passivity

Noun

Meaning

Passiveness; -- opposed to activity.

The tendency of a body to remain in a given state, either of motion or rest, till disturbed by another body; inertia.

The quality or condition of any substance which has no inclination to chemical activity; inactivity.

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Examples

Society is a system of inherited forms reducing our humiliating passivity to nature. We may alter these forms, slowly or suddenly, but no change in society will change nature. Camille Paglia

Passivity can be a provoking modus operandi; Consider the Empire and Gandhi. Ogden Nash

Prostitution is said to be the world's oldest profession. It is, indeed, a model of all professional work: the worker relinquishes control over himself ... in exchange for money. Because of the passivity it entails, this is a difficult and, for many, a distasteful role. Thomas Szasz

The church of Jesus needs to wake up from the exile of passivity and embrace liminality and adventure or continue to remain a religious ghetto for culturally co-opted, fearful, middle-class folk. Alan Hirsch

Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism. Dorothy Thompson

Passivity may be the easy course, but it is hardly the honorable one. Noam Chomsky

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