Quotes About Pragmatism

The most important thing is not to be dogmatic but flexible and consistent.

I remember when Deng said, 'It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.' To which Mao responded with a livid snarl: 'What emperor said that?

ROS: Why don't you go and have a look? GUIL: Pragmatism?! - is that all you have to offer?

Evolution doesn't care about what makes sense; it cares about what works

There's a limit to my patience with anything that smacks of metaphysics. I squirm at the mention of "mind expansion" or "warm healing energy." I don't like drum circles, public nudity or strangers touching my feet.

I learned to be wary that summer of a pious approach to life that saw good intentions and righteous prayer as substitutes for planning and pragmatic action.

I'm consciously shedding the assumption that a skeptical point of view is the most intellectually credible. Intellect does not function in opposition to mystery; tolerance is not more pragmatic than love; and cynicism is not more reasonable than hope. Unlike almost every worthwhile thing in life, cynicism is easy. It's

Levi always said if you heard hoofbeats, expect to see horses, not zebras.

If, adhering closely to the absolute, we try to avoid all difficulties by a stroke of the pen, and insist with logical strictness that in every case the extreme must be the object, and the utmost effort must be exerted in that direction, such a stroke of the pen would be a mere paper law, not by any means adapted to the real world.

You cannot eat love, nor buy a horse with it, nor warm your halls on a cold night,

Party honesty is party expediency.

He is a pragmatist. He is not right wing, nor left wing, nor any wing.

I take a simple view of living. It is, keep your eyes open and get on with it.

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.

Pragmatism avails a savior far more than aestheticism.

I concede his greater ingenuity. It bodes well for his endeavor. Pragmatism avails a savior far more than aestheticism. I wonder what he intends to do after he's saved the world. I comprehend the Word, and the means by which it operates, and so I dissolve.

I do not come bearing a party label on my sleeve - or a quick fix in my back pocket. I do not come with a rigid ideology in my heart - or a soul that tells me to go it alone. I do not come to uproot tradition - or to be imprisoned by it.

Everything is a tool - a boot, a sled, a dog - and a hand, an arm, even a man! If it breaks down you throw it away and you march on! It's brutal, yes! And it's ugly. But anything else is sentiment and it will kill you.

Never cry over spilt milk, because it may have been poisoned.

A strong man must be militant as well as moderate. He must be a realist as well as an idealist.

A rational man acting in the real world may be defined as one who decides where he will strike a balance between what he desires and what can be done.

How could a man become a god? Nell asked. By living in an extremely pragmatic society, said Constable Moore after some thought

Randy was forever telling people, without rancor, that they were full of shit. That was the only way to get anything done in hacking. No one took it personally.

The two lieutenants devote a good hour to following the instructions in that manual. The instructions are not that complicated, but Enoch Root keeps noticing syntactical ambiguities and wants to explore their ramifications. First this rattles Ethridge, then his emotions tend towards impatience and, finally, extreme pragmatism.