Superfluous Quotes

• In her (nature's) inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Nature, Invention

  The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (translation by Edward MacCurdy)

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• If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.

  Will Durant

  Men, Thinking, Law

  Will Durant (2011). “Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beauty, Beautiful, Nature

  Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

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• Given that external reality is a fiction, the writer's role is almost superfluous. He does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.

  J. G. Ballard

  Writing, Reality, Doe

  "Inner Landscape". Interview with Robert Lightfoot and David Pendleton, www.jgballard.ca. October 30, 1970.

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• But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

  Edward Gibbon

  History, Instruction, Disposition

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman (1840). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.79

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• What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.

  Seneca the Younger

  Nature, Sweat, Easy

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

  Ingrid Bergman

  Love, Valentines Day, Nature

  "An Uncommon Scold". Book by Abby Adams, 1989.

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• Nothing is cheap which is superfluous, for what one does not need, is dear at a penny.

  Plutarch

  Doe, Needs, Pennies

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• Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wealth, Inequality

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, p.233, Henry David Thoreau

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• Pessimists are not boring. Pessimists are right. Pessimists are superfluous.

  Elias Canetti

  Fear, Pessimism, Boring

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• However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.

  Hans Kung

  Rights, Essence, Ethics

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• The primary, the fundamental, the essential purpose of the United Nations is to keep peace. Everything it does which helps prevent World War III is good. Everything which does not further that goal, either directly or indirectly, is at best superfluous.

  Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

  War, Goal, Essentials

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• It is the superfluous things for which men sweat.

  Seneca the Younger

  Men, Sweat, Togas

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Enormous and growing parts of the population are basically superfluous for profit-making purposes. Along with this, the jail population is increasing very rapidly; it's the highest in the industrial world by far. New and onerous crime bills are being passed to deal with this superfluous population.

  Noam Chomsky

  Jail, Population, Purpose

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• The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

  Voltaire

  Funny, Witty, Smart

  1736 Le Mondain.

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• The statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter, and removes the rubbish.

  Joseph Addison

  Art, Lying, Block

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.82

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• One day there springs up the desire for money and for all that money can provide — the superfluous, luxury in eating, luxury in dressing, trifles. Needs increase because one thing calls for another. The result is uncontrollable dissatisfaction. Let us remain as empty as possible so that God can fill us up.

  Mother Teresa

  Spring, Shopping, Luxury

  "No Greater Love, Commemorative Edition".

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• Allow not nature more than nature needs.

  William Shakespeare

  Needs, Excess, Lear

  William Shakespeare, Frank Green (2000). “King Lear”, p.111, Heinemann

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• I love him for his sake;
  And yet I know him a notorious liar,
  Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
  Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him
  That they take place when virtue's steely bones
  Looks bleak i' th' cold wind; withal, full oft we see
  Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

  William Shakespeare

  Liars, I Love Him, Thinking

  William Shakespeare, Thomas Bowdler (1850). “The Family Shakspeare, in One Volume: In which Nothing is Added to the Original Text, But Those Words and Expressions are Omitted which Cannot with Propriety be Read in a Family”, p.217

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• He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  Body, Flesh, Way

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2015). “Wifes And Daughters”, p.39, Elizabeth Gaskell

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• Whatever you teach, be brief; what is quickly said, the mind readily receives and faithfully retains, everything superfluous runs over as from a full vessel.

  Horace

  Running, Teaching, Mind

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• There were too many lemmings - that was the core of their difficulty. None wanted solitude, but a crowd of this size was a torment. Being sensitive little beasts, they became overstimulated by superfluous numbers of their own kind. They had tried to escape, but with pitiable irony, all tried to escape together.

  Sally Carrighar

  Numbers, Solitude, Together

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• When a man and a woman love one another that is enough. That is marriage. A religious rite is superfluous. And if the man and woman live together without the love, no ceremony in the world can make it a marriage.

  Mary MacLane

  Marriage, Religious, Men

  Mary MacLane (2014). “Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler”, p.38, Petrarca Press

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• I don't live in Los Angeles and I don't do a lot of superfluous press.

  Mary-Louise Parker

  Los Angeles, Presses

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• In order to be deep, we sometimes have to cut through and cut apart. That is to be seen in the common phrase, 'Cut it out!' The reason is that this thing is seen as superfluous and therefore it should be excised, as a growth, unnecessary, should be excised.

  Eli Siegel

  Cutting, Order, Understanding

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