Dull Quotes - Page 36

• All work and no plagiarism makes for dull sermons!

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Plagiarism, Sermons

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• The Times are the masquerade of the eternities; trivial to the dull, tokens of noble and majestic agents to the wise; the receptacle in which the Past leaves its history; the quarry out of which the genius of today is building up the Future.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Future, Past

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1175, Delphi Classics

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• The subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Slavery, Said

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1233, Delphi Classics

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• Never invite to dinner: those who won't decide until the last minute; those who come more than half an hour late; those who want to bring along two or three friends; drunks; monologists; those who stay until three o'clock in the morning; those who think that conversation means having an argument; those who take a high moral tone; those who are stupid, ugly, or dull. Enforcement of these rules will enable one to eat alone every night in comfort.

  Mason Cooley

  Morning, Stupid, Mean

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• When some English moralists write about the importance of having character, they appear to mean only the importance of having a dull character.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Writing, Character, Mean

  "Charles Dickens: A Critical Study". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1906.

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• The thoughts and opinions of one human being, if they are sincere, must always have an interest for some other human beings. The world is there to think about; and if we have lived, or are living, with any sort of energy, we must have thought about it, and about ourselves in relation to it - thought 'furiously' often. And it is out of the many 'thinkings' of many folk, strong or weak, dull or far-ranging, that thought itself grows.

  Mary Augusta Ward

  Strong, Thinking, Energy

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• A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Reading, Delight, Hours

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• Genius, the Pythian of the beautiful, leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Beautiful, Genius, Riddle

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• Without the heroic, man has no meaning; without the economic, he has no sense. Economic man is most likely to be economic woman - a good wife, pulling the coat tails of her heroic husband, checking his extravagances of speech and action with words of caution and good sense. But without the heroic coat tails to pull, life for both of them would be dull and savorless indeed.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Husband, Men, Wife

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 183, 1958.

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• We live in a society which salves its conscience more by helping the interestingly unfortunate than the dull deserving.

  P. D. James

  Charity, Helping, Welfare

  P.D. James (2012). “Cover Her Face: An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery”, p.234, Simon and Schuster

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• Truth needs meditative eyes. If you don't have meditative eyes, then the whole life is just dull dead facts, unrelated to each other, accidental, meaningless, a jumble, just a chance phenomenon. If you see the truth, everything falls into line, everything falls together in a harmony, everything starts having significance.

  Rajneesh

  Life, Truth, Fall

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• It is, I think, a good deal owing to the preponderance of the commercial element in Society that conversation has sunk to its present dull level of conventional chatter.

  Dorothy Nevill

  Women, Thinking, Elements

  Lady Dorothy Nevill (1907). “The reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill”, Arnold

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• A considreable portion of my high school trigonometry course was devoted to the solution of oblique triangles... I have still not had an excuse for using my talents for solving oblique triangles. If a professional mathematician never uses these dull techniques in a highly varied career, why must all high school students devote several weeks to the subject?

  John G. Kemeny

  School, Careers, Technique

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• Every base occupation makes one sharp in its practice, and dull in every other.

  Philip Sidney

  Practice, Occupation, Baseness

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.15

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• A dull head thinks of no better way to show himself wise, than by suspecting everything in his way.

  Philip Sidney

  Wise, Thinking, Way

  Sir Philip Sidney, James Hain Friswell (1867). “The Countess of Pembrokes' Arcadia ... With Notes and Introductory Essay by Hain Friswell, Etc”, p.126

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• I hear nothings, I speak nothings, I take interest in nothing and from nothing to nothing I travel gently down the dull way which leads to becoming nothing.

  Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand

  Way, Becoming, Speak

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• The day broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Children, Book, Sleep

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.3, Diversion Books

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• Some very dull and sad people have genius though the world may not count it as such; a genius for love, or for patience, or for prayer, maybe. We know the divine spark is here and there in the world: who shall say under what manifestations, or humble disguise!

  Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie

  Prayer, Humble, People

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• For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Men, Race

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.110, Penguin

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• I know, if anyone does - all research workers know - how much is missed that really matters because reports have to be written in officialese. They have to be, because a lot of us can't take anything seriously unless you make it dull for them.

  E. C. Bentley

  Research, Matter, Doe

  "Trent's Own Case". Book by E. C. Bentley and H. Warner Allen, Chapter XXI: "Aunt Judith Knits", 1936.

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• I hate the word 'ought' - it always implies something dull, cold, and commonplace. The 'ought nots' of life are its pleasantest things.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Hate, Cold, Duty

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1837). “Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides ...”, p.88

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• There is no lasting pleasure but contemplation; all others grow flat and insipid upon frequent use; and when a man hath run through a set of vanities, in the declension of his age, he knows not what to do with himself, if he cannot think; he saunters about from one dull business to another, to wear out time; and hath no reason to value Life but because he is afraid of death.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Running, Men, Thinking

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• It is a simple truth that if we identify ourselves as being fundamentally pure, strong, and capable we will actually develop these qualities, but if we continue to think of ourselves as dull and foolish, that is what we will become.

  Thubten Yeshe

  Strong, Truth, Simple

  Thubten Yeshe (2005). “Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• All work and no plagiarism makes a dull speech.

  Jacob Braude

  Art, Speech, Entertainment

  Jacob M. Braude (1975). “Braude's Handbook of Stories for Toastmasters and Speakers”, Prentice Hall

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• And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, And asleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me must be heard of, say, I taught thee.

  William Shakespeare

  Teacher, Teaching, Taught

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