Top 155 Defining Quotes

Linguistics is a good way of defining the culture of a brand. The vocabulary used by sports and lifestyle brands – running, fitness, training, motorsports – is all about functionality, whereas the vocabulary of the luxury business – handbags, ready-to-wear – is all about the product.

We are also in the process of defining how best to work together with food and other companies to address diet and physical activity factors in order to prevent chronic diseases.

There is a force of exultation, a celebration of luck, when a writer finds himself a witness to the early morning of a culture that is defining itself, branch by branch, leaf by leaf, in that self-defining dawn, which is why, especially at the edge of the sea, it is good to make a ritual of the sunrise.

I always thought that I would spend the first half of my life making money so I can spend the second half of my life giving it all away. And one of the defining moments of my life was when I realized that I could do both at the same time with TOMS.

At a young age, I learned from my grandmother that I should respect all people. Her lessons were defining moments in my life and determined the type of leader that I would become.

Priesthood is the means whereby the Lord acts through men to save souls. One of the defining features of the Church of Jesus Christ, both anciently and today, is His authority. There can be no true Church without divine authority.

I grew up in a world where the majority of people were black, so that wasn’t the defining quality of anyone. When you‘re describing someone, you don’t start out with ‘he’s black, he’s white.’

As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year‘s defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better when the defining issue is national security.

I think music needs to be presented in a way so that kids can grasp songs, dances, simple music that’s associated with some particular defining moment in human experience.

The hardest thing was launching ‘OK!’ magazine; the easiest thing was Channel 5. ‘The Express‘ was my defining moment because our turnover was less than £100m with 150 employees.

Whenever you have a character in which one of his defining qualities is his sexuality, it’s always challenging, because you don’t want to bring in someone who‘s going to play that in a phony way.

The two hot issues are the gay issue and the abortion issue. These are the two defining issues in the evangelical community these days. I’m sure that these hot buttons will be pushed, time and time again.

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

My claim has always been that defeatism pervaded the conservative parties in the 1930s and that it was the defining characteristic of Menzies and his first period as prime minister.

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

How dull it is to have people defining you.

I think Trump is so dangerous because the people that he appeals to the most have this sense of despair and oppression that has become a central defining characteristic of their lives. And they feel like only he is their avatar; only he will fight for them; only he will keep the wolf from the proverbial door.

If summer had one defining scent, it’d definitely be the smell of barbecue.

Rock pools, so-named because they have been hammered out of rocks at the ocean‘s edge, are one of Sydney‘s defining characteristics, along with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, though not as well known.

I’m having a great time. I get to travel and see the world. And yeah, I’ll have a family, because I don’t want to miss out on that amazing experience, but it’s not defining who I am.

My number-one goal is to never feel like I’m strictly defining myself. The minute I feel like I’m doing that as anything – as theatrical, as feminist, as songwriter – I feel like the minute I name it, I’m stuck in a box.

Neoliberalism emerged by defining itself against what it labelled as an unrealistic and unsustainable programme of social welfare and public spending.

Defining marriage is a power that should be left to the states. Moreover, no state should be forced to recognize a marriage that is not within its own laws, Constitution, and legal precedents.

Defining success is an ongoing challenge.

If someone really takes a risk, it doesn’t get dismissed. That’s what happened when the Oscar was won posthumously by Heath Ledger, who did one of the definitive villain performances of all time. But it really has to be exceptional in defining everything we previously knew about the actress or the actor.

When it comes to setting national priorities, determining threats, defining challenges, and fashioning and implementing foreign and defense policies, the United States and Europe have parted ways.

I tend to deal with characters who are sort of at that same point of wrestling with, ‘Who am I going to be as an adult? What do I believe? How am I defining myself in the context of my culture and my peer groups, my family?’

People recognize intellectual property the same way they recognize real estate. People understand what property is. But it’s a new kind of property, and so the understanding uses new control surfaces. It uses a new way of defining the property.

