Dictum Quotes

“The debacle in Iraq has reinforced the realist dictum, disparaged by idealists in the 1990s, that the legacies of geography, history and culture really do set limits on what can be accomplished in any given place. But the experience in the Balkans reinforced an idealist dictum that is equally true: One should always work near the limits of what is possible rather than cynically give up on any place. In this decade idealists went too far; in the previous one, it was realists who did not go far enough.”

“The debacle in Iraq has reinforced the realist dictum, disparaged by idealists in the 1990s, that the legacies of geography, history and culture really do set limits on what can be accomplished in any given place. But the experience in the Balkans reinforced an idealist dictum that is equally true: One should always work near the limits of what is possible rather than cynically give up on any place. In this decade idealists went too far; in the previous one, it was realists who did not go far enough.”

“...for she soars with the wildest hyperbole when not tagging after the most pedestrian dictum.”

“Dictum on television scripts: We don't want it good - we want it Tuesday.”

“It was a dictum of his that the soul's energy thrives when the body's desires are feeblest.”

“...having bowed to the inevitability of the dictum that we must eat to live, we should ignore it and live to eat...”

“Saadi’s dictum, in the Bostan: ‘The Path is not in the rosary, the prayer-mat and the robe”

“a good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving" Taoist dictum quoted by Sam Miller”

“The earth is the Lord's fullness thereof: this is no longer a hollow dictum of religion, but a directive for economic action toward human brotherhood.”

“It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.”

“The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.”