Quotation Explorer - 'Contrary'

Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary. - Julius Rosenwald
Contrary to your beliefs, I am stronger then what you give me credit for, but the real lesson here is the knowledge to know I don't owe you an explanation to anything. - Nikki Rowe
We humans speak many languages; flowers on the contrary speak only one language: The language of beauty! - Mehmet Murat ildan
Ninja faith stands. It is not shaken when things seem contrary to what one expects. Ninja faith chooses to believe the truth. - Anna M. Aquino
Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more. - Terry Pratchett
Violence has settled more issues in history than any other factor; and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms. - Robert Heinlein
Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well. - Jane Austen
The maxim of illusory religion runs: 'Fear not; trust in God and he will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you'; that of real religion, on the contrary, is: 'Fear not, the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of. - Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
I will not say, as the beggars at our door used to do, ‘I’ll never ask anything of Him again;’ but, on the contrary, ‘He shall hear oftener from me than ever,’ and I will love God the better, and love prayer the better, as long as I live. - Philip Henry
To fill the fathomless caverns of my thirsty soul I must work entirely contrary to impulses of my own humanity, for it is in emptying myself at the very point where I am most empty that I fill myself. - Craig D. Lounsbrough
The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws. - Walt Whitman
The person who has trust in divine justice is neither upset when treated unfairly, nor seeks his justice; on the contrary, he accepts the false accusations as if they were true, and does not try to convince others that he has been slandered; instead he asks to be forgiven... - Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain
Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation. - Rabindranath Tagore
But it's not the pressure of data that gives rise to the understanding. It's, on the contrary, the child's own struggle to make sense of the data - Eleanor Duckworth
Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other - on the contrary they breed and reinforce each other. - Haim G. Ginott
The probability of an event is the reason we have to believe that it has taken place, or that it will take place.The measure of the probability of an event is the ratio of the number of cases favourable to that event, to the total number of cases favourable or contrary, and all equally possible. - Siméon Denis Poisson
There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. - Enrico Fermi
Someone who expresses a view that is contrary to the view of the overwhelming majority should be allowed to stand undisturbed as a monument to our commitment to free speech. - Albert Gore, Jr.
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter. - W. Somerset Maugham
When you live in contrary to the demand of life, life doesn't work for you. Life rather works against you. - Sunday Adelaja
Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful. - M. Scott Peck
Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young. - Ursula K. Le Guin
We'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it toward just ends. - Edward Snowden
Sin, on the contrary, is the pursuit of legitimate self-regarding interests at the expense of the neighbor, by spending our time and talents figuring out ways of exploiting them. - Frederick Nymeyer
Peace is not a result inside us from everything around us. Peace is not submissive nor passive. On the contrary, peace is an overwhelming force which comes from within us, disrespectful of everything around us, a firm coalition of spirit and soul standing against all the unrest that abounds. - C. JoyBell C.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.…'Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. - David Hume
Does the fact that I can no longer remember my own phone number indicate my growing feebleness? No, on the contrary, it unleashes the mind from the petty tyranny of tending to the trivial and allows it to concentrate on the important and the critical. - Don Norman
True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels themthe desire to do rightis precisely the same. - Robert E. Lee
I understand you, and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind. I am too old to want to improve the world. I have told you what I think, and that is all. I shall remain your friend even if you act contrary to my convictions, and I shall help you even if I disagree with you. - Milan Kundera
But God has set no traps for us. Quite the contrary. He has summoned us to the only true and full freedom. - Elisabeth Elliot
Any good business person applies financial discipline to everything they do. The movie business is and should be no different; I don't believe you have to sacrifice creativity to have business success. To the contrary, great art requires discipline. - Paula Wagner
In the contexts of religion and politics, words are not regarded as standing, rather inadequately, for things and events; on the contrary, things and events are regarded as particular illustrations of words. - Aldous Huxley
... the scriptures... when properly examined and rightly divided, do not portray Jesus as a poverty-stricken individual. On the contrary, Jesus is seen as a Man whose needs were met and who was regularly involved in meeting the needs of others. - Kenneth E. Hagin
The void is 'not-being,' and no part of 'what is' is a 'not-being,'; for what 'is' in the strict sense of the term is an absolute plenum. This plenum, however, is not 'one': on the contrary, it is a 'many' infinite in number and invisible owing to the minuteness of their bulk. - Aristotle
They dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience. - Giordano Bruno
Contrary to popular belief, English women do not wear tweed nightgowns.
Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature. - Augustine of Hippo
A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example. - Niccolò Machiavelli
Contrary to popular belief, some animals would not have each chosen to be a human being, if they were given the choice between being what they are and being human. - Mokokoma Mokhonoana
With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed. - Simone Weil
Contrary to popular belief: Knowing where you are from will not really tell you where you are going. It will merely tell you why you are where you are. - Mokokoma Mokhonoana
But one needs to bear in mind that things are not always what they seem and, contrary to the dead stillness of a photograph, reality is in a state of perpetual flux. - Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
The historian, on the contrary, cannot experiment and can rarely observe. Instead, the historian has to collect his own evidence, knowing, all the while, that some of it is useless and much of it unreliable." -Professor Charles Homer Haskins - Jill Lepore
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. - Aldous Huxley
Don't SAY things. What you ARE stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. - Confucius
People say you can't have peace without a war, but on the contrary they say they don't support war. You can not, ever achieve happiness from focusing on suffering, you have to change your perspective. World peace starts with Inner peace. - Mark Ryan
Anxiety is a sign that you have made up a story contrary to reality. Love does not fear. - Alan Cohen
Contrary to popular belief, going shopping is really about stopping afterward for cheesecake. - Bonnie Jensen
Rakitin was dishonest and was decidedly unaware of it; that, on the contrary, knowing that he wouldn't steal money from the table, he ultimately considered himself a man of the highest integrity. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. - Samuel Adams
Do the kind of things that come from the heart, When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overhelmed with what comes back - Morrie Schwartz
Yet, there is a sense of some deep sort that runs entirely contrary to human nature, that in putting ourselves first, we must by necessity put others first. - Craig D. Lounsbrough
Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a particular group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere and examplary life. - Israelmore Ayivor
One [dogma] is that violence is caused by a deficit of morality and justice. On the contrary, violence is often caused by a surfeit of morality and justice, at least as they are conceived in the minds of the perpetrators. - Steven Pinker
This Lord of natures today was transformed contrary to His nature; it is not too difficult for us to also overthrow our evil will." Hymns of the Nativity, Hymn 1:97, pg. 74 in : Hymns (New York: Paulist Press, 1989). - Ephrem the Syrian
Don't fall asleep yet. Contrary to popular belief, that's not where dreams get accomplished. - George Watsky
I am so far from being a pessimist...on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life. - Eugene O'Neill
Storm destroys, man also destroys, so man is a storm too! But contrary to storm, man can learn no to destroy! - Mehmet Murat ildan
If you do not read and listen to the opposite ideas, you can always remain a stupid person! Opposite ideas, however contrary they may sound, are your greater chances on the way to truth! - Mehmet Murat ildan
I cannot choose but adhere to the word of God, which has possession of my conscience; nor can I possibly, nor will I even make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience! Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen. - Martin Luther
Don Bradman will bat no more against England, and two contrary feelings dispute within us: relief, that our bowlers will no longer be oppressed by this phenomenon; regret, that a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal. - R.C. Robertson-Glasgow
Friends need not agree in everything or go always together, or have no comparable other friendships of the same intimacy. On the contrary, in friendship union is more about ideal things: and in that sense it is more ideal and less subject to trouble than marriage is. - George Santayana
Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first. - Peter Ustinov
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishfull thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.
The essential quality of a market system, contrary to popular thinking, is not that it promotes greed; but rather, that it renders greed harmless. - Israel M. Kirzner
We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid. - Christopher Hitchens
In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. - Swami Brahmananda
When people come to a conclusion that is contrary to popular opinion, there’s a calm resolution to them, for they are experiencing a short burst of pride. They have just captured an intellectual territory, and they will hold that territory. - Mike Klepper
The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form. - A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. - Confucius
Contrary to the ecologists, nature does not stand still and does not maintain the kind of equilibrium that guarantees the survival of any particular species - least of all the survival of her greatest and most fragile product: man. - Ayn Rand
Men are not generally sufficiently aware of the distinction between the law of God and his purpose; they are apt to suppose, that as the temper of the sinner is contrary to the one, so the outrages of the sinner are able to defeat the other; than which nothing can be more false. - John Witherspoon
Contrary to what phenomenology—which is always phenomenology of perception—has tried to make us believe, contrary to what our desire cannot fail to be tempted into believing, the thing itself always escapes. - Jacques Derrida
A LIE is BEAUTIFUL, melodious, STYLISH, and attractive. On the contrary, TRUTH is UGLY, rude, DULL and repulsive. That's why often people get attracted towards LIES. They embrace it and live with. The truth is usually ignored and disowned. - Sanjeev Himachali
Rejecting sin is not a burden; on the contrary, it brings freedom and relief. - Sunday Adelaja
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young. - W. Somerset Maugham
Los Angeles, it should be understood, is not a mere city. On the contrary, it is, and has been since 1888, a commodity; something to be advertised and sold to the people of the United States like automobiles, cigarettes and mouth wash.
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their beeing, but on the contrary, it is their social being that determines their consciousness. - Karl Marx
Contrary to popular opinion, we are all a vast brotherhood of human beings whose very survival hinges not on what we keep, but on what we give. And it is in the giving that we not only survive to live another day, but we thrive to celebrate another day. - Craig D. Lounsbrough
We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving. - José Ortega y Gasset
To live in a state of liberty is not to live apart from law. It is, on the contrary, to live under the highest law, the only law that can really profit a man, the law which is consciously and deliberately imposed by himself on himself. - Auberon Herbert
I believe that the testing of the student's achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning.
Contrary to what we've been told, life is simple. We complicate matters with our choices. - Michelle Richardson
He had not even the self-complacency that enables stupid people to accept their mediocrity with unction; he had on the contrary an engaging modesty. - W. Somerset Maugham
Contrary to popular belief, there are peaks higher than Mount Everest. These are the hurdles that lie within each of us. Thank you Stephen Hawking for showing us that they are not insurmountable - karan godara
But I'll tell you more about that later... or maybe I won't, because some wounds just don't heal even if you talk them out. On the contrary, the more you dress them up in words, the more they bleed. - Subcomandante Marcos
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