Quotes about usual
page 20

Edsger W. Dijkstra photo

“[Though computer science is a fairly new discipline, it is predominantly based on the Cartesian world view. As Edsgar W. Dijkstra has pointed out] A scientific discipline emerges with the - usually rather slow!”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

discovery of which aspects can be meaningfully 'studied in isolation for the sake of their own consistency.
Dijkstra (1982) as cited in: Douglas Schuler, Douglas Schuler Jonathan Jacky (1989) Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing, 1987. Vol 1, p. 84.
1980s

André Aciman photo
Thomas Kuhn photo

“A scientific theory is usually felt to be better than its predecessors not only in the sense that it is a better instrument for discovering and solving puzzles but also because it is somehow a better representation of what nature is really like. One often hears that successive theories grow ever closer to, or approximate more and more closely to, the truth. Apparently generalizations like that refer not to the puzzle-solutions and the concrete predictions derived from a theory but rather to its ontology, to the match, that is, between the entities with which the theory populates nature and what is “really there.””

Perhaps there is some other way of salvaging the notion of ‘truth’ for application to whole theories, but this one will not do. There is, I think, no theory-independent way to reconstruct phrases like ‘really there’; the notion of a match between the ontology of a theory and its “real” counterpart in nature now seems to me illusive in principle. Besides, as a historian, I am impressed with the implausability of the view. I do not doubt, for example, that Newton’s mechanics improves on Aristotle’s and that Einstein’s improves on Newton’s as instruments for puzzle-solving. But I can see in their succession no coherent direction of ontological development. On the contrary, in some important respects, though by no means in all, Einstein’s general theory of relativity is closer to Aristotle’s than either of them is to Newton’s.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Postscript (1969)

Antoni Tàpies photo
Jason Reynolds photo
Thomas Hylland Eriksen photo

“Many social scientists, including anthropologists, have been interested in the power inherent in gender relations, often described through the idiom of female oppression. It can be argued that men usually tend to exert more power over women than vice versa. In most societies, men generally hold the most important political and religious positions, and very often men control the formal economy. In some societies, it may even be prescribed for women to cover their body and face when they appear in the public sphere, and, paradoxically, these practices sometimes become more common as their societies become more modern. On the other hand, women are often capable of exerting considerable informal power, not least in the domestic sphere. Anthropologists cannot state unequivocally that women are oppressed before they have investigated all aspects of their society, including how the women (and men) themselves perceive their situation. One cannot dismiss the possibility that certain women in western Asia (the Middle East) see the ‘liberated’ western woman as more oppressed – by professional career pressure, demands to look good and other expectations – than themselves.
When studying societies undergoing change, which perhaps most anthropologists do today, it is important to look at the value conflicts and tensions between different interest groups that are particularly central. Often these conflicts are expressed through gender relations.”

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962) Norwegian social anthropologist and professor

Source: What is Anthropology? (2nd ed., 2017), Ch. 2 : Key Concepts

Jonathan Mitchell photo
Boris Johnson photo

“I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

2020s, 2020
Source: As quoted in Coronavirus: Up to fifth of UK workers 'could be off sick at same time' https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51718917, 3 March 2020, BBC News.

Dana Arnold photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Alfred de Zayas photo
Ralph Nader photo
E.M. Forster photo
Wendell Berry photo
Jarvis Cocker photo

“Whilst something is unknown, it could be anything. It could be the worst thing ever and usually when something starts to happen. You realise it’s not so bad.”

Jarvis Cocker (1963) English musician, singer-songwriter, radio presenter and editor

Playing at Bluedot Festival (2019)

Jan Mankes photo

“Besides, the entire impressionism usually presented merely the things from the outside. And sometimes they did it so perfectly that a seventeen[the] century painting looks clumsy, as far as seeing is concerned.”

Jan Mankes (1889–1920) Dutch painter

Trouwens het geheele impressionisme gaf meestal weinig meer dan de uiterlijke zijde der dingen. En dat deden ze soms zoo volmaakt dat een zeventien[de] eeuwsch schilderij er onbeholpen tegen is, wat zién betreft.

In a letter to A.A.M. Pauwels in The Hague, 6 March 1913; as cited in Jan Mankes – in woord en beeld, ed. Sjoerd van Faassen; Museum Bèlvédère, Heerenveen, 2015 ISBN 1877-0983, n. 22, p. 28
1909 - 1914

Jeff Flake photo
Newton Lee photo
Susan Sontag photo

“And isn't it usually so, that lovers who share their daily lives with each other gradually find they need to put very little into words?”

