Defines Quotes

What we focus on defines us, so if our focus is inward, on ourselves, we wind up defining for ourselves whether we are righteous or guilty. When we begin and end with us - with our self - we miss the heart of the gospel and never truly find the freedom for which we ache. ~ Lydia Brownback

No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as 'what a man does with his solitude.' ~ C.S. Lewis

It's not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you. ~ David S.Goyer

A different direction defines what to me is real and to you is hooey. ~ Azza Nazh

In English-speaking countries, the connection between heresy and homosexuality is expressed through the use of a single word to denote both concepts: buggery ... Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (Third Edition) defines "buggery" as "heresy, sodomy. ~ Thomas Szasz

What you've done isn't the only thing that defines who you are. Words are just as powerful as action. They can aspire action in others, can't they? ~ Erica Crouch

But monsters, I now know, come in all shapes and sizes, and only their appetite for human flesh defines them. ~ Rick Yancey

In some eras, self-control defines the paragon of a decent person: a grown-up, a person of dignity, a lady or a gentleman, a mensch. In others it is jeered at as uptight, prudish, stuffy, straitlaced, puritanical. Certainly the crime-prone 1960s were the recent era that most glorified the relaxation of self-control: Do your own thing, Let it all hang out, If it feels good do it, Take a walk on the wild side. ~ Steven Pinker

What defines a relationship is the work that's involved to maintain it, and it's constantly changing. ~ Neil Patrick Harris

Where there is true variety, there will be inevitable 'inequality' - that is simply the result of human nature and the pluralism that defines us as a people. ~ Cory Bernardi

Learning to see waste and systematically eliminate it has allowed lean companies such as Toyota to dominate entire industries. Lean thinking defines value as 'providing benefit to the customer'; anything else is waste. ~ Eric Ries

It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career. ~ Carlton Fisk

When you die, you know, you hear the insistent pounding that defines all things, whether of matter or energy, since there is nothing in the universe, really, but proportion. ~ Mark Helprin

We do not overidentify with our jobs. We may take pride in our work, we may stay late and come in on weekends, but we recognize that we are not our job descriptions. The amateur, on the other hand, overidentifies with his avocation, his artistic aspiration. He defines himself by it. He is a musician, a painter, a playwright. Resistance loves this. Resistance knows that the amateur composer will never write his symphony because he is overly invested in its success and overterrified of its failure. The amateur takes it so seriously it paralyzes him. ~ Steven Pressfield

Every call to worship is a call into the Real World ... I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I'm always in danger of losing my grip on reality. The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior. The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the eucharist my basic food. The reality is that baptism, not Myers-Briggs, defines who I am. ~ Eugene H. Peterson

The size of your promise defines the size of your life. ~ Roger J. Hamilton

The way you eat defines how you look to yourself, but the way you speak defines how you look to others. ~ Ankit Goel

It's who we are in the still points that defines us. ~ Katie Kacvinsky

I had moments of my actions and words not reflecting who it is I am - if that defines a punk, then yes, absolutely. ~ Andre Agassi

That combination of thought and action defines creative confidence: the ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out. ~ Tom Kelley

In our day, this global offensive plays a well-defines role. Its aim is to justify te very unequal income distribution between countries and social elates, to convince the poor that poverty is the result of the children they don't avoid having, and to dam the rebellious advance of the masses. ~ Eduardo Galeano

Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are ~ Kristen Stewart

When all hopes are lost, only then does reality acquire that sharp focus that defines who we are and what we have become. ~ Greg Bear

The word "religion" beautifully defines itself, of course. It translates "to bind" from the Latin
"re" means back and "ligare" means to tie up. All religions are straightjackets, jackets for the straight. ~ Timothy Leary

No one can be responsible for where or how we each begin. No one has the freedom to do anything or everything, and all choices bring consequences. What we choose to do next, though, how to spend our resources or attention or effort, this is what defines us. ~ Seth Godin

Pender laughed. Verify? In this day and age? Who cares about verifying anything? It's all about the speed. Who gets there first defines the truth. You know that as well as any man living. ~ David Baldacci

Adjusting herself, she doesn't feel any different. Not really. And now what? Is she supposed to go back to Ben? Are they going to do it again? Was she good? Was he good? Who defines 'good' anyway? Is he going to tell everyone? What will he tell them? ~ Ann Benjamin

I'm grateful for my family: that's what defines me; that's what makes me whole. ~ Jane Clayson

