"We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word."
Firsts quotes
Firsts
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Firsts quotes (page 64 of 439)
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"I only used a cell phone for the first time after I was released. I had difficulty coping with it because it seemed so small and insubstantial."
"I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place."
"Dullness is the first requisite of a good husband."
"To win, the first thing you have to do is not lose."
"To anyone who has served in Washington, there is something oddly familiar about [having your portrait painted]. First, you're painted into a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed."
"To secure your historical standing, be sure you are the first to write about it."
"First sentences are doors to worlds."
"First inclination is to become a monk and leave the situation."
"My first instinct is to push you until you break just to see how hard I have to press."
"Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost, cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity."
"I have always said the first Whig was the Devil."
"The biggest accomplishment, in racial terms, for Barack Obama was being elected. He had to overcome his blackness to be elected. He climbed the Mt. Everest of American politics, becoming an historic first."
"The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body."
"There must be must be a first mover existing above all – and this we call God."
"You ask what is the use of classification, arrangement, and systemization? I answer you: order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject - the actual enemy is the unknown."
"Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
"The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation; I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic, taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory."
"If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved."
"The first thing you learn in boxing is that there are NO guarantees."