Categorically Quotes

Then I almost pity Judd." Leaning in, she whispered, "Make him uncomfortable. Don't take no for an answer. Push. Push him until he loses control. Remember, fire melts ice."
Brenna looked into those eerie night-sky eyes as Faith drew back. "Could be a dangerous game."
"You don't seem to be the kind of woman content with safe and easy."
"No." She also wasn't the kind of woman who gave up at the first obstacle. Judd might be categorically Psy, but she was a SnowDancer. ~ Nalini Singh

The norm which the society at large has set today categorically is in the form of preventive measures to be clasped within the purview of its social fabric. The legislators of great economies on the other hand have retrospectively identified the offense, researched, debated and have successfully handed down several yards of legislation with ingrained penalties and punishment for the trespassers of what they think as appropriate, bearing in mind basic human rights of the offenders.
And the sword of Damocles continues to haunt tiny sprouts of the society, ripping their souls and plunging them to misery, despair or death, to which several national and international judicial precedents bear witness. ~ Henrietta Newton Martin Legal Consultant

I've never categorically been a banker. I had two internships while I was at university. The decision was more banking, or magic, and I went with the latter. ~ Drummond Money-Coutts

To state a lie firmly, categorically and with great authority, undeterred by the fact that all concerned know it to be a lie, is one of the principal activities defined by the term practising law. ~ Stephen Vizinczey

My robust lexicon notwithstanding, I struggle to find the right words to describe just how much I despise, hate, abhor, revile, detest and categorically abominate anything to do with home maintenance. While cooking strikes me as an essentially creative act, cleaning seems little more than an exercise in decay management, enough to trigger an existential crisis each time the ring around the toilet bowl reappears. ~ Rachel Held Evans

It's interesting that penny-pinching is an accepted defense for toxic food habits, when frugality so rarely rules other consumer domains. The majority of Americans buy bottled drinking water, for example, even though water runs from the faucets at home for a fraction of the cost, and government quality standards are stricter for tap water than for bottled. At any income level, we can be relied upon for categorically unnecessary purchases: portable-earplug music instead of the radio; extra-fast Internet for leisure use; heavy vehicles to transport light loads; name-brand clothing instead of plainer gear. "Economizing," as applied to clothing, generally means looking for discount name brands instead of wearing last year's clothes again. The dread of rearing unfashionable children is understandable. But as a priority, "makes me look cool" has passed up "keeps arteries functional" and left the kids huffing and puffing (fashionably) in the dust. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

If Pakistan has any ideas of annexing any part of our territories by force, she should think afresh. I want to state categorically that force will be met with force and aggression against us will never be allowed to succeed. ~ Lal Bahadur Shastri

Bonhoeffer categorically refuses to demythologize the resurrection ... he finally walked to his execution, saying that for him it was the beginning of life. ~ K Hamilton

I categorically resist this idea that films are supposed to be autobiographical and the only stories you tell are about your own life. ~ Stephen Daldry

He refused categorically all ideas of fidelity or serious commitments. He explained that they were arbitrary and sterile. From anyone else such views would have shocked me, but I knew that in his case they did not exclude tenderness and devotion - feelings which came all the more easily to him since he was determined that they should be transient. ~ Francoise Sagan

The answer is no," said Melody firmly. "Undeniably, indisputably, categorically no. ~ Sarah Weeks

Trapnel wanted, among other things, to be a writer, a dandy, a lover, a comrade, an eccentric, a sage, a virtuoso, a good chap, a man of honour, a hard case, a spendthrift, an opportunist, a raisonneur; to be very rich, to be very poor, to possess a thousand mistresses, to win the heart of one love to whom he was ever faithful, to be on the best of terms with all men, to avenge savagely the lightest affront, to live to a hundred full of years and honour, to die young and unknown but recognized the following day as the most neglected genius of the age. Each of these ambitions had something to recommend it from one angle or another, with the possible exception of being poor - the only aim Trapnel achieved with unqualified mastery - and even being poor, as Trapnel himself asserted, gave the right to speak categorically when poverty was discussed by people like Evadne Clapham. ~ Anthony Powell

