Task Quotations

Several people, not just reviewers, took me to task for writing about what they called the working classes - something I've been doing for 40 years. I thought that was contemptible - what do they want to do, ghettoize the working class as a subject? Can you only write about your own class? I've written about royalty, am I not allowed to do that?

It is at once the most overwhelmingly frustrating and exasperating task and the most joyous and rewarding experience to make human beings out of children.

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity.

I think one of the greatest skills a person can have is to complete a task they start. To take something from beginning, to middle, to end. In life, if you have that skill, I think you can go very far.

We lived in Northern Quebec, and the nearest school was thirty miles away, so my mother took on the task of home schooling me. She spoke to some friends, received some instructions from the provincial school board, and found some interesting books that perhaps I might find useful.

We need business to understand its social responsibility, that the main task and objective for a business is not to generate extra income and to become rich and transfer the money abroad, but to look and evaluate what a businessman has done for the country, for the people, on whose account he or she has become so rich.

Providing health care is like building a house. The task requires experts, expensive equipment and materials, and a huge amount of coordination.

The thought of security bears within it an essential risk. A state which has security as its sole task and source of legitimacy is a fragile organism; it can always be provoked by terrorism to become more terroristic.

If you think about it, the historian's task is like that of the detective.

At the same time, new concepts and abstractions flow into the picture, taking up the task of describing the universe without reference to such time or space - abstractions for which our language lacks adequate terms.

I'm lazy but generally task oriented so having a hoop to jump through means eventually I'll make the effort.

The nature of the task needs to be renewed so people just don't feel that all the hard work is in the same groove all the time, under the same circumstances and in the same environment.

Autoimmunity is probably the next frontier. The majority of cases of autoimmune disease result from a complex genetic problem that has environmental influences. It is a colossal task for the immune system to maintain tolerance to self and yet be ready to react to everything in the world around us.

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

In view of the experience I had acquired in the field of chemical industry, certain Italian government and industrial bodies entrusted me in 1938 with the task of instituting research and development studies on the production of synthetic rubber in Italy.

Here at home, President Obama early on made the connection between growth and economic opportunity for women. In the depths of our crisis in 2009, one of the first laws the president signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He established an Equal Pay Task Force led by Valerie Jarrett to help women get paid what they earn.

Whether the task is fixing health care, upgrading K-12 education, bolstering national security, or a host of other missions, the U.S. is better at patching problems than fixing them.

For me, I always think about keeping my upper body relaxed, my hips level, and my right side down on the turn. If I work on nailing those three things at every practice, I hope that by the time I get into a race situation I can stay completely focused on the task at hand, and the rest will happen naturally.

What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is.

There are many causes of violent deaths in America - murders and traffic accidents - that we do not approach with the same 'no price too steep, no task too difficult' approach that we take toward al Qaeda.

Humanity is in my heart. Do I suffer fools? No. Am I a stickler for my profession? Yes. I am a task master? Yes. My military background, football background, I'm a team player all the way, and I love winning.

When you're still in the broadcast business, you're still trying to reach tens of millions. You're trying to still aim for a broader audience, and I think that's a more difficult task to spread yourself across that audience, connect with them, as opposed to a very, very small, pinpointed audience. Difficult to do.

Though every legal task demands this skill, it is especially important in the effort to frame public policy in a way that is properly responsive to human needs and predicaments. The question is always: How will the general rule work in practice?

I hate raising money. It diverts you from what your real task is: to be a representative. You're diverted into preservation when you really want to spend your time and energy making a better state and a better country - which is the reason you ran in the first place.

Even when a man and a woman perform equally well in a task - say, solving math problems - men are more willing to enter competitions based on that task. Men also show less risk aversion.

Therefore, let us not despair, but instead, survey the position, consider carefully the action we must take, and then address ourselves to our common task in a mood of sober resolution and quiet confidence, without haste and without pause.

The task of a priest, in some respects, may be different today, but the principles upon which Herbert built his life as a priest are of universal application.

Charles Kiss is a legendary James Bond-style British spy. And McGrath is the young idealist who is given the task of following in his footsteps. It's a mission that forces McGrath to question everything he thought he believed in.

Various circumstances, mainly to do with my military service, prevented me from doing a Ph.D., and I have often regretted it, though you do need to choose the 'right' supervisor in the 'right' discipline - no easy task when you are totally inexperienced.

My generation of playwrights have grown up writing for studio theatres, and so the task of writing for more than ten or so actors is a huge challenge. Logistically, it's like doing an enormous Sudoku. Making sure everyone is in the right place at the right time in the right order instantly sends me into a cold sweat.

The task is to investigate speech sounds in relation to the meanings with which they are invested, i.e., sounds viewed as signifiers, and above all to throw light on the structure of the relation between sounds and meaning.

The lesson I learned is that sometimes the task you have at hand needs all of your concentration and focus.

