The collection / 48 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

You can do anything…but before you can do anything, you have to do something.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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02Undated

Sometimes, if your opponent is determined to win the battle, let him win the wrong battle.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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03Undated

Regarding war and peace—the seed of each is planted in the other.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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04Undated

Regarding war and peace—the seeds of each are planted in the other.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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05Undated

All too often, our elegant political theories amount to nothing more than ideology triumphing over common sense.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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06Undated

We live in an age of equivocal competency: if you want, you can be a competent dictator, a competent self-promoter, a competent terrorist. Just because you can do something well does not mean you should be doing it.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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07Undated

Why do the powerful always insist on having a “back story” to justify whatever they do? Why can’t they—just once—do something for the simple reason that it is the right thing to do, in itself, for reasons understood and accepted by all? In politics, laws are passed to secretly serve hidden agendas, for without such agendas many lawmakers would never find the motivation to support anything at all.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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08Undated

We recognize authority based on whether we feel we could attain authority by the rules by which the authority was obtained.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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09Undated

Cooler heads prevail while things spin completely out of control.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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10Undated

Note from Alien cookbook: “The more intelligent the human is, the better it tastes.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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11Undated

If you want to impress someone, simply make up a vocation and preface it with the words “molecular” or “theoretical” (as in “molecular biologist” or “theoretical physicist”). After you do this no one will question the veracity of anything you say—whether it is related to your putative vocation or not.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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12Undated

Just because you say you will do something does not mean that you are also willing to do that thing. Ensuring that both things are true is especially important in the matter of either making or receiving a proposal of marriage.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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13Undated

If you can’t be brave in the face of adversity, at least be practical.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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14Undated

Amazing how too much passion in one part of your life can destroy passion in other parts of your life.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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15Undated

If someone tells you that they’re called “blueberries” because they’re berries and they’re blue—believe them.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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16Undated

Sex can be the result of love, but never the cause of it.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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17Undated

Some people say I raised a good child. I like to think of it as my child raised a good parent.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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18Undated

A psychologist’s job (if it’s done well) is to get you to seriously laugh at yourself.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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19Undated

There’s no arguing with a song that writes itself.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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20Undated

You have to know you don’t know before you can know.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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21Undated

It is more important to understand the book you are reading than to finish the book you are reading.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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22Undated

Chronic problems tend to come from chronic habits.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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23Undated

Be careful not to think that just because you know what a person is going to say, you know what that person is going to do.Be careful not to think that just because you know what a person is going to do to others, you know what that person is going to do (or not do) to you.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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24Undated

The tyrant’s formula for every genocide since the beginning of time: differentiate, divide, destroy.

Clifford Cohen / quote

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