Usefulness Quotes - Page 10

• Nature admits no hierarchy of beauty or usefulness or importance.

  Stephen Fry

  Hierarchy, Importance

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• The day knowledge was preferred to wisdom and mere usefulness to beauty. . . . Only a moral revolution -- not a social or a political revolution -- only a moral revolution would lead man back to his lost truth.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Men, Political Revolution, Moral

  Simone de Beauvoir (1968). “Les Belles Images”

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• I duly acknowledge that I have gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction than are the lot of most men. Uninterrupted health, a competence for every reasonable want, usefulness to my fellow-citizens, a good portion of their esteem, no complaint against the world which has sufficiently honored me, and above all, a family which has blessed me by their affections, and never by their conduct given me a moment's pain.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pain, Blessed, Health

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• Marriage has, for its share, usefulness, justice, honour, and constancy; a stale but more durable pleasure. Love is grounded on pleasure alone, and it is indeed more gratifying to the senses, keener and more acute; a pleasure stirred and kept alive by difficulties. There must be a sting and a smart in it. It ceases to be love if it has no shafts and no fire.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Love, Marriage, Smart

  Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

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• What praise is implied in the simple epithet useful! What reproach in the contrary.

  David Hume

  Simple, Praise, Epithet

  David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.262, Simon and Schuster

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• But, in history, practical usefulness never determines the moral value of an achievement. Only the person who increases the knowledge humanity has about itself and enhances its creative consciousness permanently enriches humanity.

  Stefan Zweig

  Knowledge, Achievement, Creative

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• You will make mistakes, disappoint God and others, and have days when you wonder why God ever called you in the first place. Don’t despair! Your usefulness to God is based on His consistency, not yours. Your call is sustained by God’s faithfulness, not yours.

  Jeff Iorg

  Mistake, Consistency, Despair

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• When I read of the vain discussions of the present day about the Virgin Birth and other old dogmas which belong to the past, I feel how great the need is still of a real interest in the religion which builds up character, teaches brotherly love, and opens up to the seeker such a world of usefulness and the beauty of holiness.

  Olympia Brown

  Women, Real, Character

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• The whole land seems aroused to discussion on the province of woman, and I am glad of it. We are willing to bear the brunt of thestorm, if we can only be the means of making a break in that wall of public opinion which lies right in the way of woman's rights, true dignity, honor and usefulness.

  Angelina Grimke

  Wall, Lying, Mean

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• It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  May, Paradox, Mood

  Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.71, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

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• The enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and there is no rational explanation of it.

  Eugene Wigner

  Ontology, Logic, Mysterious

  Eugene Paul Wigner, Jagdish Mehra, Arthur S. Wightman (1997). “Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses”, p.535, Springer Science & Business Media

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• Acting is not about competing. Acting is about cooperating. Acting is about collaboration. It's about your utility, your usefulness, your capacity to add to the work that has already been done and will be done. You're just part of a team. I never feel competitive about acting.

  Harrison Ford

  Team, Acting, Done

  "Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth, Amber Heard, Lucas Till, and Director Robert Luketic Talk PARANOIA, Real-Life Parallels, and More". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. August 12, 2013.

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• By and large it is uniformly true in mathematics that there is a time lapse between a mathematical discovery and the moment when it is useful; and that this lapse of time can be anything from 30 to 100 years, in some cases even more; and that the whole system seems to function without any direction, without any reference to usefulness, and without any desire to do things which are useful.

  John von Neumann

  Years, Discovery, Desire

  "The Role of Mathematics in the Sciences and in Society". John von Neumann's address to Princeton alumni (1954) as quoted in "John von Neumann: Collected Works" edited by A. H. Taub, 1963.

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• There are so many parallels in society today [with era of J. Edgar Hoover ] that you can use, whether it's the head of a studio or the head of an organization, a major newspaper, a major factory or company, of people who stay too long, maybe, and overstay their usefulness.

  Clint Eastwood

  Organization, Long, People

  "Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio Interview, J. Edgar". MoviesOnline Interview, www.moviesonline.ca.

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• I don't really follow meditation hype. But my impression is that poor studies are cited as "proof" of meditation's benefits, findings that apply to advanced meditators are sometimes touted as accruing to beginners, and, occasionally, some benefits are simply imagined. This may be most true in the business world, where many companies are bringing in teachers who are a bit loose in their use of research as evidence for the usefulness of the method.

  Daniel Goleman

  Teacher, Meditation, World

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• Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Future, Harvest Time, Years

  W. E. B. Du Bois (1980). “Prayers for Dark People”

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• I think it is our job as poets to refuse the terms that society so often sets for usefulness. That, for instance, is what Dickinson did: she refused to be a wife, a homemaker, a standard member of her community. She knew she had to in order to have the space and time to write her poems. Thank god she said no!

  Matthew Zapruder

  Writing, Thinking, Wife

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Journalists don't sit down and think, "I'm now going to speak for the establishment." Of course not. But they internalize a whole set of assumptions, and one of the most potent assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity. This leads journalists to make a distinction between people who matter and people who don't matter.

  John Pilger

  Thinking, People, Humanity

  Source: progressive.org

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• In the early West, law and politics were parallel roads to usefulness as well as distinction.

  John George Nicolay

  Law, West, Distinction

  John George Nicolay (1922). “A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: a History ...”, p.183, Library of Alexandria

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• If you're not doing something with your life, then it doesn’t matter how long you live. If you're doing something with your life, then it doesn't matter how short your life may be. A life is not measured by years lived, but by its usefulness. If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging, and adding value to others, then you're living a life that counts!

  John C. Maxwell

  Years, Long, Giving

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• The practice of medicine will be very much as you make it - to one a worry, a care, a perpetual annoyance; to another, a daily job and a life of as much happiness and usefulness as can well fall to the lot of man, because it is a life of self-sacrifice and of countless opportunities to comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise up those that fall.

  William Osler

  Jobs, Fall, Sacrifice

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• Each piece of dialogue MUST be "something happening". . .The "amusing" for its OWN sake should above all be censored. . .The functional use of dialogue for the plot must be the first thing in the writer's mind. Where functional usefulness cannot be established, dialogue must be left out.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Mind, Pieces, Sake

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• The larger the mass of collected things, the less will be their usefulness. Therefore, one should not only strive to assemble new goods from everywhere, but one must endeavor to put in the right order those that one already possesses.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Order, Strive, Should

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• Happiness is normally the prime search of every rational human being. One way to derive increasing happiness during the year we have just entered is to strive diligently to promote the happiness of others, to think of them first, yourself second. Happiness is the greatest tonic, the greatest elixir, of all. Worry is among the worst poisons. One sensible New Year resolution: I will do my utmost to have consideration for others, to exercise usefulness, to radiate happiness, to conquer worrying over things I cannot possibly remedy.

  B. C. Forbes

  Happiness, New Year, Exercise

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• The WTO has outlived its usefulness as a setting for trade negotiations. It can still be a good place to resolve disputes (though this can take years) and share ideas, but most countries would be better off choosing their own trading partners and lowering trade barriers at their own pace.

  Daniel Altman

  Country, Years, Ideas

  "Why the WTO Is Obsolete". Interview with Daniel Altman, bigthink.com.

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