Defining Quotes

If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.

The stronger person is not the one making the most noise but the one who can quietly direct the conversation toward defining and solving problems.

Never let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don’t apply to you.

I don'’t think there was one. I can'’t name one. Not because I had a lot of great feuds, but it would be hard to say the defining feud.

It's never been true, not anywhere at anytime, that the value of a soul, of a human spirit, is dependent on a number on a scale.

When I have one week to solve a seemingly impossible problem, I spend six days defining the problem. Then, the solution becomes obvious.

The great virtue of bureaucracy - indeed, perhaps its defining characteristic ~ was that it was an institutional method for applying general rules to specific cases, thereby making the actions of government fair and predictable.

When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.

The defining factor [for success] is never resources; it’s resourcefulness.

I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong.

The first step is clearly defining what it is you're after, because without knowing that, you'll never get it.

I don't like defining myself. I just am.

We all have life-defining moments. They are like open-book tests, but we don't know we have been examined until it is over.

In your life's defining moments there are two choices - you either step forward in faith and power or you step backward into fear.

Society is constantly recalibrating, redefining what it considers to be moral and immoral.

Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.

It's a weird feeling when people are defining you, and you haven't even defined yourself.

Every day when a man or woman gets dressed, they are in effect defining who they are. That daily clean slate is a time in our lives when we can determine who we want to be.

Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

One is attracted to beauty. Beauty is the coordination of things, in such a way, that it is what attracts you. It's almost self-defining.

Goodness can endure a few moments; holiness is life-defining.

Other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.

What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has really succeeded in defining mathematics; it is always something else.

Where defining foreign policy as 'ethical' went wrong was that it implied that all decisions would be exclusive in every respect of any dealings with unethical regimes.