Changing Subject Quotes

So she did the English thing. She changed the subject. ~ Steve Hockensmith

The truth is, that the concept of God which I had always entertained, and which I had accused Christians of teaching to the world, was a concept of a being who was simply impossible. He was infinite and yet finite; perfect and imperfect; eternal and yet changing - subject to all the variations of emotion, love, sorrow, hate, revenge, that men are prey to ...
What a relief it was for me, now, to discover not only that no idea of ours, let alone any image, could adequately represent God, but also that we should not allow ourselves to be satisfied with any such knowledge of Him. ~ Thomas Merton

As far as evil goes" - she shrugged one shoulder - "I've spent a dozen years studying the subject and there's one thing I know for sure." Her expression grew distant, breakable somehow. She blinked and seemed to push whatever had distracted her aside. "If you want to know what evil looks like, look in the mirror." She leaned down, flattened her hands on the table once more, and went face-to-face with Wells. "Any one of us is capable of evil, Detective. We all have a line. It's not crossing it that separates us from the Ed Geins and Charles Mansons of the world. ~ Debra Webb

And there was some trouble with Oliver Cowdery, and whisper said it was relating to a girl then living in his family; and I was afterwards told by Warren Parish, that he himself and Oliver Cowdery did not that Joseph had Fannie Alger as wife, for they were spied upon and found together. And I can now see that at Nauvoo, so at Kirtland, that the suspicion or knowledge of the Prophet's plural relation was one of the causes of apostasy and disruption at Kirtland, although at the time there was little said publicly on the subject. ~ Benjamin F. Johnson

Wildland firefighters do not enjoy the cultural prestige that structural firefighters do. They do not wax their fire engines and cruise down the local parade route, lights flashing; they are not the subject of countless popular books and movies; major politicians do not honor their sacrifices on the Senate floor or from the Rose Garden; they do not have bagpipe bands, fancy equipment, enduring icons, or other signifiers of honor verifying the importance of their activity. ~ Matthew Desmond

For most surfers, I think - for me, certainly - waves have a spooky duality. When you are absorbed in surfing them, they seem alive. They each have personalities, distinct and intricate, and quickly changing moods, to which you must react in the most intuitive, almost intimate way - too many people have likened riding waves to making love. And yet waves are of course not alive, not sentient, and the lover you reach to embrace may turn murderous without warning. It's nothing personal. That self-disemboweling death wave on the inside bar is not bloody-minded. Thinking so is just reflex anthropomorphism. Wave love is a one-way street. ~ William Finnegan

Race as a subject only comes about because of what I look like. If I say something truthfully, people say "Oh, she's so angry." If I write about a married person who lives in Vermont, it becomes "Oh, she's autobiographical." ~ Jamaica Kincaid

The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance-these are what may make a vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community. ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer

He could quite quickly become detached from the nuances of common human emotion. Particularly if he was engaged in some aspect of a scientific problem or research. His work excluded any consideration for the feelings of those around him. And he rarely excused himself or justified his behavior. It was as if he was compelled to focus all his energy on one subject and was unaware that others did not follow his obsession. ~ Theresa Breslin

But I can tell you this: that I am deeply proud of Rebecca. That she made a split-second decision to save the life of her son, turning the wheel of her vehicle so that her side of it would be impacted by an oncoming car instead of his. She gave her life in the exercise of the greatest gift that God grants us - the ability to change the trajectory of history. ~ Dexter Palmer

What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist's subject be religious to be Christian? I don't think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful ~ R.C. Sproul

As a special branch of general philosophy, pathogenesis had never been explored. In my opinion it had never been approached in a strictly scientific fashion--that is to say, objectively, amorally, intellectually.

All those who have written on the subject are filled with prejudice. Before searching out and examining the mechanism of causes of disease, they treat of 'disease as such', condemn it as an exceptional and harmful condition, and start out by detailing the thousand and one ways of combating it, disturbing it, destroying it; they define health, for this purpose, as a 'normal' condition that is absolute and immutable.

Diseases ARE. We do not make or unmake them at will. We are not their masters. They make us, they form us. They may even have created us. They belong to this state of activity which we call life. They may be its main activity. They are one of the many manifestations of universal matter. They may be the principal manifestation of that matter which we will never be able to study except through the phenomena of relationships and analogies. Diseases are a transitory, intermediary, future state of health. It may be that they are health itself.

Coming to a diagnosis is, in a way, casting a physiological horoscope.