There are events in our personal lives and our collective history that seem categorically irredeemable, moments in which the grounds for gratefulness and hope have sunk so far below the sea level of sorrow that we have ceased to believe they exist. But we have within us the consecrating capacity to rise above those moments and behold the bigger picture in all of its complexity, complementarity, and temporal sweep, and to find in what we see not illusory consolation but the truest comfort there is: that of perspective. ~ John Steinbeck

Something broke in me and left me with a nerve split in two. In the beginning the extremities linked to the cut hurt me so badly that I paled in pain and perplexity. However the split places gradually scarred over. Until coldly, I no longer hurt. I changed, without planning to. I used to look at you from my inside outward and from the inside of you, which because of love, I could guess. After the scarring I started to look at you from the outside in. And also to see myself from the outside in: I had transformed myself into a heap of facts and actions whose only root was in the domain of logic. At first I couldn't associate me with myself. Where am I? I wondered. And the one who answered was a stranger who told me coldly and categorically: you are yourself. ~ Clarice Lispector

I can tell you categorically that any mal-treatment of any detainees by U.S. forces or coalition forces is totally unacceptable - that our orders have and will continue to be that we will treat everyone in our charge with - humanely and with respect. ~ Peter Pace

If these d'Herelle bodies were really genes, fundamentally like our chromosome genes, they would give us an utterly new angle from which to attack the gene problem. They are filterable, to some extent isolable, can be handled in test-tubes, and their properties, as shown by their effects on the bacteria, can then be studied after treatment. It would be very rash to call these bodies genes, and yet at present we must confess that there is no distinction known between the genes and them. Hence we can not categorically deny that perhaps we may be able to grind genes in a mortar and cook them in a beaker after all. Must we geneticists become bacteriologists, physiological chemists and physicists, simultaneously with being zoologists and botanists? Let us hope so. ~ Hermann Joseph Muller

Nobody has approached me about an offer to work in India. However, I can categorically state that if they did so, I would refuse immediately. ~ Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Shahara grimaced at him. He was categorically insane-that was probably what the C.I. stood for. It had to be. "You have some severe mental problem I need to be aware of, don't you?"
He flashed a half-dimpled smile that sent shivers the length of her body. When he continued, it was in a strange accent that sounded more than just a little too creepy. "Just because I eat babies for breakfast and pick my teeth with their bones doesn't mean I'm nuts."
She rolled her eyes. Given who his father had been, he probably shouldn't be making jokes like that. No doubt that had been his father's favorite delicacy. "Any other weird habits I should be aware of?"
"Just my need to dance naked in the streets under the light of a full moon."
-Shahara & Syn ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Holy Spirit of God loves to make sure that everything is all about Jesus Christ. On that basis, I will say this categorically and emphatically, and only just barely resist the temptation to say it twice: Show me a person obsessed with the Holy Spirit and His gifts (real or imagined), and I will show you a person not filled with the Holy Spirit. Show me a person focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ - never tiring of learning about Him, thinking about Him, boasting of Him, speaking about and for and to Him, thrilled and entranced with His perfections and beauty, finding ways to serve and exalt Him, tirelessly exploring ways to spend and be spent for Him, growing in character to be more and more like Him - and I will show you a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. ~ Dan Phillips