Even the mundane task of washing dishes by hand is an example of the small tasks and personal activities that once filled people's daily lives with a sense of achievement.

Making lists of favorite things is, for me, a task ridden with anxiety. What if I've accidentally excluded something I love? What if I discover something new tomorrow that I love even more?

Get to know the job intimately that you're applying for. Don't just read the job description - study it and picture yourself performing every task required of you. When you interview, framing your responses so that you reveal your significant knowledge about the job gives you a massive advantage.

When you're in between the white lines, the game face is on. I was only focused on the task at hand - out, safe, ball, strike - leaving little time to think about how special a player, moment or game happened to be.

My most important task must be an attempt to bring the monster under democratic direction and control.

We've got a daunting enough task to provide a definitive account of what happened in 9/11, without fear or favor, something that will last and will survive criticism over time. And we think we can do that with integrity in a bipartisan report.

Satire works best when it hews close to the line between the outlandish and the possible - and as that line continues to grow thinner, the satirist's task becomes ever more difficult.

God bless McNally, it's got some fantastic stuff in it, but it's no easy task to make a movie out of.

I can only speak for particle physics. But it has become obvious that on the experimental side, there has been a huge evolution in the number of people who have to collaborate because of the gigantic size of the instruments used, but also because of the enormous task that is data analysis.

The British monarchy has the political and constitutional task of subtracting from the government and governors of Britain the papal and kingly airs that in America, because we have no such institution, unfortunately adhere to the president.

The Kabbalists say that the holy one of the universe is broken, and that we are extensions of the holy one and carry that brokenness inside of us. Our task is to fix our brokenness and hence the brokenness of the holy one.

The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.

This republic represents the greatest basis for that universal socialist order, the creation of which is at the present time the historic task of the International Proletariat.

There is no evidence that an animal can take on the sophisticated task of deciding to end his life and to communicate that decision to us.

While the male eye zooms in on a particular element to the exclusion of all else, a woman's gaze flickers from one tedious task to the next, to the point where we can't distinguish between the importance of mopping the kitchen floor and achieving world peace.

My task as a citizen is to get the government to do more good and less inefficient and wasteful work.

Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. This is our work.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

Since Reagan there has been this tradition, which has become a cliche, of promising morning in America, this fake optimism, we're the best, the city on the hill. In fact the great American task is self-scrutiny.

The hardest task in a girl's life is to prove to a man that his intentions are serious.

He only seems to me to live, and to make proper use of life, who sets himself some serious work to do, and seeks the credit of a task well and skillfully performed.

I am aware how difficult is the task to preserve free institutions over so wide a space and so immense a population, but we are blessed with a Constitution admirably calculated to accomplish it. Its elastic power is unequaled, which is to be attributed to its federal character.

The bottom line is that finding orphan planets - small, faint, and located who-knows-where - is not for the faint of heart. The task is comparable to observing a match flame at the distance of Pluto. The WISE satellite, a hi-tech, space-based infrared telescope especially suited for such work, has found only a few.

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.

I have the greatest respect for single parents who struggle and sacrifice, trying against almost superhuman odds to hold the family together. They should be honored and helped in their heroic efforts. But any mother's or father's task is much easier where there are two functioning parents in the home.

It must be possible to solve the task of controlling nature and yet simultaneously create a new freedom.

The concept of clearing one's mind before performing a task so that it is consumed by nothing but that task, yet is open at the same time to anything that might happen - that concept can be applied to playing guitar, and it's enormously helpful for improvising.

The daunting task of being a mother, a wife, and an independent career or professional person is really taxing.

You don't get the fox to be in charge of the chicken coop. You don't give the outgoing regime - which has been practicing dictatorship, is an authoritarian system, it's a bunch of military people - the task of changing Egypt into a second republic, a new Egypt with democracy, freedom, rights, etc.

The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine.

I think the media can be a very positive influence by essentially holding people to task about the importance of high quality medical care. And when the media is scrutinizing you, then I think that's a very good, positive thing for the field of medicine.

Schoolchildren are not taught how to distinguish accurate information from inaccurate information online - surely there are ways to design web-browsers to help with this task and ways to teach young people how to use the powerful online tools available to them.

My task over the last two years hasn't just been to stop the bleeding. My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the structural problems in the economy that have prevented more Googles from being created.

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.

The ongoing task of debt management for the federal government will clearly be very different in the years ahead than it has been in the past, when debt was rapidly increasing, ... With $3.6 trillion in debt outstanding, even a 3 basis point (0.03 percentage point) reduction in federal borrowing costs will ultimately produce savings of more than $1 billion per year.

We appreciate all that the commissioners do to help us and other agencies throughout the county. We know they have a difficult task in responding to all the funding requests.

We applaud the direction of the secretary of state in establishing the Global internet Freedom Task Force. This embraces the government-to-government approach that Yahoo has been urging.