He who stands on tiptoe
doesn't stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn't go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can't empower himself.
He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures. ~ Laozi

Love yourself as you are! Instead of focusing too much on the outer beauty, one must always choose to value the inner beauty. Your skin and the hair color doesn't really matter, none of them defines who you truly are! ~ Jyoti Patel

Everyone has their weaknesses. What defines us is being able to acknowledge them and still find our strengths too. ~ Rebecca Espinoza

In the visual arts, for example, the semiological approach to graphics provides a rigorous analysis of the visual means used by the artist. It defines the basic properties and laws governing the arts and suggests objective criteria for art criticism. ~ Jacques Bertin

There is no English equivalent for the French word flâneur. Cassell's dictionary defines flâneur as a stroller, saunterer, drifter but none of these terms seems quite accurate. There is no English equivalent for the term, just as there is no Anglo-Saxon counterpart of that essentially Gallic individual, the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

Wit defies death
but death defines wit ~ David Giannini

To be raped is to be sexually violated. For society to force someone, through shame and ostracism, to comply with love and sex that it defines, is nothing but organized rape. That is what homophobia is all about. Organized rape. ~ Lee Maracle

Here's the bottom line: I can't play someone if I can't figure out what he cares about. Everybody cares about something, even a rough character. It defines where we step in life. As soon as you find out what somebody cares about, then it all gets real. ~ William Fichtner

It is better to not believe a truth than to believe a lie, because this defines yourself too. If you believe a lie that has negative effects, it shows you may have malicious intentions. But if you don't believe a truth that has negative effects, then you may be well-disposed. ~ Maria Karvouni

Death is the only certainty in life. The moment we are born, our journey towards our final destination begins. It's the beauty or the ugliness of that journey that defines our life; the distances covered varying in each case. Every flower that has bloomed in the free breeze of spring has to wither in the cruel icy autumn draught. ~ Anurag Shourie

Ever, we are not defined by our things. It's not the clothes we wear, the cars that we drive, the art we acquire - it's not where we live - but how we live that defines us. It's our actions that are remembered long after we're gone. ~ Alyson Noel

The answer to what defines a smear often lies in the motivation behind, and scale of, the response. ~ Sharyl Attkisson

People define gay cinema solely by content: if there are gay characters in it, it's a gay film ... I think that's really simplistic. Heterosexuality to me is a structure as much as it is a content. It is an imposed structure that goes along with the patriarchal, dominant structure that constrains and defines society. If homosexuality is the opposite or counter-sexual activity to that, then what kind of a structure would it be? ~ Todd Haynes

Where we choose to be, where we choose to be
we have the power to determine that in our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being. ~ Sena Jeter Naslund

Unconsciously he defines for me the lines of a fresh new school, a school that is to have in it all the passion of the romantic spirit, all the perfection of the spirit that is Greek. The harmony of soul and body - how much that is! We in our madness have separated the two, and have invented a realism that is vulgar, an ideality that is void. Harry! If only you knew what Dorian Gray is to me! ~ Oscar Wilde

Now an embryo may seem like some scientific or laboratory term, but in fact the embryo contains the unique information that defines a person. All you add is food and climate control, and some time, and the embryo becomes you or me. ~ Todd Akin

Though many would seek short cuts to the truth, there is no way around the simplest of tenets: hardship begets achievement and achievement begets joy - true joy, and the sense of accomplishment that defines who we are as thinking beings. ~ R.A. Salvatore

The journey is about growing and evolving and forever striving to become a better person. Bad things happen to us all; it is how we respond to those unfortunate events that defines the quality of our life and the lives of those around us. ~ Khloe Kardashian

That's all I am, now. That's all that defines me. So when they're happy, they'll be me. ~ Greg Egan

Today, we have many ways of defining success in life. Some define it as being a sports hero, others as being wealthy, others as being popular and well liked, and still others as being happy. How does God define success? He defines it as being spiritually mature! ~ Dr. Todd M. Fink

I still haven't made a film that defines who I am. ~ Jennifer Tilly

God, as represented by Scripture, by nature is the true non-conformist. He does not need to conform to any truth; He does not need to conform to some moral law. It proclaims that He is the Truth; He defines Morality: the Great I Am, the Beginning and the End who radiates all that is Holy. Therefore, and unless we too were wholly holy and omniscient, we would do well to understand at the very least that even if this God were to wipe away all in existence, then despite my opinion or your opinion, His decision would be objectively good and moral simply because He is the one doing it. ~ Criss Jami

To me, what defines a New Yorker is the edge that one develops from having actually lived here. Once you have it, it doesn't go away, and everywhere else in the world feels like it is in slow motion. ~ Donald Trump, Jr.

