50 Percent Quotes

“These senior claims were supposed to be very low-risk; after all, how likely was it that a large number of people would default on their mortgages at the same time? The answer, of course, is that it was quite likely in an environment where homes were worth 30, 40, 50 percent less than the borrowers originally paid for them. So a lot of supposedly safe assets, assets that had been rated AAA by Standard & Poor's or Moody's, ended up becoming "toxic waste", worth only a fraction of their face value.”

— Paul Krugman

“Despite a 50 percent divorce rate for first marriages and 65 percent the second time around; despite the staggering frequency of affairs; despite the fact that monogamy is a ship sinking faster than anyone can bail it out, we continue to cling to the wreckage with absolute faith in its structural soundness.”

— Esther Perel

“What entrepreneurs quickly learn is that they need to price their product at least 2.3 times its cost to allow for at least one 50 percent margin for them and another 50 percent margin for their retailers (1.5 × 1.5 = 2.25). That first 50 percent margin for the entrepreneur is really mostly covering the hidden costs of doing business at a scale that they hadn't thought of when they first started,”

— Chris Anderson

“There is an old adage that the quickest way to drop your tax take is to increase taxes. If capital gains tax is going to be 50 percent, my contingent capital gains tax is going to be 250 million pounds.”

— Peter Hargreaves

“More than 65,000 horses were slaughtered in the United States in 2004, a 50 percent increase since 2002.”

— Elton Gallegly

“First of all, I only get 50 percent of it, because, I mean, the galleries get 50 and 60 percent. I mean, that's normal. I understand that. I don't quarrel with that.”

— Anthony Quinn

“We have by far the most expensive health system in the world. We spend 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. Americans spend more on health care than housing or food.”

— Kathleen Sebelius

“The 2012 payout will be the lowest in our history: well below 50 percent.”

— Ennio Doris

“I made a movie when I was 15 years old with all my friends. This is when IMDb was a little more lax with its proceedings, so it's listed as one of my projects. I was 15 years old; it's a terrible movie. I wrote 50 percent of it because I wanted to kiss this one girl, and I wrote a kissing scene for it.”

— Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Fuel cells create a better automobile that's 50 percent more energy-efficient overall and sustainable from energy and safety perspectives.”

— Larry Burns

“The Obama administration is not helping small businesses create jobs. In fact, it is responsible for the regulatory uncertainty nearly 50 percent of small-business owners cite as responsible for their lack of hiring.”

— Sher Valenzuela

“I love my DSL, but I love my WiFi more. And I probably get on the Internet 40 percent to 50 percent more because of the combination of those technologies.”

— Michael K. Powell

“The president is under 50 percent approval ratings in all the battleground states. So, you could say that President Obama is defying gravity by still being in a dead heat with Mitt Romney. And one of the reasons that he is, is because the changing face of the electorate are giving him a small boost.”

— Mara Liasson

“We vote - if the public votes 50 percent, we vote 70 percent. So we have a bigger impact with our numbers, and the organization and the manpower we can bring to a race.”

— James P. Hoffa

“And yet 50 percent of the kids who start high school in the United States today do not finish high school.”

— James T. Walsh

“For-profit weather forecasters rarely predict exactly a 50 percent chance of rain, which might seem wishy-washy and indecisive to consumers.41 Instead, they'll flip a coin and round up to 60, or down to 40, even though this makes the forecasts both less accurate and”

— Nate Silver

“Romance is alive and well in America, but the 50 percent who can't make it work fail because of selfishness. It gets down to that. You can't oversimplify it because every situation is so complex.”

— Donny Osmond

“SOCIETY AS COMPULSIVE AND ADDICTED Our society is highly addictive. We have sixty million sexual abuse victims. Possibly seventy-five million lives are seriously affected by alcoholism, with no telling how many more through other drugs. We have no idea of the actual impact on our economy of the billions of tax-free dollars that come from the illegal drug trade. Over fifteen million families are violent. Some 60 percent of women and 50 percent of men have eating disorders. We have no actual data on work addiction or sexual addictions. I saw a recent quotation that cited thirteen million gambling addicts. If toxic shame is the fuel of addiction, we have a massive problem of shame in our society.”

— John Bradshaw

“We've got 50 percent voter turnout for presidential elections. That's appalling. We can do so much better.”

— Joan Blades

“I can drink 15 pieces of fruit in a day. Nobody is going to sit down and eat that. I drink about 48 ounces a day. That constitutes about 50 percent of what I eat. And then I have one meal a day, some protein. I restrict calories.”

— Montel Williams

“My father lived to be 97 and played bridge every day up to the end, so I've got a 50 percent chance of living a long life like him.”

— Henry Louis Gates

“Foreclosure is to no one's benefit. I've heard estimates that mortgage investors lose 40 to 50 percent on their investment if it goes into foreclosure.”

— Henry Paulson

“As of the mid-90s, over 50 percent of women have a bachelor's and master's degree, compared to about 35 percent and 30 percent, respectively, in 1920.”