What convention calls health is, after all, no more than this or that passing aspect of a morbid condition, frozen into an abstraction, a special case already experienced, recognized, defined, finite, extract ~ Blaise Cendrars

I haven't watched 'Mad TV' a lot, but I have seen some stuff on there that is truly funny. You have to have some sort of attitude toward the subject, and they seem to have it. It depends on how much blood you want to draw. ~ Joe Flaherty

The overall structure of the calculus is simple. The subject is defined by a fantastic leading idea, one basic axiom, a calm and profound intellectual invention, a deep property, two crucial definitions, one ancillary definition, one major theorem, and the fundamental theorem of the calculus.
The fantastic leading idea: the real world may be understood in terms of the real numbers.
The basic axiom: brings the real numbers into existence.
The calm and profound invention: the mathematical function.
The deep property: continuity.
The crucial definitions: instantaneous speed and the area underneath a curve.
The ancillary definition: a limit
The major theorem: the mean value theorem.
The fundamental theorem of the calculus is the fundamental theorem of the calculus.
These are the massive load-bearing walls and buttresses of the subject. ~ David Berlinski

In order to change, you need to stop fearing the change but instead fear the results of NOT trying to change. What happens if you don't jump? What happens if you stay where you are right now? Isn't the greatest risk the risk of doing nothing?
Exist or risk. Dream or do.
Fear not changing, and you will change your life. ~ Rachel Marie Martin

When someone tells you, "You've changed," it might simply be because you've stopped living your life their way. ~ John Spence

Transient and Eternal
The state of the world is in flux, and every object within it is subject to change.
Concepts live outside of time and, because All Things Are Number, liberate us from it. ~ Frank Wilczek

Remain true to yourself and your philosophy. Changing in the face of adversity will in fact diminish your credibility with your customers. ~ Giorgio Armani

The night air was soft, and laden with the redolence of impending blossoms. The sky unfolded and lit up the earth in jubilation. Welcome Spring ! ~ Meeta Ahluwalia

Because the biological mechanisms that affect our health and well-being are so dynamic, when people change their diet and lifestyle, they usually feel so much better, so quickly; it reframes the reason for changing from fear of dying to joy of living. Also, the support that patients give each other is a powerful motivator. ~ Dean Ornish

We all tend to judge others by ourselves; that's human nature. Edward Said, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem and an English professor, was bitterly and viciously anti-British. He assumed that an Englishman who was a professor of Arabic would have the same attitude to his subject as he had to his. [Explaining why he, as a Jewish and British, was accused of barely conceal disdain for subject matter of his scholarship in Edward Said's 'Orientalism'] ~ Bernard Lewis

You see, freedom has a way of destroying things. ~ Scott Westerfeld

Other people's tragedies should not be the subject of idle conversation. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Tall, blond, and immortal." "Viking vampire assassins," Murphy said, barely stifling a sneer. "Sounds like the subject of a bad romance novel." "I disagree," Carwyn said. "That sounds like a rather excellent romance novel. ~ Elizabeth Hunter

I told you to make yourself at home," he says. "I don't want you to feel like you have to tiptoe around, afraid of doing something wrong or hearing something you shouldn't, like phone conversations." My blood runs cold at those words. I can feel his eyes on me and not the screen. "I, uh ... " I don't know what to say. "It's okay," he says, those words silencing me. He kisses the top of my head again, subject closed as he goes back to watching the movie. A few minutes pass before Naz lets out a light laugh. "So, tell me something ... did you at least google me? ~ J.M. Darhower

The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people. ~ John P. Kotter

'Need You Now' is a universal subject matter. It's something that not just country fans, not just pop fans - everybody's been there. And the production was a little left of center. ~ Hillary Scott

I am not and autobiographical writer--one can't be without a solid and explicable self--and read all autobiographical writers with the same curiosity. What kind of life permits a person the right to become his own subject? ~ Yiyun Li

When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.' ~ Artie Shaw

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. ~ C.S. Lewis

If there are many secrets left in the world, there are probably many world-changing companies yet to be started. This ~ Peter Thiel

I foresee online gaming changing when there are good audio-visual links connecting the participants, thus approximating play in a face-to-face group. ~ Gary Gygax

With Lean Six Sigma, the tools are the easy part, changing organizational culture is the hard part. ~ John Novak

The government must realize that it is the leader and not the slave of public opinion; that public opinion is not a static thing to be discovered and classified by public-opinion polls as plants are by botanists, but that it is a dynamic, ever changing entity to be continuously created and recreated by informed and responsible leadership; that it is the historic mission of the government to assert that leadership lest it be the demagogue who asserts it. ~ Hans J. Morgenthau

Hey," I said, wondering why I was either short on words or babbling when I spoke to him. I touched his hat. "Didn't help. I still lost."
The game, anyway. I'd won a date.
"Mac's pretty good at pool," he said.
"You're no slouch, either."
"It didn't look like you were paying attention."
In the beginning, until Mac had shown up, I'd been riveted.
"When I was looking at the program last night, I noticed you and Mac play for the same university," I said, doing our usual change-the-subject thing. "You must know each other pretty well."
"Pretty well."
"He seems really nice."
"He's a pretty good guy."
Not exactly a resounding endorsement. But then guys probably didn't spend a lot of time complimenting other guys.
He's the best. He's the greatest. If I were a girl, I'd definitely go out with him. ~ Rachel Hawthorne

When identity is based on outward titles, material possessions, academic achievements or even relationship status, we place ourselves in a very fragile state. Until we are simply "enough" because of who we are "being" and not because of what we are "doing," our self-esteem and worth will continue to be "tossed to and fro," as our outer conditions are subject to change. ~ Shannon Tanner

It is always easier - and usually far more effective - to focus on changing your behavior than on changing the behavior of others. ~ Bob Nelson

I started being a photographer because I liked fashion. I liked the idea of dressing up and changing my look. I got earrings, dyed my hair. I would dress like a fashion photo. ~ Mario Testino