Rarity Quotes

• Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.

  Walter Bagehot

  Inspirational, Progress, Poison

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.74

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• Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration.

  Apuleius

  Winning, Admiration, Contempt

  "On the God of Socrates". Ch. 4,

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• The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as a trade secret of Paleontology. Evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Data, Tree, Secret

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• Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical, perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical forces.

  Hannah Arendt

  Love, Peace, Powerful

  Hannah Arendt (2013). “The Human Condition: Second Edition”, p.242, University of Chicago Press

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• Marry for Love, an Heroick Action, which makes a mighty noise in the World, partly because of its rarity, and partly in regard of its extravagancy.

  Mary Astell

  World, Noise, Action

  Mary Astell, Patricia Springborg (1996). “Astell: Political Writings”, p.41, Cambridge University Press

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• Rare is the union of beauty and purity.

  Juvenal

  Beauty, Beautiful, Rome

  "Satires". Book by Juvenal, X, line 297, 1890.

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• Friends are those rare people who ask how we are, and then wait to hear the answer.

  Ed Cunningham

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• Danger and anger are everywhere. Love is the rarity, the gem buried in the core of the mine, the outpost of God.

  Tanith Lee

  Love Is, Danger, Buried

  Tanith Lee (2005). “Metallic Love”, p.124, Spectra

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• Genius, like gold and precious stones,
  is chiefly prized because of its rarity.

  Mark Twain

  Precious Stones, Gold, Genius

  Mark Twain, “Genius”

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• I think my mistakes were kind of common - leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days.

  Dick Schaap

  Mistake, Writing, Thinking

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• Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce.

  Plutarch

  Wisdom, Men, Politics

  Plutarch (2015). “Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans: Top Biography”, p.504, 谷月社

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• Photography, when used as a representational art, is not a mere copy of nature. This is proved by the rarity of the 'good' photograph.

  Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

  Photography, Art, Used

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• A self made man is a rarity and hated by the parasites that floated to fame thought their parents, relatives and contacts.

  Al Goldstein

  Men, Self, Parent

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• Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Goodness, Difficulty, Reports

  Michel de Montaigne (1903*). “Essays of Montaigne”

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• Beauty has no relation to price, rarity, or age.

  John Cotton

  Beauty, Age, Relation

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• While a forgery illegally exploits the elitist taste for rarity, a kitsch object insists on its anti elitist availability. The deceptive character of kitsch does not lie in whatever it may have in common with actual forgery but in its claim to supply its consumers with essentially the same kinds and qualities of beauty as those embodied in unique or rare and inaccessible originals.

  Matei Calinescu

  Lying, Character, Unique

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• Simultaneous discovery is utterly commonplace, and it was only the rarity of scientists, not the inherent improbability of the phenomenon, that made it remarkable in the past. Scientists on the same road may be expected to arrive at the same destination, often not far apart.

  Peter Medawar

  Science, Past, Discovery

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.49, Oxford University Press, USA

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• If refined sense, and exalted sense, be not so useful as common sense, their rarity, their novelty, and the nobleness of their objects, make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind.

  David Hume

  Common Sense, Novelty, Admiration

  David Hume, J. B. Schneewind (1983). “An Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals”, p.56, Hackett Publishing

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• When I consider how little of a rarity children are -- that every street and blind alley swarms with them -- that the poorest people commonly have them in most abundance -- that there are few marriages that are not blest with at least one of these bargains -- how often they turn out ill, and defeat the fond hopes of their parents, taking to vicious courses, which end in poverty, disgrace, the gallows, etc. -- I cannot for my life tell what cause for pride there can possibly be in having them.

  Charles Lamb

  Children, Pride, People

  Charles Lamb (1869). “The Essays of Elia and Eliana”, p.133

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• Virtuosi have been long remarked to have little conscience in their favorite pursuits. A man will steal a rarity who would cut off his hand rather than take the money it is worth. Yet, in fact, the crime is the same.

  Horace

  Cutting, Men, Hands

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• But our perfect democracy, which neither needs nor particularly wants voters, is a rarity. It is important to remember there still exist many other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign governments still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them.

  Jon Stewart

  Government, Long, Perfect

  "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction". Book by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, 2004.

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• Bands don't last. Bands don't last forever - it's a rarity when they do.

  Jerry Cantrell

  Forever, Band, Lasts

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• Hey, every once in awhile the secondary form works better than the original but it's certainly a rarity.

  Jaime Hernandez

  Hey, Form, Originals

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• Brian Auger is a superb technician on his instrument, but he also plays with feeling that is a rarity. I am looking forward in recording with him in the near future.

  Eddie Harris

  Play, Feelings, Looking Forward

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• I'm sure a handful of people can relate to that experience of having some kind of romantic encounter - the event of love - which they just can't shake. They take it with them, despite their own desire, and it continually haunts them, and there's nothing to be done about it. That's a true rarity.

  John Maus

  People, Desire, Encounters

  Interview with Jenn Pelly, pitchfork.com. August 10, 2012.

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