Oddly, for a book to do well merely because people like it is surprisingly rare.
'Humanity' is a name not merely for a species but also for a quality.
Once you learn to look at architecture not merely as an art more or less well or more or less badly done, but as a social manifestation, the critical eye becomes clairvoyant.
From my perspective, 'postmodernism' merely names an interesting set of developments in the social order that is based on the presumption that God does not matter.
Data from orbiting telescopes like NASA's Kepler Mission hint that the tally of habitable planets in our galaxy is many billion. If E.T.'s not out there, then Earth is more than merely special - it's some sort of miracle.
I'm merely trying to be something akin to a nice, kind, good actress.
To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.
It is not enough for us to merely continue to talk about and contribute to the echo chamber of white noise of what's wrong with America or for candidates to spout off silly poll-tested talking points about national security or foreign policy.
The Matrix itself is not some external evil, but rather an outcome of our own error, our karmic payoff of past actions. Not merely illusion, it is an allusion to a founding myth of our culture.
The future continues to preoccupy me as a reliable source of hopes, fears and anxieties, but increasingly the present seems to have no outstanding qualities of its own, being merely a way-station through which events travel to the vast shadow lands of the past.
If tolerance is the best we can do in this moment, then by all means let's be tolerant. But by stopping there, by merely tolerating each other, we miss so much.
The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.
I want to tell all the youngsters in Nagpur and in the rest of India that sports is not merely about winning medals; it is about being fit and healthy. It is not about six-packs and going to gym, but exercising right and eating intelligently.
Most talk about 'super-geniuses' is nonsense. I have found that when 'stars' drop out, successors are usually at hand to fill their places, and the successors are merely men who have learned by application and self-discipline to get full production from an average, normal brain.
The Torah is the foundational text for Jewish law, but the Haggadah is our book of living memory. We are not merely telling a story here. We are being called to a radical act of empathy. Here we are, embarking on an ancient, perennial attempt to give human lives - our lives - dignity.
I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.
Instead of isolating our school and our many subjects from the every day world, we intend to plant it not merely in the French capital, but in what for next summer at least will be the focal point, the capital of the entire civilized world.
I merely consider myself a father, and one role of a father is to provide financial resources for his family.
If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage.
The air that people breathe in many Chinese cities has become dangerously polluted. Their food supply is subject to constant contamination scandals. Now it appears that not merely stagnant ponds but the water people draw from deep underground is already tainted.
I have never understood the clamour for waif-like women whose flesh acts merely as a thin veil for their bones - much as I would love to be thinner, I would hate to take it so far that I had no actual shape at all.
While we face economic obstacles that challenge every decision made in Washington, decisions made merely for political gain must stop. It's time to restore civility in Congress. It's time for action where action is needed - all politics aside.
We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces; nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.
People credit me for making the universe interesting when in fact the universe is inherently interesting, and I'm merely revealing that fact. I don't think I'm anything special for this to happen.
People come up to me on the street and make some little joke - like they'll say, 'Excuse me, sir, what time is it?' And I'll say, you know, '5:15,' and they'll say, 'Hey! Made you talk!' And that's merely a way of saying, 'I know your work and I like you.'
Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.
Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.
America has chosen Georgia as a junior partner. The United States believes that Saakashvili is creating a democratic Georgia, but these are merely facades.
The woeful tales of 'Super Mario Bros.' and 'Street Fighter' have taught studios that merely slapping a name to a movie is not enough to bring in the fans of the franchise. Also, the way games now unfold their stories more parallels that of a movie, with characters and plot points actually meaning as much as a high score.
Hunger, I discovered, is very much a matter of the mind, and as I began to study my own appetites, I saw that my teenage craving had not really been for food. That ravenous desire had been a yearning for love, attention, appreciation. Food had merely been my substitute.
