The real question is: if you knew there was a god, would you behave any differently? And if the answer is yes, then perhaps you should assume there is.
A. A. Gill
Towards the end of the military service, I had to make what I assume has been the most important decision in my career: to start a residency in clinical medicine, in surgery, which was my favorite choice, or to enroll into graduate school and start a career in scientific research. It was clear to me that I was heading for graduate school.
Aaron Ciechanover
Assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing, either.
Aaron Swartz
You don't see people that are willing to say 'You know what, you might be different politically, but let's find some common ground, let's find ways that we're actually similar.' We just assume immediately that we have nothing in common, what can even talk to that person about.
Abby Huntsman
Don't assume that the answers are out there in the form of somebody else already doing something. Sometimes they are. But you have to think beyond that.
Abigail Johnson
I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, who assisted him, shall be with me and aid me, I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail - I shall succeed.
Abraham Lincoln
All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization.
Abraham Maslow
The rule of the game was never assume that anybody, however honorable, would be able to stand up under torture. If Mr. X, who knew where I was, was caught for some reason, I should move.
Abraham Pais
It always surprises me when donors who operate successful businesses assume that just building a school structure means that a community now has access to education. When creating a business, does renting an office space now mean that you're producing goods, training staff and generating revenues?
Adam Braun
Pride works frequently under a dense mask, and will often assume the garb of humility.
Adam Clarke
If an organization values innovation, you can assume it's safe to speak up with new ideas, leaders will listen, and your voice matters.
Adam Grant
As the First World War made painfully clear, when politicians and generals lead nations into war, they almost invariably assume swift victory, and have a remarkably enduring tendency not to foresee problems that, in hindsight, seem obvious.
Adam Hochschild
Just because I have two world records, everyone assumes that means automatically it is two guaranteed gold medals, but it isn't like that, and anything can happen in a race.
Adam Peaty
None of us should assume stuff.
Adam Vinatieri
Don't assume that opportunity will come to you. Put yourself forward when there is an opportunity.
Adena Friedman
When I started creating my work for publication, I just assumed that the focus would be on the work itself and that there wouldn't be a lot of interest in who was creating the work.
Adrian Tomine
America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.
Ahmet Ertegun
The 'Raining Gold' video naturally took on one of the messages behind the song, which is you should never assume anything about someone or a situation just because it looks a certain way on the surface.
Aimee Osbourne
Once I accepted music was my path, I rebelled by wanting to do it my own way. I also didn't think it was respectful to my father's career and creativity to assume that I could jump on the back of all he had worked his entire life for.
I think people assume that because I talk the way that I talk that I grew up with money, and then I've had to say, 'No, I grew up poor.' And then I was like, 'Why do I have to play this game where the only black experience that's authentic is the one where you grew up in poverty?' I mean, it's ridiculous.
Aisha Tyler
When I was growing up, I idolised my father. I thought his ghost followed me around the house. I had been told how he adored me, how I was funny, just like him. Because of our lovely Catholic upbringing, I secretly assumed that he would eventually come back, like our good friend Jesus.
Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.
I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something. I would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn't know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.
Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.
Children always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception.
Every economy exists, no matter what the level of democracy, has elements of crony capitalism. It's - given human nature and given the democratic structures, which we all, I assume, adhere to, that is an inevitable consequence.
It was sort of assumed, from the time I was born, really, that I would go to college. That's sort of the way that Jewish families in New Jersey handled things; that was the norm.
If we assume there is no maximum possible entropy for the universe, then any state can be a state of low entropy.
Originally, theater was my life. It was what I assumed I'd spend my working life doing - if I was lucky. Then along came movies.
In the mind of the public, the word 'planet' carries a significance lacking in other words used to describe planetary bodies... many members of the public assume that alleged 'non-planets' cease to be interesting enough to warrant scientific exploration.
Whenever you hear somebody else is auditioning for something, you sort of assume they're going to get it. You should try to just ignore it.
The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to study anything without reproach.
You have to assume once you go online, anything you put there can be made public. Yet while you're online, you feel like it's a private, sacred space. But you're really broadcasting to the world.
Nigeria is a great footballing nation and deserves to assume her rightful place in Africa and world football and I am keen to be part of a team that achieves this goal.
I think if you live in London, it's such a cosmopolitan city; nobody even notices different-race relationships. I assumed it would be even more liberal in the States, and it's totally the opposite.
People at school used to assume I was going to be a footballer, and it wasn't until I got to 16, when I was at Southampton, that I had a doubt for the first time in my life. Southampton said I wasn't big enough, but it was just because I hadn't grown. Simple as that.
What I see is that the Democratic Party takes working class communities for granted, they take people of color for granted, and they just assume that we're going to turn out no matter how bland or half-stepping these proposals are.
Do you not see with your own eyes the chrysalis fact assume by degrees the wings of fiction?
Perhaps it is because I'm a writer trained in history that I've always assumed I would make mistakes in my drafts. Historians know how faulty human memory can be.
I really don't mind what people assume about me. I really think that my brain is my private thing. I don't need the approval of people. I don't need people to think I'm intelligent. And I'm not that intelligent.
Any fiction writer who assumes that a character is typical no doubt runs the risk of stumbling into cliche and stereotype.
I think it's often assumed that the role of poetry is to comfort, but for me, poetry is the great unsettler. It questions the established order of the mind. It is radical, by which I don't mean that it is either leftwing or rightwing, but that it works at the roots of thinking.
Educated guesswork' is what science is. You form hypotheses, test them against the evidence, and if they fit the evidence, you can assume you've got close to the truth.
Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more fundamental.
Liberals worry that what's best for the individual might not be better for the public at large. But that philosophy assumes something vicious about each and every one of us. It assumes we only care about ourselves.
Talking in one language and talking in another, I think inevitably, produce two different personalities, as far as I've seen in other people. I assume it does the same for me.
I look back at all the contracts I've had, and I never assumed I would get another one. Honestly. I don't take anything for granted. Nothing.
People assume a lot about me. Some people come up and think I'm hard. I'm actually very, very shy. I'm bubbly in the right circumstances. But I'm a big introvert.
You ask a politician a question, like, why they ran in an election, and you'll hear, I assume, something about wanting to contribute to the community or bring about social justice. I had no such high goals.
I've immersed myself in reading more and more of American literature, but no editor has asked me to comment on Jonathan Franzen or Jennifer Egan. It is assumed I'm an expert on writers who need a little less suntan lotion at the beach.