Information defines your personality, your memories, your skills. ~ Ray Kurzweil

The rich flow of creativity, innovation, and almost musical complexity we are looking for in a fulfilled work life cannot be reached through trying or working harder. The medium for the soul, it seems, must be the message. The river down which we raft is made up of the same substance as the great sea of our destination. It is an ever-moving, firsthand creative engagement with life and with others that completes itself simply by being itself. This kind of approach must be seen as the "great art" of working in order to live, of remembering what is most important in the order of priorities and what place we occupy in a much greater story than the one our job description defines. Other "great arts," such as poetry, can remind and embolden us to this end. Whatever we choose to do, the stakes are very high. With a little more care, a little more courage, and, above all, a little more soul, our lives can be so easily discovered and celebrated in work, and not, as now, squandered and lost in its shadow. ~ David Whyte

I wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star. It defines life for me. It's all I've ever imagined for myself. ~ Shelby Lynne

I think we function better mentally, emotionally, and physically when we take care of our bodies with nourishment, water, and exercise. The lie I used to believe was that my weight would define me, that it would speak volumes about who I was as a person. Today I believe it's not your weight that defines you, but the care and consideration you put into your body absolutely does. ~ Rachel Hollis

the sanctity of life always takes precedence over the quality of life...For life defines what is the definitive intrinsic attribute, of that which is the natural order of things...While the later, is an incidental ingredient of that concatenation. ~ -Daryavesh Rothmensch

...man is as much a parasite on the cow as the tapeworm is on man: We have sucked their udders like leeches. "Man the cow parasite" is probably how non-man defines man in his zoology books ~ Unbearable Lightness Of Being

A friend of mine defines prayer as a declaration of dependence. ~ Billy Graham

But how we should care for other people remains a question. In his discussion of efforts to control childhood obesity, the philosopher Michael Merry defines paternalism as "interference with the liberty of another for the purposes of promoting some good or preventing some harm." This type of paternalism, he notes, is reflected in traffic laws, gun control, and environmental regulations. These are limits to liberty, even if they are benevolent. Interfering with the parenting of obese children, he argues, is not necessarily benevolent. There is risk in assigning risk. ~ Eula Biss

What you love defines you better than what you hate.
What you need defines you better than what you want.
What you give defines you better than what you take.
What you do defines you better than what you say.
What you create defines you better than what you destroy.
What you gain defines you better than what you lose.
What you heed defines you better than what you ignore.
What you help defines you better than what you hinder.
What you esteem defines you better than what you dishonor.
What you trust defines you better than what you fear.
What you grasp defines you better than what you disbelieve.
What you hold defines you better than what you release.
What you draw defines you better than what you repel.
What you face defines you better than what you avoid.
What you finish defines you better than what you start.
What you admire defines you better than what you despise.
What you welcome defines you better than what you shun.
What you heal defines you better than what you hurt.
What you praise defines you better than what you condemn.
What you cherish defines you better than what you disregard.
What you appreciate defines you better than what you despise.
What you strengthen defines you better than what you weaken.
What you encourage defines you better than what you denounce.
What you support defines you better than what you oppose.
What you honor defines you b ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Knowing what I do now, I think about shame and worthiness in this way: 'It's the album, not the picture.' If you imagine opening up a photo album, and many of the pages are full eight-by-ten photos of shaming events, you'll close that album and walk away thinking, Shame defines that story. If, on the other hand, you open that album and see a few small photos of shame experiences, but each one is surrounded by pictures of worthiness, hope, struggle, resilience, courage, failure, success, and vulnerability, the shame experience are only a part of a larger story. They don't define the album. ~ Brene Brown

Change is inevitable; our response to it defines who we are. ~ James W. Mercer

The difference between a poet and a philosopher is that the poet sees logically and describes basically the beauty whereas the philosopher defines the basics and shows the beauty of logics. ~ Anuj

When Jesus defines the relationship he wants with us he makes it clear that being a fan who believes without making any real commitment to follow isn't an option. ~ Kyle Idleman

The place where you're from defines who you are. You put yourself in the wrong situation, the wrong things happen. ~ Vince Staples

Being a father describes a man, being a mother defines a woman. ~ Tawny O'dell

You don't realize how much a dog's presence defines the contours of your home until, in its absence, the walls seem to relocate themselves. ~ Meghan Daum

