Obscurity Quotes - Page 12

• There are greater depths and obscurities, greater intricacies and perplexities, in an elaborate and well-written piece of nonsense, than in the most abstruse and profound tract of school divinity.

  Joseph Addison

  School, Profound, Depth

  Joseph Addison (1853). “The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Any Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works”, p.624

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• Obscurity is where God sends all His favorite sons and daughters. Our society tells us that if and when we get ‘there’—the job or position or degree we’ve always wanted, the notoriety we’ve always dreamed of—that’s when all the important stuff will start happening. Not so. All the good stuff happens in obscurity.

  Jonathan Martin

  Daughter, Jobs, Son

  Jonathan Martin, Steven Furtick (2013). “Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think?”, p.65, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• Moreover, the sciences are monuments devoted to the public good; each citizen owes to them a tribute proportional to his talents. While the great men, carried to the summit of the edifice, draw and put up the higher floors, the ordinary artists scattered in the lower floors, or hidden in the obscurity of the foundations, must only seek to improve what cleverer hands have created.

  Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

  Science, Men, Artist

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• We're living at a time when attention is the new currency We're all publishers now, and the more we publish, the more valuable connections we'll make. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Fitbit and the SenseCam give us a simple choice: participate or fade into a lonely obscurity.

  Pete Cashmore

  Lonely, Simple, Giving

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• Don't be a writer, it's a terrible way to live your life, there's nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it.

  Paul Auster

  Mean, Live Your Life, Solitude

  "Big Think Interview With Paul Auster". Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. November 5, 2009.

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• Dread not events unknown, and be not downhearted, for the fountain of the water of life is involved in obscurity.

  Bill Vaughan

  Future, Water Of Life, Events

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• The mystery of the universe, and the meaning of God's world, are shrouded in hopeless obscurity, until we learn to feel that all laws suppose a lawgiver, and that all working involves a Divine energy.

  Alexander MacLaren

  Law, Energy, World

  Alexander Maclaren (1871). “Sermons Preached in Manchester: First series”, p.183

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• When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.

  Carl Jung

  Darkness, Wish, Enlightenment

  Carl Gustav Jung, Herbert Read, Michael Scott Montague Fordham, Gerhard Adler (1972). “The Collected Works of C.G. Jung: The structure and dynamics of the psyche”

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• For though we very truly hear that the kingdom of God will be filled with splendor, joy, happiness and glory, yet when these things are spoken of, they remain utterly remote from our perception, and as it were, wrapped in obscurities, until that day.

  John Calvin

  Joy, Perception, Kingdoms

  John Calvin “Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion”, Westminster John Knox Press

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• Genius is often a short way of spelling hard work. Poverty, obscurity, struggle and ambition formed the foundation for many careers of transcendent achievement. Few marks are made in the world's history by eight-hour-day men.... Sir Joshua Reynolds had but one maxim for success: Work, work, work. Is not rigid and continuous training necessary for the making of strong athletes? Hard work is not fatal to real success. Vouloir c'est pouvoir.

  B. C. Forbes

  Strong, Real, Work

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• The realization that The Art of Obscurity is my 25th solo album prompted me to do some deep thinking about where I am, where I’m going and what I still want to achieve from this life in music. In my heart I feel vital and passionate about the creative process and that my best work is the next one I finish. It doesn’t necessarily work out that clean, but for me, it can be the only touchstone.

  Iain Matthews

  Art, Thinking, Work Out

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• I myself, a professional mathematician, on re-reading my own work find it strains my mental powers to recall to mind from the figures the meanings of the demonstrations, meanings which I myself originally put into the figures and the text from my mind. But when I attempt to remedy the obscurity of the material by putting in extra words, I see myself falling into the opposite fault of becoming chatty in something mathematical.

  Johannes Kepler

  Fall, Reading, Science

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• Critics should help people see for themselves; they should never try to define things, or impose their own explanations, though I admit that if... a critic's explanations serve to increase the general obscurity, that's all to the good.

  Georges Braque

  People, Trying, Helping

  Georges Braque (1964). “Georges Braque, 1882-1963: An American Tribute”

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• The Lord chose Joseph Smith, called upon him at fourteen years of age, gave him vision, and led him along, guided and directed him in his obscurity.

  Brigham Young

  Years, Vision, Age

  Brigham Young (1861). “Journal of Discourses”, p.354

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• The ever increasing intensity of despair depends upon the degree of consciousness or is proportionate to this increase: the greater the degree of consciousness, the more intensive the despair. This is everywhere apparent, most clearly in despair at its maximum and minimum. The devil's despair is the most intensive despair, for the devil is sheer spirit and hence unqualified consciousness and transparency; there is no obscurity in the devil that could serve as a mitigating excuse. Therefore, his despair is the most absolute defiance. . . .

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Despair, Devil, Degrees

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