Since I have difficulty defining merit and what merit alone means – and in any context, whether it’s judicial or otherwise – I accept that different experiences in and of itself, bring merit to the system.

Everyone has their own insecurities, regardless of how you look or how people perceive you, but sometimes people give their insecurities too much power. Defining beauty is simply a matter of opinion. For me, real beauty has very little to do with the structure of someone’s face or body.

There’s this responsibility you feel to present a certain thing that kind of respectability politics. I think that became the only accepted way of defining black culture. I started to become too aware of ‘How does this look?’ instead of ‘Who are these characters?’

In many ways, leadership is about defining reality and inspiring hope, but if you have these great people around you and they know that what they do is going to be recognized, it can be incredibly powerful.

Defining OO as based on the use of class hierarchies and virtual functions is also practical in that it provides some guidance as to where OO is likely to be successful.

Sometimes, the actual feeling of loving someone takes a back seat because we are busy defining it.

Social messaging has become the defining app of the smartphone era. Social payments has been a natural extension of this phenomenon – it’s going to be the locus of most communications activity.

What is unusual about Earth is that language, literally, has become alive. It has infested matter. It is replicating and defining and building itself. And it is in us.

Jerry Robinson illustrated some of the defining images of pop culture‘s greatest icons. As an artist myself, it’s impossible not to feel humbled by his body of work. Everyone who loves comics owes Jerry a debt of gratitude for the rich legacy that he leaves behind.

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‘That can be me.’ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

People are remembered for defining moments in their career.

I think, for all trans people, it’s not our only defining feature, but it is a defining feature.

Defining something being a Fleetwood Mac song is calling it a Fleetwood Mac song, you know? Nothing becomes Fleetwood Mac until that’s what you call it.

The necessity of defining the enemy also leads to the necessity of defining who we are.

Ultimately, when two professionals meet, I don’t really see the location as being a defining factor. If you’re a psychologically weak fighter, maybe it would be. But if you’re a seasoned pro, it doesn’t really come into it.

Unfortunately, results are the only thing that some people look at, but there is more to defining success than just stats.

One of the defining experiences of my life came in the mid-1980s. After working for two years as a geologist in Colorado, I lost my job and my career during that long recession.

The key to any good sports story is identifying the defining moment. In football games or a boxing match, it’s usually pretty obvious. But in golf, sometimes it happens on Thursday. Usually it’s Sunday, but guys who don’t know the game, they can miss it.

I loved Tolkien and I loved ‘Star Wars,’ which was the first memory that I have being in a movie theater. And, of course, that was the defining movie for me as a kid.

My audience here in America is so eclectic. It’s a real mix of people, which is great. Like what I was doing with Culture Club – world music, multiculturalism – not defining everything in terms of sexuality or color. It was about everyone coming together and being part of something.

Pollution is everywhere, in that ancient Greek sense of miasma: guilt experienced as abject body fluid, moral pollution defining what kinds of beings count in social space.

Travel is an exercise partly in broadening yourself and partly in defining your own limits.

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

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I’m not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

People who know me would say they get a kick out of the fact that I’m always playing nice people, not that I’m not a nice person, but it’s not a defining element.

Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.

I’m really grateful for every opportunity I have received because each job has opened new doors to levels that wouldn’t have been possible without the previous one. So in that sense, every job has been career defining.

If you’re not out front defining your vision, your opponent will spend gobs of money to define it for you.

My defining moment was when I finally went to Cannes and saw my name along with international filmmakers.

Being a twin, and being my sister‘s twin, is such a defining part of my life that I wouldn’t know how to be who I am, including a writer, without that being somehow at the centre.

I understand it for marketing purposes, but I’ve always hated defining myself with a genre. Nothing feels broad enough.

I have the feeling that behind a certain dimension we cannot anymore see, understand, feel, smell, hear – nothing. What people are calling God I am not defining, but I am a ‘possibilitiest.’