— Peter Diamandis

“Taking a shuttle or even paying for a taxi to a rental office that's a few miles away from the airport can mean a lower rate - 50 percent lower is common - for the same car, from the same company, for the same length of time. Many companies run free shuttles from some of the major airports.”

— Jean Chatzky

“I'm definitely not at my best. Honestly, I'm under 50 percent. But I've won stuff under 50 percent before.”

— Serena Williams

“And another thing is that I think as a church whenever we become politically driven, we alienate at least 50 percent of the people that God called us to reach with our political orientations.”

— T.D. Jakes

“People who work 44 hours per week make 50 percent more than people who work 34 hours a week.”

— Warren Farrell

“When a CEO looks around her staff meeting, a good rule of thumb is that at least 50 percent of the people at the table should be experts in the company's products and services and responsible for product development. This will help ensure that the leadership team maintains focus on product excellence. Operational components like finance, sales, and legal are obviously critical to a company's success, but they should not dominate the conversation.”

— Eric Schmidt

“In 2010, Iceland-with a lesbian prime minister and a parliament that is 50 percent female-became the first country in the world to outlaw strip clubs for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. I”

— Caitlin Moran

“Surveys show that more than 50 percent of people in the U.S. have prayed the sinner's prayer and think they're going to heaven because of it even though there is no detectable difference in their lifestyles from those outside of the church. On this issue- the most important issue on earth- we have to be absolutely clear. We need to preach salvation by repentance before God and faith in the finished work of Christ.”

— J.D. Greear

“If it reenters its base, I have a rule to cut at least 50 percent of the position.”

— David Ryan

“Some famous person said, "Success is 50 percent luck and 50 percent preparedness for that luck." I think that's a lot of it. It's being ready to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.”

— Jessica Livingston

“An aggressive building performance standard for all new buildings, and a set of performance requirements to be met by all buildings before they can be sold (when upgrades can be included in the new mortgage). These should encompass heating and cooling, lighting, and plug loads. Coupled with new efficiency standards for appliances, lights, and furnaces, this should reduce the energy consumption of new buildings by 50 percent, more or less immediately, and go on from there.”

— Denis Hayes

“Twelve for 23 ... It doesn't take a genius to see that's under 50 percent.”

— Dick Vitale

“In many parts of the Bible Belt, the divorce rate was discovered to be roughly 50 percent above the national average.”

— Ronald J. Sider

“I don't think you can consistently be a winning trader if you're banking on being right more than 50 percent of the time. You have to figure out how to make money being right only 20 to 30 percent of the time.”

— Bill Lipschutz

“The brain cannot multitask. Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time ... To put it bluntly, research shows that we can't multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing information-rich inputs simultaneously ... Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task. Not only that, he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors.”

— John Medina

“Oxytocin infusion increases generosity in unilateral monetary transfers by 80 percent [and] increases donations to charity by 50 percent.”

— Paul J. Zak

“Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 percent to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.”

— Jonah Berger

“No [I'm not a feminist] because I love men, and I think the idea of 'raise women to power, take the men away from the power' is never going to work out because you need balance. With myself, I'm very in touch with my masculine side. And I'm 50 percent feminine and 50 percent masculine, same as I think a lot of us are. And I think that is important to note. And also I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn't work either. We have to have a fine balance.”

— Shailene Woodley

“Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world”

— Amy Tan

“It's just a matter of time before we go into Iraq and get Saddam Hussein. I think just before Bush falls below 50 percent, that's when we'll be going.”

— Jay Leno

“If your company matches your 401(k) contribution, then no matter what, contribute to your 401(k) first. You put in a dollar, they put in 50 cents. It's an automatic 50 percent return on your money. You can't pass that up. I'd rather have the 50 percent than pay 32 percent interest on a credit card.”

— Suze Orman

“If you have a 50 percent match and you get in trouble financially, you can either withdraw money as a loan, or withdraw the 50 percent match. If you take it out, you have to pay taxes on it, but you still come out ahead.”

— Suze Orman

“If you actually are a doctor and admitted it, you'd say, 'I don't cure a huge percentage, I don't have a 50 percent cure rate .. (but) I can have a 100 percent compassion rate,'.”

— Patch Adams

“Sound is 50 percent of the movie going experience, and I've always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.”

— George Lucas

“I was told 50 percent of the population gets cancer. Everybody is going to be affected.”

— Catherine Hardwicke

“Iceland is 50 percent Celtic blood, from the females that they stole from us, which is why our country has only got dogs left. It was a joke! I'll never be let back in Scotland again!”

— Gerard Butler

“School choice opponents are also dishonest when they speak of saving public schools. A Heritage Foundation survey found that 47 percent of House members and 51 percent of senators with school-age children enrolled them in private schools in 2001. Public school teachers enroll their children in private schools to a much greater extent than the general public, in some cities close to 50 percent.”

— Walter E. Williams

“From an economic perspective, women are treated unfairly: they perform 66 percent of the world's work and produce 50 percent of the food but they only earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property.”

— Zainab Salbi