Useless Quotes - Page 32

Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them.

Plato

Plato, Lying, Men

Plato (1977). “The Portable Plato”, p.223, Penguin

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Over fertilized plants may be beautiful but are otherwise useless, like people whose energies are devoted so completely to their appearance that there is no other development.

William F. Longgood

Beauty, Beautiful, People

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For soon the body is discarded, Then what does it feel? A useless log of wood, it lies on the ground, Then what does it know? Your worst enemy cannot harm you As much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, No one can help you as much, Not even your father or your mother.

Gautama Buddha

Mother, Lying, Father

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Even if their child is useless, parents will not find them shameful. But if you're an outstanding child, you don't have the right to find your parents shameful.

Seo Won

Children, Drama, Parent

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The relation of patience to iman is like the relation of the head to the body. If the head is chopped off, the body becomes useless. Then he raised his voice and said: Certainly, the one who has no patience has no iman, and patience is like a riding-beast that nevers gets tired

Ali ibn Abi Talib

Wisdom, Islamic, Tired

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In cities it is useless to look at the stars or to describe them, worship them, or seek direction from them. When lost, one should follow the tracks of the camels.

Rawi Hage

Stars, Lost Ones, Cities

Rawi Hage (2013). “Carnival: A Novel”, p.131, W. W. Norton & Company

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Think of yourselves as a hand. Each of you is a finger, and without the others you're useless. Alone, a finger can't grasp, or control, or form a fist. You are nothing on your own, and everything together.

Karen Traviss

Thinking, Hands, Together

Karen Traviss (2011). “Hard Contact: Star Wars Legends (Republic Commando)”, p.58, Del Rey

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People in suburbia see trees differently than foresters do. They cherish every one. It is useless to speak of the probability that a certain tree will die when the tree is in someone's backyard . . . . You are talking about a personal asset, a friend, a monument, not about board feet of lumber.

Roger Swain

Talking, Feet, People

Roger B. Swain (1983). “Field days: journal of an itinerant biologist”, Macmillan Reference USA

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Gimme a couple G's for every emcee I knocked to his knees.
Verbally useless, 'Oh you got the juice?' I squeeze you juiceless.

Kurupt

Couple, Rap, Hip Hop

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I know of no crime that has not been defended by the church, in one form or other. The church is not a pioneer; it accepts a new truth, last of all, and only when denial has become useless.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Religion, Church, Pioneers

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2699, Library of Alexandria

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I actually think the whole concept of retirement is a bit stupid, so yes, I do want to do something else. There is this strange thing that just because chronologically on a Friday night you have reached a certain age... with all that experience, how can it be that on a Monday morning, you are useless?

Stuart Rose

Friday, Retirement, Monday

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That which is useless dies. Animals that fail to serve some useful purpose in the scheme of things slowly but surely become extinct. Let any part of the human body cease to perform its ordained function, and it withers-as when an arm is kept long in a sling. This same decree, that nothing useless is permitted to survive, runs through the mind of the industrial world.

B. C. Forbes

Running, Failure, Animal

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The inlet of a man's mind is what he learns; the outlet is what he accomplishes. If his mind is not fed by a continued supply of new ideas which he puts to work with purpose, and if there is no outlet in action, his mind becomes stagnant. Such a mind is a danger to the individual who owns it and is useless to the community.

Jeremiah Jenks

Work, Men, Ideas

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I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you're older, I think, is that ... you really must make the self. It is absolutely useless to look for it, you won't find it, but it's possible in some sense to make it. I don't mean in the sense of making a mask, a Yeatsian mask. But you finally begin in some sense to make and choose the self you want.

Mary McCarthy

Mean, Thinking, Self

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Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all ends and purposes and intentions.

Fernando Pessoa

Beautiful, Art, Purpose

Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith (1996). “Book of Disquietude”, Carcanet Press Limited

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Most people stiffen with self-consciousness when they pose for a photograph. Lighting and fine camera equipment are useless if the photographer cannot make them drop the mask, at least for a moment, so he can capture on his film their real, undistorted personality and character.

Philippe Halsman

Real, Character, Self

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Look at the evils of the world around you and protect yourself from them. Our teachers give all the wrong messages to our youth, since they take away the natural flare from the soul. Take it from me that all knowledge is useless until it is connected with your life, because the purpose of knowledge is nothing but to show you the splendors of yourself!

Muhammad Iqbal

Teacher, Evil, Giving

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Many armies fail because they put all their emphasis into creating a plan that becomes useless ten minutes into the battle

Chip Heath

Army, Creating, Battle

Chip Heath, Dan Heath (2008). “Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck”, p.26, Random House

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What really matters in life is that we are loved by Christ and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Jesus, everything else is secondary. And, without the love of Jesus, everything is useless.

Pope John Paul II

Love, Life, Religious

Pope John Paul II (1979). “Pilgrim of Peace: The Homilies and Addresses of His Holiness Pope John Paul II on the Occasion of His Visit to the United States of America”

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Love from its very nature must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would render it constant would be as wild a search as for the philosopher’s stone or the grand panacea: and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Discovery, Secret, Would Be

Mary Wollstonecraft (2015). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.40, Booklassic

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What, or who, led you to take up photography, and about what date ?
George Bernard Shaw – I always wanted to draw and paint. I had no literary ambition. I aspired to be a Michelangelo, not a Shakespeare. But I could not draw well enough to satisfy myself; and the instruction I could get was worse than useless. So when dry plates and push buttons came into the market I bought a box camera and began pushing the button. It was in 1898.

George Bernard Shaw

Photography, Ambition, Buttons

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Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless?

Carlos Castaneda

Knowing, Kind, Don Juan

Carlos Castaneda (1972). “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge”, p.9, Univ of California Press

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What is the use of voting? We know that the machines of both parties are subsidized by the same persons, and therefore it is useless to turn in either direction.

Woodrow Wilson

Party, Voting, Machines

Woodrow Wilson, Ronald J. Pestritto (2005). “Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings”, p.115, Lexington Books

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In the end, there is no ideal condition for creativity. What works for one person is useless for another. The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself. Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down. It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it. To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that's habit-forming. All preferred working states, no matter how eccentric, have one thing in common: When you enter into them, they compel you to get started.

Twyla Tharp

Creativity, Wrestling, Creative

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But the most wretched thing, is it not-is to drag out, as I do, a useless existence. If our pains were only of some use to someone, we should find consolation in the thought of the sacrifice.

Gustave Flaubert

Pain, Sacrifice, Use

Gustave Flaubert (2015). “Greatest Works of Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary, Senitmental Education, November, A Simple Heart, Herodias and more”, p.193, e-artnow

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