Tom looked at St. Vincent. "I assume the editor at the Chronicle refused to divulge the writer's identity?"
St. Vincent looked rueful. "Categorically. I'll have to find a way to pry it out of him without bringing the entire British press to his defense."
"Yes," Tom mused, tapping his lower lip with a fingertip, "they tend to be so touchy about protecting their sources."
"Trenear," Lord Ripon said through gritted teeth, "will you kindly throw him out?"
"I'll see myself out," Tom said casually. He turned as if to leave, and paused as if something had just occurred to him. "Although … as your friend, Trenear, I find it disappointing that you haven't asked about my day. It makes me feel as if you don't care."
Before Devon could respond, Pandora jumped in. "I will," she volunteered eagerly. "How was your day, Mr. Severin?"
Tom sent her a brief grin. "Busy. After six tedious hours of business negotiations, I paid a call to the chief editor of the London Chronicle."
St. Vincent lifted his brows. "After I'd already met with him?"
Trying to look repentant, Tom replied, "I know you said not to. But I had a bit of leverage you didn't."
"Oh?"
"I told him the paper's owner would dismiss him and toss him out on the pavement if he didn't name the anonymous writer."
St. Vincent stared at him quizzically. "You bluffed?"
"No, that is what the business negotiations were about. I'm the new owner. And while the chief editor happens to be ~ Lisa Kleypas

Qhuinn gave in immediately, as he was categorically incapable of denying the female anything - most certainly not one of her hugs. They were even better than her lasagna. ~ J.R. Ward

Yet if you scratched very deep at that idea of pattern (which apparently he had never taken the trouble to do), you hit an emptiness so dark that it destroyed, categorically, anything you'd ever looked at or thought of as light. ~ Donna Tartt

Once upon a time supporters of the Steinitz-Tarrasch school had a very high opinion of a queen-side pawn majority. Modern strategy on the other hand categorically denies that such a majority is an independent factor of any importance. ~ Alexander Kotov

I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies. ~ Jack Vance

That day, she became categorically certain of two things: that he annoyed her, profoundly, and, if she could, she would never leave him. ~ Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

The Deoraghan celebrated anything that could be celebrated, because they never knew what tomorrow held. Caleb had never met any other people who categorically refused to live life with regrets. They loved passionately. They fought fervently. They laughed often. They drank even more often. ~ Elizabeth C. Mock

The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted. ~ Milan Kundera

My work on Orange has taught me this: Human beings are not categorically bad because of their mistakes. They can learn from their errors and get back on track. No one should be forever written off because of one part of his or her history. ~ Diane Guerrero

I can categorically tell you that Mario Balotelli will not be at Liverpool. ~ Brendan Rodgers

But we either believe in democracy or we not. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed ... If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought. ~ Lee Kuan Yew

Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it.
The value judgement concealed in distinguishing one novel as literature and another as genre vanishes with the distinction.
Every readable novel can give true pleasure. Every novel read by choice is read because it gives true pleasure.
Literature consists of many genres, including mystery, science fiction, fantasy, naturalism, realism, magical realism, graphic, erotic, experimental, psychological, social, political, historical, bildungsroman, romance, western, army life, young adult, thriller, etc., etc…. and the proliferating cross-species and subgenres such as erotic Regency, noir police procedural, or historical thriller with zombies.
Some of these categories are descriptive, some are maintained largely as marketing devices. Some are old, some new, some ephemeral.
Genres exist, forms and types and kinds of fiction exist and need to be understood: but no genre is inherently, categorically superior or inferior.

(Hypothesis on Literature vs. Genre) ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

In fact, books are still being published by the lunatic fringe with the same explanation. In case this book should be read by some fundamentalist searching for straws to prop up his prejudices, let me state categorically that all my experience (such as it is) has led me to an unqualified acceptance of evolution by natural selection as a sufficient explanation for what I have seen in the fossil record. ~ D. V. Ager

Then allow me to finish it. Categorically. I am happy for you to pursue all the adventure you like. Here. In this house. Under this roof. Drink until you can no longer stand. Curse like a dockside sailor. Set your embroidery aflame, for God's sake. But, as your elder brother, the head of the family, and the earl," he stressed the last words, "I forbid you from frequenting taverns, public houses, or other establishments of vice. ~ Sarah MacLean

There's this notion out there - and it's a categorically false notion - that the only business model in the service industry is the minimum-wage business model. I say phooey to that. You go to a Costco store, and you see people there who've been working there for years and years. They're making $15, $20 an hour, plus health benefits. ~ Thomas Perez