We've also had our anti-terrorism task force for several years. It has worked with the FBI and the ATF as well as our law enforcement.

Until now we cannot get on the with task of disputing the illegality of the trial or any charge because no official document has been presented so far. It's our right to see the charges.

We remember the integrity and the sense of duty that he brought to every task before him,

We respectfully request that you reconvene hearings as soon as possible to take these witnesses sworn testimony about their roles in the Cheney energy task force and the recent run-up in American fuel prices,

What this group has managed to do is not let anything get in the way of their goals in qualifying and winning games. We miss a player due to an injury or a suspension, they don't blink an eye, they just move forward. If they're in games where the officiating may be a little bit questionable, it doesn't bother them. They just keep their concentration and get after the task at hand.

What little man has to accomplish must be done quickly, at the place that is assigned to him and within the time that is allotted to him. And, man has such a formidable task before him; it is to fulfill it that he has come as man, exchanging for this human habitat all the merit he has acquired during many past lives. The task is no less than the manifestation of the Divinity latent in man.

Usually, like, on 'Mean Girls,' the task that Tina Fey and I set for ourselves was we wanted to maintain a comic intensity throughout the movie, where people just don't really get a break from laughing. And if they do, it's for a brief emotional scene, and then we're going to once again try to knock them on their heels again with comedy.

We're not an uptight bunch. We just like to have fun. A lot of coaches like the team to be quiet and focused before a game. The way we focus is to clown around. We think about the task at hand. But we don't worry. We like to have fun, study and practice hard.

We know we've got to come in and get more than a 0-0 tie, and it's going to be a big task for us. But I think we're up for it, we know what we're against. We can get a result.

We know we've got a Herculean task in front of us, same as last year. Our (five) seniors didn't want to lose this one, though. They wanted to practice and play basketball at least one more week.

We know we face a daunting task to try to beat an entrenched political machine, but we also know that there are a growing number of people in this city who are fed up with the policies and practices of the current administration.

Wake the power within thee slumbering, trim the plot that's in thy keeping, thou wilt bless the task when reaping sweet labour's prize.

Words here are no substitute for action in the region, ... encourages extremism and diverts attention from the task at hand.

Whenever you can beat a powerhouse like the U.S.A. it's a feather in Baseball Canada's history. We can be happy right now, but we still have a task at hand and after an hour or two, we'll focus in on Mexico.

The onus of that task falls on the armed forces and the police force in East Timor and they haven't done a good job in recent times. It's important that they perform more effectively and do everything they can to stop the violence and move to disarm the two sides -- the paramilitaries and the pro-independence side,

There are a lot of reasons why, looking further out, a broadened base for the U.S. dollar would be positive. It would be good for the U.S. because it will make those countries more prosperous, more responsible, more stable. At the same time it does make us more responsible for them, which is a pretty big task to take on.

We tried to battle back. Obviously, playing against Detroit down four goals, it's a hard task to do. It's mental mistakes in our own zone that cost us tonight.

We shall take it our major task to help promote the development of our country.

This program gives each family the joy of completing a complex task together as well as a means of enjoying our marine resources. We guarantee a 100 percent success rate.

There are volumes of research on work-force housing by the Horizon Council task force. We are putting together a symposium in a few months to study the best practices being done.

We've said it from day one, that if this arena was going to cut into anything at the university then we weren't in favor of it. We reluctantly went downtown to be a team player and to be on the river to go in accordance with the task force and to be a full partner.

When you're acting, it's all about you and the person in front of you, and I think in life we forget to apply the same technique, and we get caught up in the panic of what we're trying to do - how overwhelmingly daunting the task of trying to become an actor is.

The primary task of MDS is to get people out of their shelters and back home as soon as possible,

The primary task is to help them develop a context ... which becomes the experience they already know. It helps kind of ground them in some history so it doesn't feel like such a random thing.

When this secondary task was of a linguistic nature, the differences in response times for stimuli in the two visual fields disappeared. The differences remained, however, when the secondary task was of a non-linguistic nature.

We want to make sure there are no bugs in it and, when we do go live with it, it will be ready to go. It's an enormously complex task to get all this information entered into this thing.

We?re just excited to still be standing. We very much look forward to playing a very good Connecticut basketball team in the next round and have some sense of understanding about what?s involved in that task and what a challenge it?s going to be.

Let us take up the burden of the fallen, set our hand to the task they left unfinished. Let us, with God's help, make the world a better, happier and brighter place.

She saw Task Force Green Mountain in Kuwait; she saw Task Force Catamount in Afghanistan. She has consistently done everything she can to check on the soldiers physically and shake their hands.

Most of the time multitasking is an illusion. You think you are multitasking, but in reality you're actually wasting time switching from one task to another.

Mr. Koizumi's task is enormous and cannot wait.