Superficial Quotes

• Too many young folk have addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth and love.

  Cornel West

  Love, Truth, Superficial Things

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• As we get past our superficial material wants and instant gratification we connect to a deeper part of ourselves, as well as to others, and the universe.

  Judith Wright

  Past, Want, Instant Gratification

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• A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

  Nelson Mandela

  Leadership, Ideas, Knowing

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. April 2001.

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• Superficial knowledge ... is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Ignorance, Men, Superficial Knowledge

  "Reflections and Maxims". Book by Luc de Clapiers, 1746.

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• We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Views, Numbers, Errors

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.22, Publishdrive

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• If we get our self-esteem from superficial places, from our popularity, appearance, business success, financial situation, health, any of these, we will be disappointed, because no one can guarantee that we'll have them tomorrow.

  Kathy Ireland

  Self Esteem, Guarantees That, Business Success

  "Kathy Ireland: Designing Woman". Interview with Lisa Ryan, www.cbn.com.

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• We pamper the present like a spoiled child, obeying its superficial demands but ignoring its real needs.

  Robert Grudin

  Time, Children, Real

  Robert Grudin (1997). “Time and the Art of Living”, p.37, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• If we don’t want to define ourselves by things as superficial as our appearances, we’re stuck with the revolting alternative of being judged by our actions.

  Ellen DeGeneres

  Alternatives, Want, Our Actions

  Ellen Degeneres (2011). “My Point...And I Do Have One”, p.157, Bantam

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• The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done - that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Real, Character, Independence

  R. Buckminster Fuller (1982). “Critical Path”, p.61, Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

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• A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

  Thomas Paine

  Integrity, Ignorance, Character

  Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Paine and Jefferson on Liberty”, p.25, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• I am a deeply superficial person.

  Andy Warhol

  Funny, Drinking, Humor

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• To be interested solely in technique would be a very superficial thing to me.

  Andrew Wyeth

  Superficial Things, Technique, Would Be

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• I'm not a big method actor. I'm much more superficial.

  Colin Quinn

  Actors, Bigs, Method

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It is quite too common a practice, both in readers and the more superficial class of critics, to judge a book by what it is not, a matter much easier to determine than what it is.

  James Russell Lowell

  Book, Practice, Class

  Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1849). “The North American Review”, p.212

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• In modern times, what impresses one is not a simple and unassuming statement of the truth, but superficial showmanship and display.

  Nirmala Srivastava

  Love, Wisdom, Yoga

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• The story does what no theorem can quite do. It may not be "like real life" in the superficial sense: but it sets before us an image of what reality may well be like at some more central region.

  C. S. Lewis

  Real, Doe, Stories

  C. S. Lewis (2002). “Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories”, p.27, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Superficial similarities exist between Christianity and some ancient pagan religions. But careful study reveals that there are far more dissimilarities.

  Carl E. Olson

  Study, Ancient, Pagan

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• Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Long, United States, Rewards

  "The United States". The New York magazine article on November 15, 1971, reprinted in "A View from the Stands", 1986.

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• Superficial religion consists of merely believing certain truths and doing certain things....such superficial religion is rampant in the world today.

  David Platt

  Believe, World, Today

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• Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor does it call for the elimination of individual traits and peculiarities. The problem that confronts us today, and which the nearest future is to solve, is how to be one's self and yet in oneness with others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still retain one's own characteristic qualities.

  Emma Goldman

  Sex, Self, Oneness

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.143, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The feeling is often the deeper truth, the opinion the more superficial one.

  Augustus William Hare

  Feelings, Opinion, Emotion

  Julius Charles Hare, Augustus William Hare, Edward Hayes Plumptre (1871). “Guesses at Truth”, p.183

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• It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Thoughtful, Reality, Particular

  Edgar Allan Poe (2012). “Literary Theory and Criticism”, p.126, Courier Corporation

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• Art cannot result from sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects.

  Hans Hofmann

  Art, Sophisticated, Results

  Hans Hofmann, Sara T. Weeks, Bartlett H. Hayes (1967). “Search for the Real: And Other Essays”, p.40, MIT Press

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• The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Family, Happiness

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.31, First Avenue Editions

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• It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.

  Aristotle

  Grateful, Views, Agreement

  Aristotle (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)”, p.2327, Delphi Classics

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