Seriously. A man categorically devised the high heal and he did it in an attempt to make it easier for you dudes to rugby tackle us womenfolk to the ground and haul us back to your beds. ~ Jodi Ellen Malpas

What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times a thought can be refuted, yes, but not retracted. (p. 179) ~ Milan Kundera

I think there are lots of ways to exercise ambition and accomplish things using leadership without going into elected politics. So, categorically, I have no intention of going into elected politics. None. ~ Chris Hadfield

I think we actually punish children out of their relationship with their bodies ... we categorically separate mind and body and emotion and intellect. ~ Susan Griffin

Just as our solar system has a certain idiosyncratic assortment of planets and moons, different from any neighboring system yet categorically equivalent, so each distinct period of human history might have special qualities and individuals, characteristics and events, yet still be essentially akin beneath the surface to all the others. ~ Paul Di Filippo

The Scriptures categorically state that the problem with such people is not the absence of evidence; it is, rather, the suppression of it. The message of Jesus Christ shifts the charge of insufficiency from the volume of evidence to the intent of one's will. ~ Ravi Zacharias

He was the type of man women said they hated, they absolutely hated, they absolutely and categorically hated, and then they went to bed with him. I was the type of man women said they hated, and then they went home. ~ Colin Bateman

I can categorically say I will not be putting my hat in the ring. It's not something I have ever coveted and it's not a position I am interested in taking up at this point in time. I am loyal to Newcastle and they have been fabulous to me. I feel that is where my responsibility lies. ~ Rob Andrew

We're not the damned, folks, we're the categorically fucked.
-Urian ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

I have a very simple morality: not to do good or evil to anyone. Not to do evil, because it seems only fair that others enjoy the same right I demand for myself – not to be disturbed – and also because I think that the world doesn't need more than the natural evils it already has. All of us in this world are living on board a ship that is sailing from one unknown port to another, and we should treat each other with a traveller's cordiality. Not to do good, because I don't know what good is, nor even if I do it when I think I do. How do I know what evils I generate if I give a beggar money? How do I know what evils I produce if I teach or instruct? Not knowing, I refrain. And besides, I think that to help or clarify is, in a certain way, to commit the evil of interfering in the lives of others. Kindness depends on a whim of our mood, and we have no right to make others the victims of our whims, however humane or kind-hearted they may be. Good deeds are impositions; that's why I categorically abhor them. ~ Fernando Pessoa

I am trying to stop being mystified. Important to concentrate on good hard facts. But which facts? One week before mu eighteenth birthday, on August 8th, did Pakistani troops in civilian clothing cross the cease-fire line in Kashmir and infiltrate the Indian sector, or did they not? In Delhi, Prime Minister Shastri announced "massive infiltration ... to subvert the state:; but here is Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, with his riposte: "We categorically deny any involvement in the rising against tyranny by the indigenous people of Kashmir". ~ Salman Rushdie

We are categorically against proliferation of nuclear weapons. ~ Sergei Lavrov

Armenia categorically rejects the resumption of military hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh as an option. In case Azerbaijan resorts to military aggression, Armenia will have no other choice but to recognize the Nagorno Karabakh Republic de jure and to employ all its capabilities to ensure the security of the people of Artsakh. ~ Serzh Sargsyan

Leonardo believed his research had the
potential to convert millions to a more spiritual life. Last year he categorically proved the existence of
an energy force that unites us all. He actually demonstrated that we are all physically connected ... that
the molecules in your body are intertwined with the molecules in mine ... that there is a single force
moving within all of us." Langdon felt disconcerted. And the power of God shall unite us all. "Mr. Vetra actually found a way
to demonstrate that particles are connected?"
"Conclusive evidence. A recent Scientific American article hailed New Physics as a surer path to God
than religion itself. ~ Dan Brown

The advantages we gain from EU membership clearly and categorically outweigh any disadvantages that come with it. ~ Ruth Davidson

I can tell you categorically that we at 60 Minutes did not pay Michael Jackson one cent. ~ Don Hewitt

