Quotes by Hugh Mackay - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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The thing we need most is each other.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
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It seems inevitable that the magic of the written word will fade.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Inevitable
Lovely
Magic
Written Word
Fade
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No one welcomes chaos, but why crave stability and predictability?
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Chaos
Crave
Predictability
Stability
Welcomes
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Recounting their histories, people often sound like interested bystanders to their own lives.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Histories
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Obviously, every child should be given the best possible opportunity to acquire literacy skills.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Education
Opportunity
Acquire
Children
Given
Literacy
Skills
Child
Possible
Obviously
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It's Australian to do such things because, however uncivilised they may seem, it's human to do them.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Wisdom
Australia Day
Australian
May
However
Such Things
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I suspect the secret of personal attraction is locked up in our unique imperfections, flaws and frailties.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Attraction
Flaws
Imperfection
Locked
Locked Up
Secret
Unique
Imperfections
Personal
Suspect
The Secret Of
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With increasing frequency and growing vehemence, you hear people saying they are ashamed to be Australians.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Growing
People
Vehemence
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Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Relationship
Dating
Irrational
Messy
Outcomes
People
Perfect
Perfect Life
Uncertain
Life People Nothing
Nothing
Life Relationship People
Complex
Relationships
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Reading is a huge effort for many people, a bore for others, and, believe it or not, many people prefer watching TV.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Believe
Effort
Huge
People
Reading
Watching Tv
Tv
Prefer
Bore
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Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Choices
Culture
Familiar
Ideas
Refuge
Although
Seek
Worships
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But the rule seems to be that the bigger and more life-changing the decision, the less it will seem like a decision at all.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Bigger
Decision
Life Changing
Rule
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The yearning for strong leadership is more about strength of purpose - clarity of vision - than about merely 'getting tough'.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Leadership
Strong
Vision
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Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Imagine
Perfect
Perfect Person
Persons
Demanded
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The copycat effects of media violence, similar to those previously attributed to westerns, radio serials and comic books, are easy to exaggerate.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Book
Comic
Effects
Media
Radio
Violence
Attributed
Comic Books
Exaggerate
Similar
Westerns
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On average, Australians watch more than three hours of television a day, compared with 12 minutes a day spent by the average couple talking to each other.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Average
Couple
Minutes
Talking
Australians
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Universal literacy was a 20th-century goal. Before then, reading and writing were skills largely confined to a small, highly educated class of professional people.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Education
Confined
Educated
Literacy
Reading
Skills
Writing
Highly
Largely
Professional
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I wish we didn't have to own up to a policy deliberately designed to inflict suffering on people who have already been traumatised in the countries from which they've fled.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Policy
Deliberately
Designed
Inflict
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Indeed, in the present climate of mistrust of institutions, many people who yearn for a more meaningful and fulfilling life would regard the church as an unlikely place to go for guidance.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Church
Fulfilling
Guidance
Meaningful
Mistrust
People
Regard
Unlikely
Indeed
Yearn
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One reason we resist making deliberate choices is that choice equals change and most of us, feeling the world is unpredictable enough, try to minimise the trauma of change in our personal lives.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Choices
Deliberate
Feelings
Trying
Unpredictable
Change Enough World
Equals
Personal Lives
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So, if falling crime rates coincide with the rise of violent video games and increasing violence on TV and at the cinema, should we conclude that media violence is causing the drop in crime rates?
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Cinema
Crime
Fall
Games
Media
Video
Tv
Rise
Causing
Coincide
Conclude
Drop
Falling
Increasing
Rates
Video Games
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I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments; I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Sympathy
Sentiments
Tolerate
Treatment
Wish
Appalling
Australians
Carried
Total
Grounds
Refugees
Saying
Smith
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Perhaps it's the people whose lives have taken sudden new twists - people who have learned to embrace the creative possibilities of change - who stand the best chance of penetrating life's mysteries.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Embrace
Twists
Life Change Best
Mysteries
Penetrating
Perhaps
Possibilities
Sudden
Whose
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The question is, will we continue to fight what may be a rearguard action to defend universal literacy as a central goal of our education system, or are we bold enough to see what's actually happening to our culture?
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Literacy
Bold
Central
Defend
Happening
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A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Easter
Cousin
Spring
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Polls are no substitute for leadership because, at its very essence, leadership is about giving people what they don't already have - a sense of vision, inspiration, or even an adequate grasp of a particular subject.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Leadership
Essence
Inspiration
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A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Easter
Autumn
Energy
Hemisphere
Melancholy
Spring
Vitality
Associated
Cousins
Unlike
Northern
Reflective
Strangely
Subdued
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Some researchers sensibly suggest that rather than worrying too much about which programs our children are watching, we should concentrate on trying to reduce the total amount of time they spend in front of the screen.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Amount
Children
Researchers
Too Much
Trying
Worrying Too Much
Front
Spend
Programs
Reduce
Screen
Sensibly
Suggest
Worrying
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Yet in our enthusiasm for the idea that everyone should be able to read and write fluently, we may be missing a crucial point: in today's culture, finely honed literacy skills are simply not as important as they once were.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Ideas
Skills
Writing
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Parents should be encouraged to read to their children, and teachers should be equipped with all available techniques for teaching literacy, so the varying needs and capacities of individual kids can be taken into account.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Education
Teacher
Available
Children
Literacy
Account
Teachers
Capacities
Encouraged
Equipped
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But many researchers operate as if it is their responsibility to demonstrate that video violence has a direct effect on the behaviour of young children, because that will help to explain why society is becoming more violent.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Children
Direct Effect
Responsibility
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The underlying message of the Lancet article is that if you want to understand aggressive behaviour in children, look to the social and emotional environment in which they are growing up, and the values they bring to the viewing experience.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Aggressive
Behaviour
Article
Underlying
Viewing
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Still, most of those effects occur in the context of harmless play and it is patently obvious that children are not normally turned into aggressive little monsters by TV or video games, since most children do not become aggressive little monsters.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Aggressive
Children
Effects
Games
Monsters
Obvious
Play
Video
Context
Harmless
Normally
Patently
Video Games
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Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Communicate
Fall
Growing Up
Literacy
Skills
Standards
Young
Australians
Possible
Entertained
Effectively
Master
Falling
Having
Informed
Rudimentary
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It is the misfortune of contemporary leaders, across the whole spectrum of Australian life, that the community's demand for strong leadership is growing in direct proportion to our lack of confidence in ourselves. The end of this century is an unusually difficult time to be a leader in Australia.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Leadership
Australia
Community
Strong
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If I were asked about what to do about the level of insecurity and anxiety in contemporary Australian society, I wouldn't start with politics and I wouldn't say too much about terrorism. I'd suggest as a first step, that you invite the neighbours over for a drink this weekend. Today a drink, tomorrow a barbeque, pretty soon, a community.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Anxiety
Community
Weekend
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One of the most important responsibilities of leaders in any setting - including business organisations - is to tell us our own story; to explain us to ourselves; to help us weave some meaning and purpose into the fabric of our lives; to illuminate our understanding of where we have come from; to paint word pictures of our future onto which we can project our aspirations.
Hugh Mackay / Reporter
Leadership
Business
Responsibility
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