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

I couldn’t pick just one defining breakthrough role. I like to think that they’re all a part of me.

There is no sadder tale in the annals of architecture than the virtual disappearance of the defining architectural form of the Modern Movement – publicly sponsored housing.

‘Transformers‘ was important and defining for me because it taught me about what kinds of movies I want to make and the kind of actor I want to be, and I have a long way to go before I become that actor.

Why should we consider defining intelligence as something global and as something that hasn’t actually yet appeared on Earth? It may be useful for envisioning the future of our own civilization and any others that may be out there among the stars. It might give us something to strive for.

I don’t want the iPod to be my defining thing.

As CEO, I believe my most important job is to both define reality and inspire hope for the PayPal team. Defining reality includes being realistic about all the things that could go wrong so that we are prepared to navigate those challenges.

Defining, embedding, and living core beliefs set the stage for executives and employees to connect. Through actions that consistently convey who we are and how we act, executives can inspire employees to believe in the organization’s values and buy in to its brand.

Resignation was the defining condition of Soviet life.

Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.

The irony of the media and people in big cities is that they’re charged with defining the entire culture, when in reality they don’t even live in that culture. They live in such a rarified, tiny world.

Johns Hopkins introduced me to two defining events in my life: commitment to biomedical research and meeting my future wife, Mary.

We’re all diminished and restricted by sweeping statements defining boy and girl, our expectations and disappointments with ourselves, the way we look, what we enjoy, and the choices we make.

In terms of my work, I’ve never been reticent in terms of defining my sexuality. I write about my life.

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.

I was a journalist when I made ‘I’m British But…’ I’d seen how important the media was in terms of defining Indians – after the riots in the ’80s, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’

The most important part of fashion photography, for me, is not the models; it’s not the clothes. It’s that you are responsible for defining what a woman today is. That, I think, is my job.

The human’s being right to do as he pleases without interfering with someone else’s rights is a formula defining rights prior to social legislation.

The Nazis hijacked the Jewish thing early on by defining it as ‘the Jewish problem’ and started looking for a solution. These are not just words.

I must say, I always – from experience, when I watch TV shows and I see characters leave without a proper explanation or leave with not enough time, I get irritated. I like it when there’s a clean-cut reason or a defining moment where they have to go. Whether that’s death or not, I think that’s subjective.

I want to find that defining moment that you’re satisfied and you’ve done what you want to do in your life.

A campaign is about defining who you are – your vision and your opponent’s vision.

Becoming a mother was the single defining event of my life. It felt like the whole world shifted.

Defining art is huge; I feel like it’s such a subjective thing. It’s more like what’s not art. You know what I mean? I think there can be an art in the way people live their lives, and art can be a gift someone gives to somebody.

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

If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.

I was so young when my dad died that I didn’t think it had affected me. I had such tiny memories of him, just little glimpses, I thought I had been unaffected. But then I realised, somewhere in my late 40s I think, that probably the defining thing in my whole life was losing my dad.

Being tall isn’t what makes you a good footballer, and I don’t think that’s the defining factor in English football at all.

For me, that was a defining moment in my career, being at Chelsea, going through what has made me become a man in terms of my career. Even playing on the right wing helped my right foot, making me use it more, making me improve.

Personally, I don’t like defining myself. I don’t want to be put in one category in any kind of way.

While some members of Congress have attempted to stall progress on climate change, their actions amount to little more than political theater. We will not abandon our responsibility to our children and grandchildren, nor will we cede global leadership on the defining issue of our time.

One sign of a great actor is when he can be alone by himself on the screen, doing almost nothing, and producing one of a film‘s defining moments.

I still love finding the soul of the characters I play and defining who they are. This to me is my paint set, and the colors are always exciting to choose.

One of the defining dynamics of 2008 has been the emerging wave of new, young voters getting involved and storming the gates of the traditional political establishment.

