stage III" (unpublished memo distributed to the British Cabinet on 15 May 1945, in Collected Writings volume 24, p. 258).
If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.
Variant reported in Time magazine, Monday, Feb. 17, 1947
If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has.
As quoted in The Economist (13 February 1982), p. 11

“The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn. The less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything…”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Learning

“Positive thinking can be contagious. Being surrounded by winners helps you develop into a winner.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

Source: Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder

Thinking, Help

“… mediocre people find their way into positions of authority… because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Blink

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

People, Way, Thinking, Decision

“Every life, no matter how isolated, touches hundred of others. It's up to us to decide if those micro connections are positive or negative. But whichever we decide, it does impact the ones we deal with.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infamous

Life

“I was taught never to take advantage of anybody who was less fortunate than myself, whether he be less fortunate in brains, wealth, or social position; it meant anybody…”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

Wealth

“The death of God left the angels in a strange position.”

Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) American writer, editor, and professor

Death, God, Angels

“When you are able to shift your inner awareness to how you can serve others, and when you make this the central focus of your life, you will then be in a position to know true miracles in your progress toward prosperity.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Life

“Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she should find herself in a difficult position, so that she might have the pleasure of being as heroic as the occasion demanded.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Pleasure

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

Charles Darwin book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, "Introduction", page 3 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=16&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image <br class="br">Source: The Descent of Man (1871) <br class="br">Context: It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Confidence, Knowledge, Problem, Science