Provoking Quotes

I like my films to have a certain amount of realism - something that's thought provoking and intelligently written. More than the amount on the pay cheque, I look for a level of respectability as an actor. ~ Arjun Rampal

According to Aristophanes in Plato's The Banquet, in the ancient world of legend there were three types of people.
In ancient times people weren't simply male or female, but one of three types : male/male, male/female or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangment and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everyone in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing half. ~ Haruki Murakami

A disciple is a disciple maker. ~ Francis Chan

You admit you're doing this on purpose?"
"This?"
"This - provoking me."
"Say 'provoking' again. Your mouth looks provocative when you do."
―Vee said," I'm trying to read the title he's holding…hang on…How to Be a Stalker."
"He is not checking out a book with that title." But I wasn't so sure.
"It's either that of How to Radiate Sexy Without Trying."
― Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush Hush, Hush

Vee said," I'm trying to read the title he's holding…hang on…How to Be a Stalker."
"He is not checking out a book with that title." But I wasn't so sure.
"It's either that of How to Radiate Sexy Without Trying."
― Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush ~ Becca Fitzpatrick

Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

Communication is a major key to building any strong relationship, whether it is the relationship one has with oneself or with others. Sinful communication weakens yourself, weakens those you care about, and thus weakens your team. ~ Shay Dawkins

I want to show people as they are, not glorified, no shame - fat, bulges, wrinkles and all. I want the work to be disturbing, unsettling, provocative, challenging, and thought provoking. ~ Judy Dater

Bessie, you must promise not to scold me any more till I go." "Well, I will; but mind you are a very good girl, and don't be afraid of me. Don't start when I chance to speak rather sharply; it's so provoking. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Are you willing to care enough to get hurt? ~ Michele McKnight Baker

If one can't be happy, one must be amused ... ~ Nancy Mitford

As I work among my flowers, I find myself talking to them, reasoning and remonstrating with them, and adoring them as if they were human beings. Much laughter I provoke among my friends by so doing, but that is of no consequence. We are on such good terms, my flowers and I. ~ Celia Thaxter

How curious it was, how ironic, he decided, that the human brain seemed capable of understanding almost everything but itself. ~ Edward B. Hanna

When we are babies ... we need an authoritative figure to guide and take care of us. We ask no questions about that authority and imagine that the small circumference of family life is the limit of the universe ... As we mature, our horizon expands and we begin to question. This continues until we either throw over our creators
our parents
for good and take their place as the creative force in our lives or find replacements for them because the terror and responsibility are too great. People go one way or the other, and this accounts for all of the great personal and political divides throughout history. ~ Charlotte Rogan

Once they had been equal in their separate freedoms. They had set out to have children as lightly as if they were playing house, and now her necessarily domestic life bored him, and she was bound to it in her body and imagination. This imbalance was fated, built into their biology. ~ Tessa Hadley

The youth do not see the old. They are not programmed to see the old, who are cancelled, negated, wiped out. ~ Doris Lessing

I missed the future. ~ John Green

Within the character of the citizen, lies the welfare of the nation. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

There are probably no more market-oriented individuals on the planet, than low income people. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

It's not the small of her back, her thighs, or her chest or eyes that matter most. It's the parts of her she's afraid to show that you should get to know. ~ J. Raymond

A king may rule the kingdom but the queen still moves the board. ~ Donna Marie Timney

Are a woman's wishes only fit to be considered when blessed by a male relative? ~ Marie Brennan

But American statesmen have studied the constitutions of other states more than that of their own, and have succeeded in obscuring the American system in the minds of the people, and giving them in its place pure and simple democracy, which is its false development or corruption. Under the influence of this false development, the people were fast losing sight of the political truth that, though the people are sovereign, it is the organic, not the inorganic people, the territorial people, not the people as simple population, and were beginning to assert the absolute God-given right of the majority to govern. All the changes made in the bosom of the States themselves have consisted in removing all obstacles to the irresponsible will of the majority, leaving minorities and individuals at their mercy. This tendency to a centralized democracy had more to do with provoking secession and rebellion than the anti-slavery sentiments of the Northern, Central, and Western States. ~ Orestes Augustus Brownson

