Quotes about realization
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Michael Jackson photo
Richard Stallman photo

“I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

Internet meme commonly attributed to Stallman made by an unknown source.
Misattributed

Auguste Comte photo
Nanak photo
Ronda Rousey photo

“When I was in school, martial arts made you a dork, and I became self-conscious that I was too masculine. I was a 16-year-old girl with ringworm and cauliflower ears. People made fun of my arms and called me "Miss Man." It wasn't until I got older that I realized: These people are idiots. I'm fabulous.”

Ronda Rousey (1987) American judoka, mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and actress

"6 Feminist Quotes From Ronda Rousey That Prove She's More Than Just A Trash Talker", in Bustle.com (3 August 2015) http://www.bustle.com/articles/101566-6-feminist-quotes-from-ronda-rousey-that-prove-shes-more-than-just-a-trash-talker

George Orwell photo
Charlie Parker photo
Socrates photo
Paramahansa Yogananda photo
John Mearsheimer photo
Stefan Zweig photo
Adam Weishaupt photo
Jordan Peterson photo
Hans Fritzsche photo

“I mean, the realization that crime does not begin when you murder people. Crime begins with propaganda, even if such propaganda is for a good cause. The moment propaganda turns against another nation or against any human being, evil starts”

Hans Fritzsche (1900–1953) German Nazi official

To Leon Goldensohn, April 6, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
Context: What I would like to emanate from the darkness of this tragedy is one spark of life. I mean, the realization that crime does not begin when you murder people. Crime begins with propaganda, even if such propaganda is for a good cause. The moment propaganda turns against another nation or against any human being, evil starts. Whereas the Germans started propaganda toward the end of this tragedy, you Allies stand at the beginning of the tragedy.

Arthur Miller photo

“I've almost asked that question, then realized it's good for my soul not to know. For a while! Just to let the evening wear on and see what I think of this person without knowing what he does and how successful he is, or what a failure. We're ranking everybody every minute of the day.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

Paris Review (Summer 1966)
Context: Success, instead of giving freedom of choice, becomes a way of life. There's no country I've been to where people, when you come into a room and sit down with them, so often ask you, "What do you do?" And, being American, many's the time I've almost asked that question, then realized it's good for my soul not to know. For a while! Just to let the evening wear on and see what I think of this person without knowing what he does and how successful he is, or what a failure. We're ranking everybody every minute of the day.

“Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red Indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking Muppet.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall (2001)

Masanobu Fukuoka photo
Lucille Ball photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“… you realize that you don't understand yourself any better than you understand anyone else.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Eugene O'Neill photo

“None of us can help the things life has done to us. They’re done before you realize it, and once they’re done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you’d like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever.”

Page 63 (Act 2, Scene 1)
Long Day's Journey into Night (1955)
Source: Long Day's Journey Into Night
Context: But I suppose life has made him like that, and he can't help it. None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever.

Richelle Mead photo
Thomas Sowell photo

“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Source: 1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)

Orhan Pamuk photo
Anthony Kiedis photo
Barack Obama photo
Carol Gilligan photo
Fernando Pessoa photo
Henry Ford photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“To be mature you have to realize what you value most… Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one's own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life

Hayao Miyazaki photo
Julio Cortázar photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Thomas Merton photo
Eckhart Tolle photo

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Variant: Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life
Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

John Cage photo
Roald Dahl photo
Ezra Taft Benson photo

“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Variant: Nothing will surprise us more than when we get to heaven and see the Father and realize how well we know Him and how familiar His face is to us.

Bertrand Russell photo

“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Andrew Carnegie photo
Saul Bellow photo

“People don't realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

Source: Conversations with Saul Bellow

Margaret Mitchell photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Cheryl Strayed photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Arundhati Roy photo
Robin Jones Gunn photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Remarks at a business conference in Los Angeles (2 March 1977)
1970s

Terry Pratchett photo

“I realize something. That wasn't a finish line for me… This is my new starting line.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: The Running Dream

Eckhart Tolle photo
Lemmy Kilmister photo
Milan Kundera photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Carlos Ruiz Zafón photo
Margaret Mitchell photo

“Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.”

Variant: Until you 've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
Source: Gone with the Wind

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Variant: Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

John Dewey photo
Rabindranath Tagore photo
Mark Twain photo
Katherine Paterson photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“I'd come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clear-cut language.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
Fernando Pessoa photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Darren Shan photo
Christopher Paolini photo
Arundhati Roy photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.

Cassandra Clare photo

“You might want to lie down. I find that helps when the crushing sense of horrible realization sets in.”

Magnus to Maia, pg. 274
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

Sadhguru photo
Frantz Fanon photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Ben Carson photo
Orhan Pamuk photo
Robert Harris photo
Albert Schweitzer photo
Seth Godin photo

“The secret to being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.”

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

Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Vladimir Lenin photo

“Communism is Soviet government plus the electrification of the whole country. Otherwise the country will remain a country of small peasant economy, and it is up to us to realize this quite clearly.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

New External and Internal Position and the Problems of the Party (1920); as quoted in The Soviet Power : The Socialist Sixth Of The World (1940) by Hewlett Johnson.
1920s