Excess Quotes - Page 8

• Moral virtue is ... a mean between two vices, that of excess and that of defect, and ... it is no small task to hit the mean in each case, as it is not, for example, any chance comer, but only the geometer, who can find the center of a given circle.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Two, Circles

  Aristotle (1869). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle”, p.56

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• Dynamic ecstasy is absolute romanticism , absolute heroism . And here I return to my point. From my point of view, after the catastrophe which we feel and think is universal, a catastrophe resulting from an excess of useless dynamism of useless progress, of useless realism, of useless technology, after this an unattainable democracy is to be reached through the conception and realization of a new romanticism.

  Juan Ramon Jimenez

  Technology, Thinking, Views

  "Heroic Reason" by Juan Ramon Jimenez (p. 231), 1957.

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• Wretched excess is an unfortunate human trait that turns a perfectly good idea such as Christmas into a frenzy of last-minute shopping.

  Jon Anderson

  Christmas, Perfectly Good, Shopping

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• As many people die from an excess of timidity as from bravery.

  Norman Mailer

  Fear, People, Bravery

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• I am in Rome! Oft as the morning ray Visits these eyes, waking at once I cry, Whence this excess of joy? What has befallen me? And from within a thrilling voice replies, Thou art in Rome! A thousand busy thoughts Rush on my mind, a thousand images; And I spring up as girt to run a race!

  Samuel Rogers

  Running, Morning, Art

  Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, James Montgomery, Charles Lamb, Henry Kirke White (1830). “The poetical works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lamb, and Kirke White: complete in one volume”, p.70

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• We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.

  William James

  Believe, Fighting, Fire

  William James (1985). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.284, Harvard University Press

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• Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities his preeminence over them simply and solely in the number and in the fantastic and unnecessary character of his wants, physical, moral, aesthetic, and intellectual. Had his whole life not been a quest for the superfluous, he would never have established himself as inexpugnably as he has done in the necessary.

  William James

  Lying, Character, Men

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.83, 谷月社

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• The supply of good fellows is by no means in excess of the demand. A man has only to hoist the flag of hospitality to insure a very considerable amount of custom.

  Robert Smith Surtees

  Mean, Men, Flags

  Robert Smith Surtees (1930). “The novels of R.S. Surtees”

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• Following the Romanian tradition, garlic is used in excess to keep the vampires away.

  Calvin Trillin

  Vampire, Garlic, Tradition

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• Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

  Tim Ferriss

  Men, Data, Information

  "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich". Book by Timothy Ferriss, 2007.

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• Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Optimism, Dinosaurs

  Theodore Roosevelt (1941). “Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia”

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• Conquer with forbearance
  The excesses of insolence.

  Thiruvalluvar

  Conquer, Forbearance, Insolence

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• Do not spend in excess like one who is careless of what is good, nor be miserly; the mean is best in every case.

  Pythagoras

  Mean, Cases, Careless

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• The men of wealth who today are trying to prevent the regulation and control of their business in the interest of the public by the proper government authorities will not succeed, in my judgment, in checking the progress of the movement. But if they did succeed they would find that they had sown the wind and would surely reap the whirlwind, for they would ultimately provoke the violent excesses which accompany a reform coming by convulsion instead of by steady and natural growth.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Business, Men, Wind

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

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• That the American, by temperament, worked to excess, was true; work and whiskey were his stimulants; work was a form of vice; but he never cared much for money or power after he earned them.

  Henry Adams

  Vices, Whiskey, Form

  Henry Adams (2015). “The Education of Henry Adams”, p.292, Booklassic

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• It is difficult to say which is the greatest evil--to have too violent passions, or to be wholly devoid of them. Controlled with firmness, guided by discretion, and hallowed by the imagination, the passions are the vivifiers and quickeners of our being. Without passion there can be no energy of character. Indeed, the passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways, and dangerous only in one--through their excess.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Passion, Character, Fire

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.77

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• I've always been aware of the otherworld, of spirits that exist in that twilight place that lies in the corner of our eyes, of fairie and stranger things still that we spy only when we're not really paying attention to them, whispers and flickering shadows, here one moment, gone the instant we turn our heads for a closer look. But I couldn't always find them. And when I did, for a long time I thought they were only this excess of imagination that I carry around inside me, that somehow it was leaking out of me into the world.

  Charles de Lint

  Lying, Twilight, Eye

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• It is so very easy and so very pleasant, too, to read only books which lead to nothing, light and interesting books, and the more the better, that it is almost as difficult to wean ourselves from it as from the habit of chewing tobacco to excess, or of smoking the whole time, or of depending for stimulus upon tea or coffee or spirits.

  Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

  Coffee, Book, Light

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• We must defend freedom of expression and if I had to chose, I prefer the excess of caricature over the excess of censure.

  Nicolas Sarkozy

  Expression, Caricatures, Censure

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• In excess, most endeavors and possessions take on the characteristics of their opposite.

  Tim Ferriss

  Opposites, Characteristics, Endeavor

  "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich". Book by Timothy Ferriss, 2007.

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• An excess of science will leave none of us alive.

  R. A. Lafferty

  Alive

  "Space Chantey" by R. A. Lafferty, (Ch. 4), 1968.

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• Certainly I believe that God gave us life for happiness, not misery. Humanity, I am sure, will never be made lazy or indifferent by an excess of happiness. Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Happiness should be a means of accomplishment, like health, not an end in itself.

  Helen Keller

  Believe, Mean, Self

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• The age seems sore from excess of stimulation, just as a day or two after a thorough Debauch and long sustained Drinking-match a man feels all over like a Bruise. Even to admire otherwise than on the whole and where "I admire" is but a synonyme for "I remember, I liked it very much when I was reading it ," is too much an effort, would be too disquieting an emotion!

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Drinking, Reading, Men

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1858). “Letters, conversations, and recollections [ed. by T.Allsop].”, p.79

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• The faults of great authors are generally excellences carried to an excess.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Writing, Excellence, Faults

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2015). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria”, p.2584, e-artnow

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• [In response to Alfred Tennyson's poem "Vision of Sin," which included the line "Every moment dies a man, every moment one is born."] If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: "Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 [and] 1/16 is born." Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 [and] 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.

  Charles Babbage

  Believe, Men, Long

  New Scientist (p. 1428), December 4, 1958.

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