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

Source: Death Kit (1967), p.270

“Contrary to what is usually thought, nationalism is a type of tribal-collectivism where individual identity is subjugated to a collective group identity, making it a perfect habitat for most species of socialism and fascism.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: Killing History: The False Left-Right Political Spectrum and the Battle between the ‘Free Left’ and the ‘Statist Left', (2019), p. 96

Harry Gordon Selfridge photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Rina Mor photo
Rosa Luxemburg photo
Helena Roerich photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Jessica Meir photo

“Here we are up in Caribou, which is my home as well as yours, but when you think about your home, you usually think about your house, your neighborhood, and your family, and when you look at this fragile blue ball from outer space, that’s home too. It’s everybody’s home.”

Jessica Meir (1977) Swedish-American marine biologist and astronaut

Source: As quoted in [Burns, Christopher, Astronaut from Aroostook County will soon go on her 1st spaceflight, https://bangordailynews.com/2019/04/17/news/aroostook/astronaut-from-aroostook-county-will-soon-go-on-her-1st-spaceflight/, 26 April 2019, Bangor Daily News, April 17, 2019]

Barbara W. Tuchman photo
Max Eastman photo

“I omit from consideration here the fact that people who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral, but in favor of the status quo.”

Max Eastman (1883–1969) American activist

Attributed by internet sources to Enjoyment of Poetry: With Other Essays in Aesthetics (1939), but not confirmed.
Source: Enjoyment of Poetry With Anthology for Enjoyment of Poetry (1951), p. 233 https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/oV5emKH2uhcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=status%20quo
Source: The quote appears to have been first published in the essay "The Slogan, 'Propaganda Has No Place in Art,' Is The Symptom Of A Decaying Culture" https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/WX3NyDFUC_MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=eastman, Stage Magazine (1934).

Max Tegmark photo
Boris Yeltsin photo
Celeste Ng photo

“I have an interest in the outsider…In fiction you’re not often writing about the typical, you are interested in outliers, the points of interest. Part of it comes from feeling I was the only Asian or person of colour … another part comes from my personality: I’m an introvert, and my usual survival mode in a large group is to stand by a wall and watch everybody.”

Celeste Ng (1980) American novelist

On her writing interests in “Celeste Ng: ‘It’s a novel about race, and class and privilege’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/04/celeste-ng-interview-little-fires-everywhere in The Guardian (2017 Nov 4)

Jeff Danna photo
Michael Badnarik photo

“People are usually surprised to discover that I hate the phrase "constitutional rights."”

Michael Badnarik (1954) American software engineer

I hate the phrase because it is terribly misleading. Most of the people who say it or hear it have the impression that the Constitution "grants" them their rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. Strictly speaking it is the Bill of Rights that enumerates our rights, but none of our founding documents bestow anything on you at all [...] The government can burn the Constitution and shred the Bill of Rights, but those actions wouldn't have the slightest effect on the rights you've always had.
Source: Good to be King (2004)

Isaac Asimov photo

“Generals are usually a conservative force who can be relied on to oppose social change.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

The Egyptians (1967), p. 93
General sources

Prevale photo

“One who practices psychological violence against others is usually a devious, damned cowardly and disgustingly treacherous person.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Colui che pratica violenza psicologica contro gli altri di solito è una persona subdola, dannatamente codarda e disgustosamente infida.
Source: prevale.net

“Friends are admiring my age and health, and asking me the secret to live to such an age in good health. I usually answer them frankly: I have never paid attention to my health and age.”

Peter Chung Hoan Ting (1928) Malaysian catholic priest

Archbishop Emeritus Peter Chung celebrates his 90th birthday http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/archbishop-emeritus-peter-chung-celebrates-his-90th-birthday/44331/1 (September 21, 2018)

John Grisham photo
Lynn Shelton photo

“Good drama (and comedy) often comes from the simple act of placing characters in a situation that is not usual nor comfortable for them.”

Lynn Shelton (1965–2020) American film director, screenwriter, film editor, actress and film producer (1965-2020)

HuffPost Article - Interview with Lynn Shelton, Director of Humpday - 25 May 2011 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-with-lynn-shelt_b_227673 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210727183525/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-with-lynn-shelt_b_227673

“Trouble comes in a thousand different ways. Not usually anything you expect, either. That’s why it’s trouble.”

