Obscurity Quotes - Page 4

• The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

  Quintilian

  Proportion, Incapacity

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• It is better to be famous than notorious, but better to be notorious than obscure.

  James Kern Feibleman

  Obscure, Notorious

  James Kern Feibleman (1978). “New proverbs for our day”, Horizon House Pubs

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• Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Home, Men, Play

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.150, 谷月社

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• Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.

  Plutarch

  Balance, Contentment, Care

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• Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Incompetence, Refuge

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.305, Penguin

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• "Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare calumniate me. Let my character and motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice.

  Robert Emmet

  Writing, Character, Men

  Speech on his trial and conviction for high treason (September, 1803); reported in "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, (p. 230), 1922.

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• The problem for most artists isn't piracy, it's obscurity.

  Tim O'Reilly

  Artist, Problem, Piracy

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• A man will work and slave in obscurity for ten years and then become famous in ten minutes.

  Robert Ripley

  Men, Years, Slave

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• The soul languishing in obscurity contracts a kind of rust, or abandons itself to the chimera of presumption; for it is natural for it to acquire something, even when separated from any one.

  Quintilian

  Soul, Rust, Kind

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• Obscurity, indeed, is painful to the mind as well as to the eye; but to bring light from obscurity, by whatever labour, must needsbe delightful and rejoicing.

  David Hume

  Eye, Light, Mind

  David Hume (2012). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.15, tredition

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• I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.

  Alec Guinness

  Trying, Lasts, Realizing

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• Obscurity is a bigger problem than money.

  Grant Cardone

  Problem, Bigger Problems, Bigger

  Twitter post from Aug 26, 2011

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• Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.

  Austin Kleon

  Lasts, Enjoy

  Austin Kleon (2012). “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative”, p.78, Workman Publishing

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• Maybe some people are better off in obscurity than trying to keep on expanding.

  Erika M. Anderson

  People, Trying, Expanding

  Source: thequietus.com

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• If I am ever obscure in my expressions, do not fancy that therefore I am deep. If I were really deep, all the world would understand, though they might not appreciate. The perfectly popular style is the perfectly scientific one. To me an obscurity is a reason for suspecting a fallacy.

  Charles Kingsley

  Expression, Appreciate, Style

  Charles Kingsley (1877). “Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life”, p.56

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• Obscurity is dispelled by augmenting the light of discernment, not by attacking the darkness.

  Socrates

  Light, Darkness, Attacking

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• I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found. I, the Lord, speak only what is true and declare only what is right.

  Isaiah

  Dark, Israel, People

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• To crave wealth and honor, to demand power, to pile up riches, to gather all those vanities which seem to make for pomp and empty display, that is our furious passion and our unbounded desire.On the other hand, we fear and abhor poverty, obscurity, and humility, and we seek to avoid them by all possible means.

  John Calvin

  Mean, Humility, Passion

  John Calvin (2004). “Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life”, p.41, Baker Books

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• As the idea imparted by the term Cataclysm, Catastrophe, or Revolution, is extremely vague, and may comprehend any thing you choose to imagine, it answers for the time very well as an explanation; that is, it stops further inquiry. But it also has had the disadvantage of effectually stopping the advance of science, by involving it in obscurity and confusion.

  George Julius Poulett Scrope

  Science, Ideas, Imagination

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• Men seek fame and high places only to learn that they were happier in obscurity

  Vance Havner

  Christian, Men, Fame

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• Nothing helps an artist's career more than a little death and obscurity.

  Dan Simmons

  Art, Careers, Littles

  Dan Simmons (2014). “The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion”, p.733, Spectra

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• Three hundred men, who all know each other direct the economic destinies of the Continent and they look for successors among their friends and relations. This is not the place to examine the strange causes of this strange state of affairs which throws a ray of light on the obscurity of our social future.

  Walther Rathenau

  Destiny, Men, Light

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• A government official is a man who has risen from obscurity to something worse.

  Pat Robertson

  Men, Risen, Officials

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• It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code... obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Artist, Use, Language

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• I shall devote all my efforts to bring light into the immense obscurity that today reigns in Analysis. It so lacks any plan or system, that one is really astonished that there are so many people who devote themselves to it - and, still worse, it is absolutely devoid of any rigor.

  Niels Henrik Abel

  Light, People, Effort

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