Pontificating Quotes & Sayings

I had been a Maoist, and then when the Gang of Four was overthrown, I was completely distraught. I was bedridden for three weeks; it was a very painful experience for me. Not only because I had been wrong, but because I felt really embarrassed that I had been lecturing and pontificating with such self-confidence. — Norman Finkelstein

Senselessly pontificating about things does not get anything done, doing something about it does. — Murad S. Shah

Audacious faith is not passive. Neither is audacious prayer. Every aspiration you have in prayer needs an accompanying action. Otherwise you're not really praying. You're just pontificating.
You do the natural. Trust God for the super. — Steven Furtick

I see my work as a series of attempts to ruin certain representations and to welcome a female spectator into the audience of men. If this work is considered incorrect, all the better, for my attempts aim to undermine that singular pontificating male voice-over which correctly instructs our pleasures and histories or lack of them. — Barbara Kruger

My parents always told me that you always want to be the worst of the best. If you are the best, you never learn. — Toni Trucks

Work incessantly, cultivate discrimination, gather freedom from your own hard-earned results. Disregard successes but go back for help in an immediate problem. The possibility of discovery is everywhere. Freedom from your own work allows for intuition that draws from all your experience and perception but goes beyond it. — Paul Caponigro

And man is the greatest killer, the greatest hunter of them all. The whole world of nature knows man for the irresistible master. The roar of his gun, the cunning of his trap, the strength and agility of his arm place all else beneath him. Should man then be treated by nature differently from the other dominants, the army ants and the wasps? It — Jeff VanderMeer

You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story. — Ann Beattie

In any case, I had been one of them. If her lovers were horrifying, I too had been of their order. That had to be admitted. 'It is no good pontificating,' Mr Deacon used to say, 'about other people's sexual tastes. — Anthony Powell

When we rise above our temptations and resist them, we exercise self-control. And that's when we experience true freedom and emotional health. — David J. Lieberman

The man who speaks and writes about art should refrain from censuring or pontificating. He will thus avoid doing anything foolish, for in the presence of primordial depth all art is but dream and nature. — Hans Arp

When I was a kid watching "The Blues Brothers," I could not think of a better thing than watching 300 cop cars crash into each other. — Will Forte

No one can tell you the rules of 'Celebrity Apprentice.' No one. Donald Trump just does what he wants, which is mostly pontificating to people who are sucking up to him, while the network people try to manipulate him into making the highest-rated show they can. — Penn Jillette

The term 'income inequality' is a bit misleading because it suggests in a somewhat pejorative way that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor, — Edward Lazear

When they [breasts] are huge, you become very self-conscious ... I've learned something though, through my years of pondering and pontificating, and that is: men love them, and I love that. — Drew Barrymore

We may learn things from one who preaches, or we may find their pontificating a waste of time - often enough, a hypocritical waste of time. What child ever preaches? Yet time spent open-heartedly with a child is never wasted. — Quentin S. Crisp

It's a fine thing for a man and a woman to have a common interest," Daniel began in a pontificating voice. "Makes a strong marriage."
"I can't tell you how many times Daniel's assisted me in surgery," Anna put in mildly.
He huffed. "I've washed a few bloody knees in my time with these three."
"And there was the time Rena broke Alan's nose," Caine put in.
"It was supoosed to be yours," his sister reminded him.
"That didn't make it hurt any less." Alan shifted his eyes to his sister while his wife snorted unsympathetically.
"Why did Rena break Alan's nose instead of yours?" Diana wanted to know.
"I ducked," Caine told her. — Nora Roberts

Take Milton Friedman, he sits at his desk pontificating about such bunk as the monetary system being the answer to our problems. The monetary system is a legal contrivance. Property, not money, is real wealth. It's physical, not legal. — Louis O. Kelso

It is good a philosopher should remind himself, now and then, that he is a particle pontificating on infinity. — Ariel Durant

Encountering sufferings will definitely contribute to the elevation of your spiritual practice, provided you are able to transform calamity and misfortune into the path. — Dalai Lama

There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power. — J. William Fulbright

When I hear theists and atheists pontificating on how they know God does or does not exist, I can only smile at the irrationality and, yes, vanity of the notion. — Vincent Bugliosi

I love seeing somebody act real earnest and serious, like Jackie Gleason. He makes me laugh because he reflects back to me my own serious-mindedness and how ridiculous it all is. It's always easier to see somebody else in that position than yourself, and you laugh. It's like the classic slipping on the banana peel, or someone getting hit by a pie in the face. Why do those things make us laugh? Is it from relief, like: Thank God it wasn't me? Or is it something else: I'm being very serious now. I'm pontificating earnestly and solemnly about - POW! PIE IN THE FACE! The bust-up of certainty. — Jeff Bridges

When you are older, you'll understand for yourself the influence of age on convictions. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems. — Elon Musk

Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating. — John Lydon

Maybe that was true of marriage everywhere. Between times, in their own living rooms, the men seemed to be resting for the next round of pontificating and so saved their strength by staying silent. — Anna Quindlen

I'm not good at debating - I'm much better at pontificating. — Laura Schlessinger

I just try and do something good. But as a writer, you're slightly out of control. — Peter Morgan

To put this another way, burglary requires architecture. Not infrequently, only because of some aspect of a building's design is burglary even possible. A blind spot, a vulnerability, a badly placed window, a shadowy alcove, an unlocked skylight, a useful proximity between one structure and the next - the burglar sees this opportunity and pounces. — Geoff Manaugh

Science tells us what we have reason to believe. Not what we have a duty to believe. Not what experts, in their pontificating wisdom, instruct us to believe ... No, science tells us what there is good reason to believe. — Richard Dawkins

Many people have been pontificating, and patronizing, and moralizing, and scapegoating, saying you Greeks, you are the problem. I would say we Greeks have a problem. We are not the problem. — George Papandreou