Well, you can't throw heavy, analytical, thought-provoking songs at people 24/7. It's been my experience over the last 20 years that on a rare occasion, in a live setting, if you can slow people down to listen to two good ballads, then you're doing pretty good. Then throw a tempo at 'em. Then have fun. ~ Ronnie Dunn

What is more important in a library than anything else - than everything else - is the fact that it exists. ~ Archibald MacLeish

Temptation provokes me to look upward to God. ~ John Bunyan

Hatred only tarnishes the soul that carries it. ~ D.B. Harrop

Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking. ~ Benjamin Franklin

That's how the past juggles with your sanity: it makes the piranhas look like puppies. ~ Sean Aeon

If they'd given her a proper time machine, she probably would have used it to cuddle with him. Let somebody else kill Hitler. ~ Rainbow Rowell

I believe Fernand Point is one of the last true gourmands of the 20th century. His ruminations are extraordinary and thought-provoking. He has been an inspiration for legions of chefs. ~ Thomas Keller

Irene Diamond's Fertile Ground is a provocative book. It stirs me to vigorous assent. It also triggers wide-eyed disbelief ... As it prods me to explosions of disagreement, it also provokes useful thought. ~ Janet Lembke

If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then DO NOT be afraid to LEAVE someone who is messing with YOUR MOOD in a detrimental way. ~ Shay Dawkins

A house that has a library in it has a soul. ~ Plato

Charles' conversation was as flat as a street pavement, on which everybody's ideas trudged past, in their workaday dress, provoking no emotion, no laughter, no dreams. ~ Gustave Flaubert

Love a thing at a time. Many things will love you no more. ~ Suyasha Subedi

Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck. They say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a familiar way of reacting - shutting down, speeding up, or getting all worked up. When you react in the habitual way, with anger, greed, and so forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with them honestly and compassionately. Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful habits and cannot train in transforming them into the path of awakening. ~ Pema Chodron

Civilized beings regard the act of intercourse as the highest expression of romantic love. One need only observe the behavior of animals, however, to realize that the act is often a form of violence. ~ Fiona Paul

He lingered at the door, and said, 'The Lion wants courage, the Tin Man a heart, and the Scarecrow brains. Dorothy wants to go home. What do you want?' ...
She couldn't say forgiveness, not to Liir. She started to say 'a soldier,' to make fun of his mooning affections over the guys in uniform. But realizing even as she said it that he would be hurt, she caught herself halfway, and in the end what came out of her mouth surprised them both.
She said, 'A soul-'
He blinked at her. ~ Gregory Maguire

Let us be frank: provoking military-political instability and other regional conflicts is also a convenient way of deflecting people's attention from mounting social and economic problems. Regrettably, further attempts of this kind cannot be ruled out. ~ Vladimir Putin

I believe you know my quest from its beginning to its end, and that I seed to learn my parentage.

"Parentage?" said Orddu. "Nothing easier. Choose any parents you please. Since none of you has ever known each other, what difference can it possibly make - to them or to you? Believe what you like. You'll be surprised how comforting it is. ~ Lloyd Alexander

Youth offers the promise of happiness, but life offers the realities of grief. ~ Nicholas Sparks

You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Saying no isn't easy, but it's a required skill if you wish to have any degree of focus in your life. If you say yes too often, you'll likely fall into the common trap of saying yes to the good while simultaneously saying no to the best. ~ Steve Pavlina

Yes, I still believe in God. That hasn't changed. I just needed some time away."

