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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

  Voltaire

  Funny, Witty, Smart

  1736 Le Mondain.

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Eliminate the superfluous.

  Giorgio Armani

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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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• Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.

  Paulo Coelho

  Beautiful, Simplicity, Sober

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• The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.

  Horace

  Memories, Lessons, May

  Horace (1928). “Horace on the Art of Poetry: Latin Text, English Prose Translation, Introduction and Notes, Together with Ben Jonson's English Verse Rendering”

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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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• Not to give to those in need what is to you superfluous is akin to fraud.

  Saint Augustine

  Giving, Needs, Stewardship

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• Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.

  Ezra Pound

  Doe, Adjectives, Use

  Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Stalling, Lucas Klein (2008). “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry: A Critical Edition”, p.9, Fordham Univ Press

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