CREATIVITY first of all aims to achieve a REVOLUTION OF VALUES THROUGH RELIGION, therefore it completely and categorically rejects the Judeo-Christian-democratic-Marxist-liberal-feminist values of today and supplants them with new and basic values of which RACE IS THE FOUNDATION. ~ Ben Klassen

Paradoxically, intensifiers like very, highly, and extremely also work like hedges. They not only fuzz up a writer's prose but can undermine his intent. If I'm wondering who pilfered the petty cash, it's more reassuring to hear Not Jones; he's an honest man than Not Jones; he's a very honest man. The reason is that unmodified adjectives and nouns tend to be interpreted categorically: honest means "completely honest," or at least "completely honest in the way that matters here" (just as Jack drank the bottle of beer implies that he chugged down all of it, not just a sip or two). As soon as you add an intensifier, you're turning an all-or-none dichotomy into a graduated scaled. True, you're trying to place your subject high on the scale - say, an 8.7 out of 10 - but it would have been better if the reader were not considering his relative degree of honesty in the first pace. That's the basis for the common advice (usually misattributed to Mark Twain) to "substitute damn every time you're inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be" - though today the substitution would have to be of a word stronger than damn. ~ Steven Pinker

Secularism is categorically not saying that the religious may not speak out publicly or have a say in public life. It is about saying that religion alone should not confer a privileged say in public life, or greater influence on it. It really is as simple as that. ~ Richard Dawkins

Permission to disregard your orders, Underqueen."
"Permission not granted. Permission categorically denied. ~ Samantha Shannon

Shaikh Ahmad of Sirhind (1563-1624) discussed it within the canon of theological tradition and held that ana al-haqq was a situational statement and that it represented a quality of authentic experience. The Shaikh suggested that ana - the personal "I," and al-haqq, the Truth, had no reference to a unitive condition, in fact; al-haqq completely surrounded the consciousness of the contemplative ego. Placed in this state the ana could only know the surrounding al-haqq - and simultaneously lose its own identity. It was in fact the loss of personal identity which gave significance to Hallaj's statement. The Shaikh held that ana al-haqq did not have any reference to unification either with the Divine Essence or its Attribute. Thus, ana al-haqq, as "I am the Truth," was categorically discarded by the Shaikh who interpretted the phrases as affirmation by negation. According to him, ana al-haqq did not carry the affirmatory meaning of "I am the Truth," but simply made the statement that, "I am not, He only is". Without negation of the self, the affirmation of Divine Truth remains unresolved. Hallaj had in fact affirmed the faith through negation of the contemplative ego. ~ Gilani Kamran

All former counter-insurgency officers categorically denied having perpetrated torture during the Terror. In the case of at least one such research participant, anecdotal evidence from mutual contacts suggested otherwise. It is impossible to tell who, if any, of the former counter-insurgency officers featured in this chapter perpetrated torture during the Bheeshanaya. Eliciting confessions is not the aim of this book. My interest lies, instead, in exploring the ways in which 'perpetrators' of violence remember and reconstruct their disturbing pasts, and how they come to terms with it in the present. ~ Dhana Hughes

Social values in general are incrementally variable: neither safety, diversity, rational articulation, nor morality is categorically a good thing to have more of, without limits. All are subject to diminishing returns, and ultimately negative returns. ~ Thomas Sowell

The notion, a debatable one, is that the man who knows the problems necessarily knows the answers.

This book has not been successful if it has not suggested some big-league problems, such as:

(1) Should our financial machinery be scrapped?
(2) Should it be further tinkered with, and if so, how much further?
(3) Is capitalism doomed?
(4) What active stock selling under five dollars looks hot just now for a quick turn to pay for the Buick the wife just bought?


There isn't an assistant instructor in economics in any faculty who can't answer these and similar questions rapidly and categorically, and if that is not enough there are a million laymen eager to do so. So I don't feel that my vote is much needed. ~ Fred Schwed Jr.