Useless Quotes - Page 9

• Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves there are men who prefer honour to life.

  James G. Frazer

  Sacrifice, Men, Prove

  "The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion". Book by James G. Frazer, 1890.

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• The Athenians regularly maintained a number of degraded and useless beings at the public expense; and when any calamity, such as plague, drought, or famine, befell the city, they sacrificed two of these outcast scapegoats.

  James G. Frazer

  Cities, Two, Numbers

  "The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion". Book by James G. Frazer, 1890.

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• I have done no passably decent job in this world which did not at first seem to me useless - absurdly useless, useless to the point of nausea. My secret demon is called:;: What's the use?

  Georges Bernanos

  Jobs, Secret, Use

  Georges Bernanos (1938). “A Diary of My Times”

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• The only thing not worth destroying is science. That would be useless. Science is unchangeable, and if you destroyed it today, it would rise up again the same as before.

  Leonid Andreyev

  Today, Would Be, Destroying

  Leonid Andreyev (1914). “Savva: The Life of Man : Two Plays ...”

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• Any musician who has not experienced - I do not say understood, but truly experienced - the necessity of dodecaphonic music is USELESS. For his whole work is irrelevant to the needs of his epoch.

  Pierre Boulez

  Musician, Needs, Music Is

  "Éventuellement... (Possibly...)". Essay by Pierre Boulez (1952) published in his book "Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship" (p. 133), 1991.

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• We don't go to school to learn, but to be soaked in the prejudices of our class, without which we should be useless and unhappy.

  Andre Maurois

  School, Class, Unhappy

  "The Silence of Colonel Bramble". Book by André Maurois, 1918.

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• There are only two perfectly useless things in this world. One is an appendix and the other is Poincaré.

  Georges Clemenceau

  Useless Things, Two, World

  "Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World". Book by Margaret MacMillan, p. 33, 2003.

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• The discussion of the game of marbles seems to have led us into rather deep waters. But in the eyes of children the history of the game of marbles has quite as much importance as the history of religion or of forms of government. It Is a history, moreover, that is magnificently spontaneous; and it was therefore perhaps not entirely useless to seek to throw light on the child's judgment of moral value by a preliminary study of the social behaviour of children amongst themselves.

  Jean Piaget

  Children, Eye, Deep Water

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• The economic and social theories used by those who take part in the social struggle ought to be judged not by their objective value but primarily for their effectiveness in arousing emotions. The scientific refutation of them which can be made is useless, however correct it may be objectively.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Struggle, Effectiveness, May

  Vilfredo Pareto (1971). “Manual of political economy”, Augustus m Kelley Pubs

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• Shall this nectar Run useless, then, to waste? or ... these lips, That open like the morn, breathing perfumes, On such as dare approach them, be untouch'd? They must--nay, 'tis in vain to make resistance-- Be often kissed and tasted.

  Philip Massinger

  Running, Breathing, Waste

  Philip Massinger, John Ferriar (1813). “The Plays of Philip Massinger: The bondman. The renegado. The parliament of love. The Roman actor. The great Duke of Florence”, p.265

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• My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded. I have been ahead of my time.

  Robert Owen

  Understanding, Important, World

  Deathbed statement in November 1858. "A History of British Socialism". Book by Max Beer, Volume 2, 2001.

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• In my better moments, I think of apathy as purpose's sleep. In my worse moments, when I'm trying to fix it or get rid of it, I call it feeling lazy, depressed, or useless.

  Dawna Markova

  Sleep, Thinking, Feelings

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• For a woman as for a man, marriage might enormously help or devastatingly hinder the growth of her power to contribute something impersonally valuable to the community in which she lived, but it was not that power, and could not be regarded as an end in itself. Nor, even, were children ends in themselves; it was useless to go on producing human beings merely in order that they, in their sequence, might produce others, and never turn from this business of continuous procreation to the accomplishment of some definite and lasting piece of work.

  Vera Brittain

  Children, Men, Order

  Vera Brittain (2009). “Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study Of The Years 1900-1925”, p.408, Hachette UK

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• Those who believe that... detailed rules originate in a certain cause, are as far from the truth as those who assume that the whole law is useless.

  Maimonides

  Believe, Law, Causes

  Moses Maimonides (2016). “Guide for the perplexed”, p.1172, Moses Maimonides

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• What on earth is modern exegesis up to? Oh, little lazy one! Some red wine and up! Off you go, brandishing your fork, stripped of Ophelia's useless ornaments, fire in your large nostrils, out to rake the muck of metaphors.

  Louis Aragon

  Wine, Fire, Lazy

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• The ignorant are like useless, brackish soil;
  They exist and that is all.

  Thiruvalluvar

  Ignorant, Soil

  "Tirukkural". Book by Thiruvalluvar, 1840.

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• Protestations of impartiality I shall make none. Theyare always useless and are besides perfect nonsense, when used bya news-monger.

  William Cobbett

  Perfect, News, Nonsense

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• The greatest missile in the world is useless ... unless it's targeted. A torpedo is adrift unless it has someplace to go. An arrow is pointless unless it hits something. So it's important for kids--for everyone, even if you fail at first--to target something and head in that direction. With all your might.

  Tim Allen

  Kids, Arrows, Important

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• I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.

  Howard Zinn

  Powerful, Ideas, Roots

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• Guilt is one of those useless emotions I refuse to indulge.

  Rosemary Daniell

  Guilt, Emotion, Refuse

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• It seems that bad advice that's fun will always be better known than than good advice that's dull-no matter how useless that fun advice is.

  Scott Berkun

  Fun, Advice, Dull

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• Knowing what to do is useless without the emotional strength to do what you know.

  Keith Raniere

  Emotional, Knowing, Knows

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• Guilt at least has a purpose; it tells us we've violated some ethical code. Ditto for remorse. Those feelings are educational; they manufacture wisdom. But regret-regret is useless.

  Daniel Smith

  Regret, Educational, Feelings

  Daniel Smith (2013). “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• The wise screen writer is he who wears his second-best suit, artistically speaking, and doesn't take things too much to heart.  He should have a touch of cynicism, but only a touch. The complete cynic is as useless to Hollywood as he is to himself.  He should do the best he can without straining at it.  He should be scrupulously honest about his work, but he should not expect scrupulous honesty in return.  He won't get it.  And when he has had enough, he should say goodbye with a smile, because for all he knows he may want to go back.

  Raymond Chandler

  Wise, Goodbye, Honesty

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• To not be self-conscious of your appearance is huge, and something that I desperately hope to carry into film at some point in my useless life - to not be thinking, "My ear looks weird from this angle, why is the camera over there?"

  Anna Kendrick

  Thinking, Useless Life, Self

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. October 7, 2011.

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