The March on Washington was a defining moment in the history of this country and a great example of our nation truly living up to its creed.

The word, and the concept of feminism, was a gift because it gave me a sense of identity and a way of defining how I wished to live my life.

I’d say that my profession ends where architectural thinking ends – architectural thinking in terms of thinking about programs and organizational structure. These abstractions play a role in many other disciplines, and those disciplines are now defining their ‘architectures’ as well.

So I am getting a little bored with defining one type of film as American and the other European or from somewhere else because the division is no longer true.

I really love customising certain songs for certain people. No matter what weight that comes with it – whether it comes with it not being a number one on the Top 100 or whatever. I’d rather write someone a career defining record.

In the life of any country, the most defining moment is the creation of the country itself.

There is nothing that’s been in any of my novels that, in my view, hasn’t been either illuminating surroundings or defining a character or moving a plot.

One of the defining things about my career on camera is I like to play different characters. That gets difficult to do. People don’t trust you to do something different. In animation, it’s all about trust and how far can you go away from yourself. It’s a really marvelous environment that’s extremely creative.

At times of constitutional uncertainty and social division, parliament needs a greater, not a lesser role, in defining our future.

I always think about race as a part of one’s identity, not the whole of one’s identity. You don’t want it to be the defining characteristic of a character. There has to be more.

We need to stop defining Boeing’s future based on a single program or two programs, and we have been doing that with the fighter story. It doesn’t mean it was wrong or right; I just don’t think it represents the great diversity of the Boeing Defense portfolio.

There must’ve been some part of me that wanted to make my mark. But there was never a defining moment.

Secularism and pluralism are two of the defining ethos of Western societies. The former decouples religion from governmental institutions whilst the latter seeks to protect the rights of all citizens to freely practice their creed.

The problems that you see startups tackling are dramatically different in different cities. Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the same set of companies as New York or Cleveland because the region has a different set of strengths and defining institutions.

Robin McKinley’s ‘The Blue Sword‘ was a defining book of my teen years, and I’d love to have more books like that in the world.

You have tremendous flexibility in defining both the greater good and the greater community. If you don’t succeed in this, then you will continue to pull that heavy wagon up the mountain, and despite the fact that you are pulling it, it will somehow run over your own foot.

I don’t have real big aspirations to be a movie star. I would love to be on a long-running hit TV show. You end up playing a defining role.

As users of the Internet, we all have a role to play in defining what we want it to be.

The one place where I do think our culture today has to be extremely careful is this whole thing about illegal aliens. Because any time you start defining a significant block of the population as ‘others,’ or as less than you, you start getting into dangerous waters.

As we grow up, we’re constantly defining ourselves. In my case: Caucasian, male, born in Iowa, live in Boston, Zen Buddhist, good at learning languages. With countless labels, I build up this creation I call my self.

Demonetisation was a defining moment in the government‘s war on corruption and black money.

As a person, I am totally obsessed with the choices and decisions we make in our lives and how they dictate the course of our lives. Seemingly random choices that we make end up defining everything.

The two defining issues of this century are both universal but felt locally: the global water crisis and the resources boom.

‘Step Brothers‘ itself, when I did it, I don’t know if I had any idea that it would become a defining moment in my career and life like it has, and I’m really happy that that’s the one that ended up being that for me.

Everything I do in my political life is colored by my military service. It was the defining moment in my life and helped me develop the leadership skills that I still utilize.

Sundance is going to be a defining moment in my life. But the unfortunate thing about Sundance is, when you have a film there, you can’t have the opportunity to see other films.

‘Be Cool‘ was a defining movie for me.

I thought the message of the artist was more important than the writing style. I tried to be clear; I wanted everyone to be welcome. I think some of the more serious writers wrote to a more elite audience than that. They’re the ones who were defining the seriousness of rock n’ roll.

