For most of us even the imagined threat of criticism functions to control our behavior. We are haunted to some degree by questions about our self-worth. As a consequence, we continually attempt to prove to ourselves and others that we are okay people, credible, trustworthy, and competent.
As God’s chosen, blessed sons and daughters, we are expected to attempt something large enough that failure is guaranteed…unless God steps in.
Year in and year out, under the guise of the Ridiculous, we attempt the Sublime.
An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
The attempt to redefine the family as a purely voluntary arrangement grows out of the modern delusion that people can keep all their options open all the time.
Reduce your humanity through what Jules Feiffer called little murders. The minute I hear someone trying to demean me, I know that that person means to have my life. And I will not give it to them. When a person commits these little murders, and then you catch him or her at it, he or she might say, "Oh, I didn't mean it. " But make no mistake: It is an assassination attempt.
In our attempt to make conservation easy, we have made it trivial.
The men who attempt to survive, not by means of reason, but by means of force, are attempting to survive by the method of animals.
Greed probably figures in my intellectual life as well, as I attempt to absorb a massive amount of information with consequent mental indigestion.
The selfish leader will attempt to lead others for their own gain and for the detriment of others.
Failure is no shame - but not making the attempt is despicable.
The administration's attempt to keep us from selling agricultural products to Cuba is an outrage. Cuba is not a threat. That is why we must do more to open Cuba - not less.
We need to live in mindful harmony with our feelings, not attempt to control them.
The war will continue a long time. Chiang Kai-shek may attempt to continue hostilities throughout his ifetime and as long as Chiang continues, Japan must continue.
The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.
My work is my work and I will attempt to sell it for what it is.
Surely, I must at all times attempt to obey the law of the state. But when the will of God and the will of the state conflict, I am compelled to follow the will of God.
No attempt must be made to encase man, for it is his destiny to be set free.
[Science fiction is] the attempt to deal rationally with alternate possibilities in a manner which will be entertaining.