Know people for who they are rather than for what they are.

There is a sense in which the United States ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat rather than a thermometer. So I’m going to be actively working… for my own concerns. I have always had people advise me on what...

Rather than knowing more, I think I’ve got more open-minded.

I hate stuff in my pockets, can’t stand it. I’ll carry stuff in my hands rather than put it in my pockets.

Greatness begins to wane when you start trying to blend in rather than stand out

I have been supporting the European Union, but we are still a work in progress. We have to become more of a United States of Europe. We should talk about electing a president of the E.U., rather than having one selected from the heads of government.

The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy that too, but I get more enjoyment out of really listening to everyone.

Stories about mental aberration and oddity only make sense in context. Just how do people live with someone who is peculiar, gifted, strange or alien? It’s odd because there’s a little part of me that wants to write about exotic, strange bizarre subjects. Instead, I’ve rather reluctantly realised that what I write about is families.

Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.

They do not learn, fixed in their ways as they are. You are naïve tothink otherwise. It’s an illness, Assassin, for which there is but one cure.’‘You’re wrong. And that’s why you must be put to rest.’‘Am I not unlike those precious books you seek to save? A source of knowledgewith which you disagree? Yet...

I would rather exercise than read a newspaper.

Rather than be asked to abandon one’s own heritage and to adapt to the mores of the new country, one was expected to possess a treasure of foreign skills and customs that would enrich the resources of American living.

At the end of your life, it’s friendships, emotions and thoughts that you take with you, rather than what’s in your bank account. So, even though people don’t have a lot here, they are a lot richer in many ways and we can learn from that.

I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.

I believe we don’t need to widen the divide between the West and Islam. Rather, we need to build dialogue to encourage tolerance and respect.

I hope they get something of interest out of it, but I’d rather they all hate it and I like it, instead of vice versa… I make films to please myself first, and if the audience likes them, all the better.

I would rather clean than beg.

Matter as matter rather than matter as symbol is a conscious political position, essentially Marxist.

Growing up human is uniquely a matter of social relations rather than biology. What we learn from connections within the family takes the place of instincts that program the behavior of animals; which raises the question, how good are these connections?

I kind of like the idea of living a rather ordinary life as a shopkeeper, and I examine that possibility as one of the outcomes of the young Gerald Bostock growing older.

I love characters who are clever and smart, and you have to run to catch up with. I think there’s something very appealing and rather heroic in that.

I’d much rather see a world where, when you make some quirky comment on a blog or news story or you upload a video clip, instead of just a moment of fame for your pseudonym, you’ll get 50 bucks. The first time that happens, you’ll realise that you’re a full-class citizen. You have the potential...

Acting was truly all that I ever wanted to do. I’ve always acted in plays and sang and played music, and you get to a certain age and think there’s nothing else that you’d rather do.

Until the Eighties, Oslo was a rather boring town, but it’s changed a lot, and is now much more cosmopolitan. If I go downtown, I visit the harbour to see the tall ships and the ferries, and to admire the modern architecture such as the Opera House or the new Astrup Fearnley Museum on the...

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel’s interests to strengthen it by… continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

I’d rather die than let somebody get the better of me.

Just six years into the 21st century, one can say this is not shaping up to be anything like an American century. Rather, the U.S. seems much more likely to be faced with a very different kind of future: how to manage its own imperial decline.

Many citizens see all the leadership of these large institutions together in a conspiracy against them rather than in any adversary relationship with each other.

The peculiarities of my childhood, of constantly moving through so many different cultures, of always being the outsider, may have made me extraordinarily self-sufficient, but it had also bred a certain detachment, a sense that the world was a place to explore rather than truly inhabit. This manifested as a kind of shyness, even timidity.

I don’t know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer.

I suppose we carry photographs now, but I think it’s rather wonderful that people used to carry drawings and watercolours. I wish people did that more often.

One way to ease liquidity for banks is that the government can buy all highly rated securities held by the banks. Every single bank in the U.A.E. has some sovereign debts in their portfolios. I am not asking them to buy any junk bonds, rather the high quality U.A.E. government debt.

Robotic toys can be very interesting, but it is important that the toy not ‘dictate’ how the child should play with it. Rather, it should take its cues from the child and enhance, teach, and enrich the play experience. We incorporated some of these features into a robotic baby doll we built for Hasbro in...

I wouldn’t say I see things visually first, but what I do think is important, for a lot of screenwriters, is to not just think about the words on the page, but also the world as a whole and the vibe of the movie, rather than a sequence of scenes written on the page.

I would rather be the tail of a lion than the head of a mouse.

IQ is a commodity, data is a commodity. I’m far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read ‘Tech Crunch,’ ‘Ad Age.’ I would rather be living in the trenches. I would rather be going to Whole Foods in Columbus Circle to watch people shop with their...

I am not telling men to step away from speaking for women’s rights; rather, I am focusing on women to be independent to fight for themselves.

If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

Women would rather be right than reasonable.

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the true test of spirituality. But there have always have been those who’d rather put easier goals, like doctrine conformity, in place.

We’re not interested in cloning the Michael Jordans and Michael Jacksons of the world, but rather assisting infertile couples that deserve the right to have a biological child to have one.

There is no other person on the face of this planet that I would rather sit and talk to than my wife.

If leaders in the space program had at its beginning in the 1940s, pointed out the benefits to people on earth rather than emphasizing the search for proof of evolution in space, the program would have saved $100 billion in tax money and achieved greater results.

Besieged by lawsuits that threatened to engulf almost everyone at the White House, Clinton assistants shunned paper or e-mail records of their daily deliberations. One told me that he would go down the hall to confer with his division chief face to face rather than discuss an issue on the telephone.

I grew up in the era when Dan Rather hated Richard Nixon. He was a newsman, but you knew what his opinion was.

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

I am not concerned about getting reelected. I can make the unpopular but necessary decision. Your focus from day one is on your legacy rather than political considerations.

Mr. Faulkner, of course, is interested in making your mind rather than your flesh creep.

My identity was a big issue when I was a teenager, and I had a lot of questions, like: ‘Who am I?’ ‘Who do I belong to?’ But when I was still quite young, I decided that belonging is a tough process in life, and I’d better say I belonged to myself and the world...