But I still feel like I lost.
We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in the sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven't even met yet. probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there's still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. You will remember having conversations with this person that never actually happened. You will recall sexual trysts with this person that never technically occurred. This is because the individual who embodies your personal definition of love does not really exist. The person is real, and the feelings are real-but you create the context. And context is everything. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they're often just the person you happen to meet first time you really, really want to love someo ~ Chuck Klosterman

I desire to establish a profound state of peacefulness, an imperturbable stillness of mind, an unconditioned mode of being that is free from mind contaminants of negative thoughts. I pray to undertake a productive emotional, intellectual, and spiritual journey seeking the highest level of personal realization that defines wholeness and finality. In stillness, a state of mental quietude, we enter the worldly womb of creativity. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Suffering, sin, and evil are no longer located in God's will, but are understood as arising within a finite, open, developmental, and future-oriented creation. They are dealt with by the power of God's love revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God's answer to the problem of woundedness and wickedness is not to show us now or in the eschaton how they fit into God's design or mosaic, but to show us how God overcomes the brokenness and maliciousness of the creation now and in the eschaton through the redemptive power of the cross and resurrection. Divine power is rethought as the suffering and transforming power of Jesus' cross and resurrection, not as the omnipotent power of the timeless will of God. Incarnation, instead of immutability, defines God's will and way. God is the suffering and transforming God. ~ Tyron Inbody

Grace does not contest the powers-that-be through an effective show of verifiable strength but through a persistent and subversive recoding of how one defines what strength and weakness are. ~ Adam Miller

A mustache really defines your face. My dad had a mustache when I was growing up, and I can still remember when he shaved it, he looked like a completely different person. ~ Jason Sudeikis

[The myth of the absolutizing of ignorance] implies the existence of someone who decrees the ignorance of someone else. The one who is doing the decreeing defines himself and the class to which he belongs as those who know or were born to know; he thereby defines others as alien entities. The words of his own class come to be the "true" words, which he imposes or attempts to impose on the others: the oppressed, whose words have been stolen from them. Those who steal the words of others develop a deep doubt in the abilities of the others and consider them incompetent. Each time they say their word without hearing the word of those whom they have forbidden to speak, they grow more accustomed to power and acquire a taste for guiding, ordering, and commanding. They can no longer live without having someone to give orders to. Under these circumstances, dialogue is impossible. ~ Paulo Freire

As long as art is understood and valued as an "absolute" activity, it will be a separate, elitist one. Elites presuppose masses. So far as the best art defines itself by essentially "priestly" aims, it presupposes and confirms the existence of a relatively passive, never fully initiated, voyeuristic laity which is regularly convoked to watch, listen, read, or hear - and then sent away. ~ Susan Sontag

Erich Fromm in his 1941 book "Escape from Freedom", about the nature of one of our culture's most cherished values. Fromm argues that freedom is composed of two complementary parts. A common view of freedom is that it means "freedom from the political, economic, and spiritual shackles that have bound men," which defines it as the absence of others forcibly interfering with the pursuit of our goals. In contrast to this "freedom from," Fromm identifies an alternate sense of freedom as an ability: the "freedom to" attain certain outcomes and realize our full potential. "Freedom from" and "freedom to" don't always go together, but one must be free in both senses to obtain full benefit from choice. A child may be allowed to have a cookie, but he won't get it if he can't reach the cookie jar high on the shelf. ~ Sheena Iyengar

One theft, however, does not make a thief . . Action which defines a man, describes his character, is action which has been repeated over and over and so has come in time to be a coherent and relatively independent mode of behavior. At first it may have been fumbling and uncertain, may have required attention, effort, will - as when first drives a car, first makes love, first robs a bank, first stands up against injustice.

If one perseveres on any such course it comes in time to require less effort, less attention, begins to function smoothly; its small component behaviors become integrated within a larger pattern which has an ongoing dynamism and cohesiveness, carries its own authority. Such a mode then pervades the entire person, permeates other modes, colors other qualities, in some sense is living and operative even when the action is not being performed, or even considered. . . .

