Refusal Quotes

Perhaps the surest test of an individual's integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect.
Thomas S. Monson

Integrity, Individual, Test

Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.
Soren Kierkegaard

Evil, Boredom, Oneself

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.
Chinua Achebe

Integrity, Tests, Blunt

Elegance is refusal.
Coco Chanel

Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
Fran Lebowitz

Life, Real, Stand

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Desire, Praise, Twice

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.
Reinhold Niebuhr

War, May, Against

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth.
Raoul Vaneigem

Life, Love, Positive

Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
Annie Besant

Experience, Until, Denial

Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.
Diana Vreeland

Nothing, Elegance, Dressed

A soft refusal is not always taken, but a rude one is immediately believed.
Alexander Chase

Rude, Taken, Soft

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.
Bayard Rustin

Society, Human, Him

A widow's refusal of a lover is seldom so explicit as to exclude hope.
Samuel Richardson

Hope, Lover, Seldom

Why is it that many contemporary male thinkers, especially men of color, repudiate the imperialist legacy of Columbus but affirm dimensions of that legacy by their refusal to repudiate patriarchy?
Bell Hooks

Men, Why, Color

The crucial thing is to arouse the awareness that as a matter of human conscience we can never permit the people of any country to fall victim to nuclear weapons, and for each individual to express their refusal to continue living in the shadow of the threat they pose.
Daisaku Ikeda

Human, Country, Living

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.
John Updike

Makes, Rest, Risk

The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.
Bob Woodward

Truth, Failure, System

My characters aren't losers. They're rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else's rules.
Harold Ramis

Win, Play, Else

Thousands of people may have been killed by hurricane Katrina and many more could die in its aftermath because of the President's refusal to heed the calls of governors for help in repairing the infrastructure in their states.
Charles Rangel

In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will.
Boris Pasternak

Honor, Meaning, Community

It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition.
Caleb Cushing

Mind, Impossible, Rejection

Some of the reasons John McCain lost in 2008 were his lackluster campaign, his refusal to showcase Obama's extreme liberalism and, thus, his failure to demonstrate why he would make a better president than Obama.
David Limbaugh

Failure, Lost, Why

The refusal to acknowledge the scientific value of embryonic stem cell research is one more tragic misstep.
Lois Capps

Research, Value, Scientific

What has changed is that when I photographed, most people that I photographed didn't have the right of refusal on their work. It would take a Marilyn Monroe at her height to be able to dictate that.
Eve Arnold

Work, Able, Her

Now, what produces a want of demand? A refusal to take from other countries the commodities which they produce.
Joseph Hume

Countries, Demand, Produce

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.
Dorothy Thompson

Truth, Fear, Nothing

In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a time when every act of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their contempt.
John Reed

Time, Government, Act

Science is the refusal to believe on the basis of hope.
Carrie P. Snow

Hope, Science, Basis

In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated.
Margaret Halsey

Educated, Defeated

Words signify man's refusal to accept the world as it is.
Herbert Kaufman

Words, Accept, Signify

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Ernest Hemingway

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