I’m definitely responsible for the image that I put out there. But it does become frustrating, because I don’t want ‘sexy‘ to be my defining characteristic. I’d love for my ambition and will and intellect and sense of humour to define me as well.

A defining moment takes a long time to get over, if you ever do.

The Soviet system of propaganda and censorship existed not so much for the purpose of spreading a particular message as for the purpose of making learning impossible, replacing facts with mush, and handing the faceless state a monopoly on defining an ever-shifting reality.

Porsche‘s and Apple‘s design philosophies are similar. Much like the 356, the original iPhone was about defining a foundation for the future.

Covering, hosting, and sharing E3 has been a highlight of my year, not to mention a defining part of my career.

One of the most consistent defining qualities of sentience is that we define it as human, as the thing that we possess that others do not.

Ultimately, I didn’t look at ‘The Biggest Loser‘ as being my defining moment. I wasn’t there to compete and win the money. I wasn’t there to win ‘The Biggest Loser.’ I was there for my health.

Think about a guy like Bob Mitchum, with his kind of chest gut not defining itself one way or the other. Was there anybody tougher? Lee Marvin was a marine sniper during the Second World War. They had this sense of themselves, and they had this product of being a man in a masculine way.

I know as a consumer I want a story. I want a defining – I don’t want just an album full of singles. I want to get to know the artist beyond what everyone else can hear on the radio.

As a writer, I find that a good way of evolving a character is through an examination of his or her defining relationships – and what’s more defining than a relationship with someone you love?

There’s so many things that people do on a daily basis that they do as a way of defining who they are. But really, what defines who you are is when circumstances push you to the edge.

There’s no one defining moment that kills you or makes you.

Generally, you cannot solve a problem without defining the problem completely.

In a story, you have to have a theme and an angle, you have to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to have a defining moment and kick it to death. You gotta be able to recognize that, by the way. It probably takes experience.

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.

My most defining moment was the death of my mother.

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.

I think my generation is defining themselves as Canadian artists.

The fact that more than 50 percent of Americans have an immediate family member either currently or formerly incarcerated tells you a lot about just how defining a feature of American culture incarceration has become.

There wasn’t a defining moment or match or even a person that made me want to wrestle. It all just sort of happened. Kind of like puberty.

Is Duran’s ‘No Mas’ a more defining moment in his career than his victory over Sugar Ray Leonard in their first fight? For many, it is.

If you think Independence Day is America’s defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

We need to end the government monopoly in education by transferring power from bureaucracies and unions to families. The era of defining public education as allegiance to centralized school districts must end.

Obama is defining himself in a way that will destroy him.

There’s nothing harder than defining oneself.

The word ‘success’ – who’s defining it? It’s about whether or not it makes me feel good. Four billion people don’t have to see or hear it. If I’ve enjoyed the process of creation and I’m at peace, then what happens next is just entertainment. If mass appeal were actually something, Marilyn Monroe wouldn’t be dead.

While domestically the president may be able to somewhat reshape his/her image through defining moments and actions, this is far less feasible internationally.

The Hollywood of Frank Capra’s era, when Reagan became a minor star, sold the world an image of American pith and patriotism in many ways as defining as the moon landing or the A-bomb.

Words matter, especially words defining complicated political arrangements, because they shape perceptions of the events of the past, attitudes toward policies being carried out in the present, and expectations about desirable directions for the future.

My journey has been a long one and has still got a long way to go. I think we are so used to defining ourselves. That’s the way society works within these binaries and it’s taken me a long time to realize that I exist somewhere in between and I’m still not sure where that is yet.

While historians may go on attempting grand, sweeping and defining narratives, they work in a time when readers know that another narrative always lies in wait, and that the more intelligent an historian is, the more tentative and self-scrutinizing the tone.

The downside to defining everything Chinese as different than American is that all things Chinese then become exotic.

Most importantly, nothing has happened to change my conviction that freedom and the love of liberty remain the essential defining attributes of our national character as a people.