Source: The Heritage Universe, Convergence (1997), Chapter 13 (p. 381)

Herbert Read photo
Mike Gravel photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Bhumibol Adulyadej photo

“If they want to write about me in a good way, they should write how I do things that are useful. If they want to criticize me, I don't care, I don't mind. But they must criticize me fairly. Usually the criticism is not fair. Or the praise, even the praise sometimes is not fair.”

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016) King of Thailand

Source: "King Bhumibol's Reign" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/21/magazine/king-bhumibol-s-reign.html (21 May 1989)

Arundhati Roy photo

“Wars are...usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there’s the business of war...”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Come September (29 Sep 2002)

Jesmyn Ward photo

“The reason that I like to use classical myths as models is because African American writers and African American stories are usually understood as occurring in some kind of vacuum — because of slavery.”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On using mythology in her works in “INTERVIEWS: Powell's Interview: Jesmyn Ward, Author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing'” https://www.powells.com/post/interviews/powells-interview-jesmyn-ward-author-of-sing-unburied-sing in Powell City of Books (2017 Aug 29)

Scott Adams photo
Emilio Insolera photo

“From the director to the international cast, all of them are from deaf families for generations, while the film industry usually entrusts these roles to audacious interpreters that end up being bad imitators of the Sign language.”

Emilio Insolera (1979) Actor and film producer

Source: As quoted in Cinema. Quando il super eroe è sordo https://www.avvenire.it/agora/pagine/sordo(September 10, 2017), Avvenire)

“When (volcanic) ash falls into the ocean, it brings with it nutrients. For example, It can bring iron, which is usually quite low in the ocean. It can suddenly create a bloom of plankton, which then go through the food chain, creating a population boom later on the fish and other lives too.”

Shane J. Cronin researcher, ORCID id # 0000-0001-7499-603X

Source: Shane J. Cronin (2022) cited in: " Interview: Tonga volcanic eruption not likely to cause global climate change, says New Zealand volcanologist http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/20220118/dc046e9e38e343a381668086f1b71d0e/c.html" in Xinhua Net, 18 January 2022.

John Thomas Flynn photo
Guy P. Harrison photo
Vera Stanley Alder photo
A. C. Grayling photo

“Emancipation is always at risk from the usual sources—demagogues, civil and international war, the tenure that superstitions have over the human imagination—so there are no guarantees that progress will continue.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 3, “Emancipation and Ethics” (p. 12)

A. C. Grayling photo

“Folly tends to predominate over wisdom because it is usually easier to understand and more convenient (or exciting) to believe; but a little reflection usually sifts one from the other.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 1, “Emotion” (p. 3)

“The sound of a code being broken is usually the same as that of somebody snapping his fingers.”

Source: The Jagged Orbit (1969), Chapter 45 (p. 135; chapter title)

Walt Disney photo

“It’s the usual sensation mongering; the news services will say anything for an effect.”

Charles Sheffield (1935–2002) British scientist, American science fiction writer

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Sight of Proteus (1978), Chapter 9 (p. 73)

Edward Bellamy photo
Maximilien Robespierre photo

“Citizens, imagination usually sets the limits of the possible and the impossible; but when you have the will to do good, you must have the courage to cross these limits.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

13 August 1793, Presenting his education plan to the National Convention
Misc Quotes

Cherríe Moraga photo

“Time and time again, I have observed that the usual response among white women's groups when the "racism issue" comes up is to deny the difference. I have heard comments like, "Well, we're open to all women; why don't they (women of color) come? You can only do so much..."”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

But there is seldom any analysis of how the very nature and structure of the group itself may be founded on racist or classist assumptions. More important, so often the women seem to feel no loss, no lack, no absence when women of color are not involved; therefore, there is little desire to change the situation. This has hurt me deeply. I have come to believe that the only reason women of a privileged class will dare to look at how it is that they oppress, is when they've come to know the meaning of their own oppression. And understand that the oppression of others hurts them personally.
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Kim Stanley Robinson photo
Frank Lloyd Wright photo
Prevale photo

“You will be able to wear infinite masks, take on different attitudes and change your usual language, but you will always remain, inevitably, only what you prove yourself to be.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Potrete indossare infinite maschere, assumere atteggiamenti diversi e cambiare il vostro linguaggio abituale, ma rimarrete sempre, inevitabilmente, solo ciò che dimostrate di essere.
Source: prevale.net