Such a mode of action tends to maintain itself, to resist change. A thief is one who steals; stealing extends and reinforces the identity of a thief, which generates further thefts, which further strengthen and deepen the identity. So long as one lives, change is possible; but the longer such behavior is continued the more force and authority it acquires, the more it permeates other constant bodes, subordinates other conflicting modes; changing back becomes steadily more difficult; settling down to an honest job, living on one's earnings becomes ever more unlikely. And wh ~ Allen Wheelis

What you do defines you. ~ Debasish Mridha

Do not break your heart for those who left you, use the pain to earn success that defines you. ~ Iamsophie

Your courage to take a risk and your ability to accept responsibility will define you. ~ Debasish Mridha

I am not designed to exist in this thing- and yet for all intents and purposes it is now the thing that defines me. It is the only thing that defines me. ~ Jojo Moyes

I do have shout-outs to bands and musicians I like in my books, but the musical references can be misunderstood. Often, I have people listening to music that I would never listen to personally, because it fits and defines their character. ~ George Pelecanos

Remember, it's not magic that defines you. It's YOU that defines you. That's all the truth there is" -Ludmila ~ Evelyn Skye

Sipski defines orgasm as a reflex of the autonomic nervous system that can be either facilitated or inhibited by cerebral input (thoughts and feelings). ~ Mary Roach

A little known area often defines the fortunes of leaders
management skills. ~ Ron Suskind

ITs not the number of breaths you take, but the number of time you experience something that takes your breath away, that defines your life. ~ David J. Murray

I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely. ~ William Friedkin

As Hegel defines it: "Thinking is, indeed, essentially the negation of that which is before us." ... Reason is the negation of the negative ... Reason, and Reason alone, contains its own corrective. ~ Herbert Marcuse

Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don't. Everybody worships; it's just a matter of what, or whom, we serve. ~ Paul David Tripp

[The fine structure constant] ... defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together and how all the atoms on Earth were made. Its value controls the power from the Sun and, more sensitively, how stars transmute hydrogen into all the atoms of the periodic table. ~ Martin J. Rees

I'm competitive - that's what defines me - and I love it. ~ Daley Thompson

Pressing close, our enemies bellicose, unsleeping,
Aim to make us feeble, if our name is scorned, if our fame is shamed,
What defines us as a people? ~ Rıza Fazıl

Conflict, not progress, is the word that defines man's path from darkness into light. No holiness is won by any other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day by day, and hour by hour. ~ Alexander MacLaren

What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Postponing happiness until "all your ducks are in order" means never because life is not that clean, fair or predictable. It isn't what happens to you that defines your life, it is what you do with it that does. ~ Laura C. Schlessinger

Religion gives us a place to stand outside politics, and without it we're vulnerable to a system in which the state defines everything, which is the essence of tyranny. ~ R. R. Reno

Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you. You might think that your woundedness or your sinfulness is the truest thing about you or that your giftedness or your personality type or your job title or your identity as husband or wife, mother or father, somehow defines you. But, in reality, it is your desire for God and your capacity to reach for more of God than you have right now that is the deepest essence of who you are. ~ Ruth Haley Barton

By habitus, I mean dispositions that inhere and mold the deepest, subtlest, intricate structures of personhood, are constituted and emergent in the most elusive folds and lineaments of consciousness, and are articulated in lastingly resilient, enduring textual tapestries of experience, orientations, desires. The range of habitus is deep and broad: habitus forms the long arc of evolutionary developments and arrangements of the body in action and at rest, posture, gait, stance, and gesture; it is the silent teacher of the phonemic alphabet, determining subtle distinctions of timbre and tone, accents and intonations in voice articulations; it is the subcutaneous, ingrained dynamic inhering in daily competencies, executed flawlessly and yet seemingly unconsciously, such as balancing huge loads the size of a person's body weight on the head as Kikuyu women often do, or walking fearlessly on narrow glacial paths through plunging cliffs as the Sherpas do, or weaving in and out of traffic while engaged in deep conversations on a cell phone as Californians do. Habitus describes the imbrication of structure and culture in desire. It is what defines subtle distinctions of taste, those almost ineffable differences of sweetness, succulence, spiciness, and bitterness in food and drink; the raging fetishes and unbidden cravings that shadow sexuality; the fickle difference between scents that intoxicate or trigger upheavals of wretching. Habitus, then, is "human nature" understood as the dee ~ Omedi Ochieng

He who defines himself can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others can't empower himself. ~ Lao Tzu

Once you embrace that WHO you are defines you, you can conquer the world. What matters is what's in your heart, what your goals are and what kind of life you want to lead. ~ Shantel VanSanten

Pain defines moments in the lives of all human beings. The trial is not the endurance of pain but the choices we make regarding how to endure. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich