Utility Quotes

• Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Positive, Business

  "Geek mythology and Nikola Tesla" by Rebekah Higgitt, www.theguardian.com. August 20, 2012.

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• I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of time.

  Robert Browning

  Trust, Time, Spring

  Robert Browning, John Woolford, Daniel Karlin (1991). “The Poems of Browning: 1841-1846”, p.192, Pearson Education

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• Utility is a metaphysical concept of impregnable circularity; utility is the quality in commodities that makes individuals want to buy them, and the fact that individuals want to buy commodities shows that they have utility.

  Joan Robinson

  Quality, Circularity, Want

  Joan Robinson (1962). “Economic philosophy”, p.47, Transaction Publishers

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• Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

  Karl Marx

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Objects

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.462, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.

  Vannevar Bush

  Simple, Men, Understanding

  "Science is Not Enough" by Vannevar Bush, Ch. X, (p. 191), 1967.

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• One of the peculiarities of economics is that it still rests on a behavioral assumption-rational utility maximization-that has long since been rejected by sociologists and psychologists.

  Lester Thurow

  Long, Assumption, Economics

  Lester C. Thurow (1984). “Dangerous currents: the state of economics”, Vintage

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• Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to live in.

  Emma Goldman

  Beautiful, Strong, Real

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.37, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• People tend to be clueless about prices. Contrary to economic theory, we don't really decide between A and B by consulting our invisible price tags and purchasing the one that yields the higher utility, he says. We make do with guesstimates and a vague recollection of what things are “supposed to cost.”

  William Poundstone

  Clueless, Price Tag, Yield

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• The assumption that individuals act objectively in accordance with purely mathematical dictates to maximize their gain or utility cannot be sustained by empirical observation.

  Richard Arnold Epstein

  Gains, Assumption, Individual

  "The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic". Book by Richard Arnold Epstein, 1977.

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• Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage.

  Daniel Gilbert

  Psychologist, Economist

  Daniel Gilbert (2006). “Stumbling on Happiness”, Vintage

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• Is beauty enhanced or adulterated by utility?

  Sena Jeter Naslund

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• The true basis of morality is utility; that is, the adaptation of our actions to the promotion of the general welfare and happiness; the endeavour so to rule our lives that we may serve and bless mankind.

  Annie Besant

  May, Our Actions, Morality

  Annie Wood Besant (2011). “Annie Besant: An Autobiography”, p.154, Cambridge University Press

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• Thou shalt learn
  The wisdom early to discern
  True beauty in utility.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  True Beauty

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1848). “Poems on Slavery, Early Poems, additional Poems, and Ballads”, p.12

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• Truth and right are above utility in all realms of thought and action.

  Charles William Eliot

  Inspirational, Action, Realms

  Charles William Eliot, Harvard University (1969). “A turning point in higher education: the inaugural address of Charles William Eliot as president of Harvard College, October 19, 1869”

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• My principal work now lies in tracing out the exact nature and conditions of utility. It seems strange indeed that economists have not bestowed more minute attention on a subject which doubtless furnishes the true key to the problems of economics.

  William Stanley Jevons

  Lying, Keys, Attention

  William Stanley Jevons (1871). “The Theory of Political Economy”, p.51

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• Bernoulli's real contribution was to coin a word. The word has been translated into English as "utility". It describes this subjective value people place on money.

  William Poundstone

  Real, People, Coins

  William Poundstone (2010). “Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street”, p.184, Macmillan

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• Utility is the emotion pleading to be let into the house of pure reason and thereby enriching it.

  Dennis Lindley

  House, Emotion, Reason

  "Understanding Uncertainty". Book by Dennis Lindley (Chapter 2 "Stylistic Questions", p. 20), 2006.

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• All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.

  Zhuangzi

  Men, Useful Things, Futility

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• Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none.

  Doug Larson

  Work, Two, Luxury

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• Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The 'unquality' things are what cost money.

  Phil Crosby

  Money, Business, Effectiveness

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• Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

  Mortimer Adler

  True Love, Love Is, Giving

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• Nearly all of our existing power sources are generators which use a heat cycle. This includes our coal, oil, and gas fired utilities, our automobiles, trucks, and trains, and even our nuclear fission utility power plants.

  Wilson Greatbatch

  Oil, Nuclear, Coal

  Wilson Greatbatch (2000). “The Making of the Pacemaker: Celebrating a Lifesaving Invention”

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• Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Birthday, Power, Idols

  Friedrich Schiller (2012). “On the Aesthetic Education of Man”, p.26, Courier Corporation

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• Repeated reflection and inquiry have led me to the somewhat novel opinion, that value depends entirely upon utility.

  William Stanley Jevons

  Reflection, Inquiry, Opinion

  William Stanley Jevons (1970). “The Theory of Political Economy”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Government, Two

  An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation ch. 1 (1789)

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