"Ah." Inspector Carrola clicked his tongue. "For your sake, I hope that God does not need some time away from you. ~ Richard Devin

The betterment of society is not a job to be left to a few. It's a responsibility to be shared by all. ~ David Packard

What about an amnesiac, who awakes having lost his memories and must learn of his past from scratch? Has he died? How can we be just memories? How does that leave us with enough? ~ Bernard Beckett

Regardless of others' reactions, do your best to stay true to yourself. Make the choices that allow you to look in the mirror and feel good about the person gazing back at you. ~ Steve Pavlina

Before you bombed my boy Osama I always thought an explosion was such a quick thing but now I know better. The flash is over very fast but the fire catches hold inside you and the noise never stops ... I live in an inferno where you could shiver with cold Osama. This life is a deafening roar but listen. You could hear a pin drop. ~ Chris Cleave

Provoking separatist hatreds is an aggressive weed. We all have dirty hands and a broken heart. Put down your flag before you put down your weapons. If you must raise a flag, be sure it says, "We is better than you or I." We will not persecute, nor tolerate persecution. We will not dominate, nor tolerate subjugation. ~ Mikhayla Gracey

We learn not in the school, but in life. ~ Seneca.

Business is the most powerful institution on earth today. It is more powerful than politics. Business serves us very well in some ways, but it doesn't serve us as fully as it should; it doesn't serve us fully as people. ~ Michael Rennie

Usually if nobody hates a piece, nobody loves it, either; and a magazine which sets itself the goal of provoking thought is not doing its job if everybody agrees with what it does. ~ Stanley Schmidt

Passivity can be a provoking modus operandi;
Consider the Empire and Gandhi. ~ Ogden Nash

What I should like to find is a crime the effects of which would be perpetual, even when I myself do not act, so that there would not be a single moment of my life even when I were asleep, when I was not the cause of some chaos, a chaos of such proportions that it would provoke a general corruption or a distubance so formal that even after my death its effects would still be felt. ~ Marquis De Sade

It is easy, and therefore uninspiring, to love within the norms of acceptance and society. Other than ones own heart, there is no great risk involved; it's all very status quo. The same is tired, but what's outside-the-norm is captivating and gets under people's skin, pushing their buttons, making them think and revealing their depth as a person, or their lack thereof. It's love against obstacles that inspires the most – a love that faces and ultimately endures through challenges, hardship and ridicule that is courageous and triumphant. ~ Donna Lynn Hope

Sometimes I worry that belief and hope are the same thing, and that truth is something else entirely. ~ Adi Rule

You either WIN or you LEARN. Either way, you WIN! ~ Shay Dawkins

What work do I have to do then?" said Will, but went on at once, "No, on second thought, don't tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I'll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I'll be resentful because it'll feel as if I didn't have a choice, and if I don't do it, I'll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else. ~ Philip Pullman

People will always show their true selves in the end. ~ Leona Lewis

What must not be read must not be written ~ Melita Tessy

He pulled away the glove, and at the first glimpse of her fragile, white hand, all thoughts of negotiation fled. "I don't see how matters could become worse," he muttered. "I am already besotted with a needle-tongued, conceited, provoking ape leader of a lady."
Her head jerked up. "Besotted? You're nothing like it. Vengeful is more like it. Spiteful. ~ Loretta Chase

What is the big deal about Eminem? Since when is offensive language a reason for being unpopular? I like the fact that Eminem is brash and angry and politically incorrect. At least he has an opinion. He's stirring things up. He's provoking a discussion. He's making people's blood boil. He's reflecting what's going on in society right now. That is what art is supposed to do. ~ Madonna Ciccone

Some questions are more complicated than their answers could be. ~ Parul Wadhwa

As the generalization goes about the art industry, people can be really challenging and thought-provoking in their thinking and questioning the status quo, and it's really important that the status quo can be questioned and that there are people doing that. ~ Lily Cole

On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges. ~ Tom Robbins

There's still a question I must put to you," said the cunger woman. "Can you give up Joshua to keep him? ~ William H. Hooks

Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. ~ William Blake

Sometimes I wonder if any of us are cut out for the lives we lead. ~ Rebecca Wells

I think, typically, sci-fi can be a little bit grey and thought provoking. Sometimes it leaves you pondering certain questions and things. ~ Michelle Monaghan

An extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts; fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. ~ Edward Gibbon

Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change. ~ Richard Branson

And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes goes goes goes goes tick tock tick tock tick tock and one day we no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule, worshipers of the sun's passing, bound into a life predicated on restrictions because the system will not function if we don't keep the schedule tight. ~ Harlan Ellison

Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache ~ Chinua Achebe

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future. Just ask Ray Bradbury. ~ Kami Garcia

Madeleine in her turn stared at him steadily, straight into his eyes, in a profound, strange way, as if seeking to read something there, as if seeking to discover there that hidden part of a human being which can never be fathomed but may perhaps be glimpsed for a fleeting instant, in those moments of unguardedness or surrender or inattention, that are like doors left ajar onto the mysterious depths of the spirit ... they stood for a few seconds, each gazing into the other's eyes, each striving to reach the impenetrable secret of the other's heart, to probe each other's thoughts to the quick. They tried, in a mute and passionate questioning, to see the other's conscience in its essential truth: the intimate struggles of two beings who, living side by side, never really know one another, who suspect and sniff around and spy on one another, but cannot plumb the miry depths of one another's soul. ~ Guy De Maupassant

Socrates was likewise right that pissing people off is how we first, and maybe best, go about the business of provoking thought. ~ Mark Kingwell

We sometimes hear of things that can travel faster than light. Something called 'the speed of thought' is occasionally proffered. This is an exceptionally silly notion especially since the speed of impulses through the neutrons in our brain is about the same as the speed of a donkey cart. ~ Carl Sagan

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don't out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying. ~ Austin Kleon

If delight may provoke men's labour, what greater delights is there then to behold the earth as apparelled with plants, as with a robe of imbroidered worke, set with orient pearles, and garnished with great diversitie of rare and costly jewels? The delight is great but the use greater, and joyned often with necessitie. ~ John Gerard

It was like trying to think about what he'd be thinking if he never existed. He wouldn't be thinking about what he was thinking. He just wouldn't exist. It wouldn't hurt. ~ Nicole Grotepas

Reading enables us to see with the keenest eyes, to hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time. ~ James Russell Lowell

There is a comfort in conformity, a security in control, that is appealing. There is a thrill in domination, and we are all secretly attracted to violence. ~ Tom Robbins

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against Fate.
Death lays his icy hand on kings ... ~ James Shirley

The law isn't merciful. ~ Cate Campbell Beatty

And so she ghosted on, in relentless pursuit of escape, not from society, but from herself. ~ Robyn Schneider

More and more countries of the world have decided that corporations do a better job of generating and deploying capital than do states. ~ Max L. Stackhouse

When systems are broken, it's an opportunity for invention and innovation. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

The Snow Leopard's Tale is a mystical pilgrimage into that wild country where animal passion and the human heart begin to walk the very same trail. Whether one has been in the business of adventuring, as Thomas McIntyre has, or has enjoyed such adventures from the safety of one's armchair, The Snow Leopard's Tale is a haunting, beautifully written, and thought-provoking tale, as all great parables are. ~ Ted Kerasote

If perception is limited by experience and knowledge, what deems my actions "correct" or my thoughts as moral? ~ Kierra C.T. Banks

There are lots of great movies coming out of the U.S. but it's not something I've ever really been interested in. They're great films but I much prefer the smaller independent films, which are more thought provoking and experimental. ~ Billie Piper

I have no fear, I have only love ~ Stevie Nicks

Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches! ~ Chinua Achebe

When people gain income, they gain choice, and that is fundamental to dignity. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

People would make the decisions they wished to make and some of them would hurt both themselves and those who loved them, and some would pass unnoticed, while others would bring joy. ~ Rachel Joyce

Parents provoke their children to anger by not practicing biblical love, not considering their children as more important than themselves, and not dying to self to become a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ John C. Broger

I have mo prejudice against the Southern people... They are just what we would ben in their situation. If slavery did not now exits amongst them, they wld not inrtoduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up... I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. (p52) ~ Russell Freedman

As Maya Angelou, American author, poet, and self-described Renaissance Woman, wrote, Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. ~ L.R. Knost

Another name for peace is development. ~ Pope John Paul II

At what point in life should we stop searching for a better one? ~ Buffi Neal

A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument ... and the occasional bar fight. ~ J. Michael Straczynski