Unnecessary Quotes - Page 12

• The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Running, Spiritual, Pain

  Eckhart Tolle (2010). “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment”, p.33, New World Library

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• One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Military, War

  Second World War (1948) vol. 1, p. viii

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• Don't tell me what's necessary, you presumptupus pup. What's necessary is whatever I wish to do, regardless of how unnecessary it might be.

  Dean Koontz

  Wish, Pups, Might

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• Again: there is nothing inherently superior about resistance. All our claims for the righteousness of resistance rest on the rightness of the claim that the resisters are acting in the name of justice. And the justice of the cause does not depend on, and is not enhanced by, the virtue of those who make the assertion. It depends first and last on the truth of a description of a state of affairs that is, truly, unjust and unnecessary.

  Susan Sontag

  Names, Justice, Acting

  Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.184, Macmillan

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• All I have left is my anger at the foolishness of the world. The unnecessary cruelties, the pomposity and vanity of people who should know better. Most of the time I just want to shake some sense into the world.

  Stephen Hunt

  Vanity, People, World

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• If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

  Maya Angelou

  Girl, Growing Up, Southern

  1969 I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, opening section.

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• dating you would be like a series of unnecessary root canals interspersed with occasional makeout sessions.

  John Green

  Roots, Dating, Would Be

  John Green, David Levithan (2010). “Will Grayson, Will Grayson”, p.85, Penguin

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• You of all beings know how fate works. What happened to you as a human happened because everyone from your parents on down tried to circumvent what was supposed to be – which ultimately was the destruction of the Atlantean pantheon. There was no changing that prophecy. But the way you suffered was completely unnecessary. Had your parents embraced their true destiny, you would have been saved years of torment. Fate will not be denied. We can sculpt it, but in the end we’re all pawns to our final destinies. Good, bad, or indifferent. (Savitar)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Fate, Destiny, Years

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• Well, Diotallevi and I are planning a reform in higher education. A School of Comparative Irrelevance, where useless or impossibe courses are given. The school's aim is to turn out scholars capable of endlessly increasing the number of unnecessary subjects.

  Umberto Eco

  School, Irrelevance, Numbers

  Umberto Eco (2007). “Foucault's Pendulum”, p.85, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Probably most catastrophes end this way without an ending, the dead not even knowing how they died...,those who loved them forever questioning "this unnecessary death," and the rest of us tiring of this inconsolable catastrophe and turning to the next one.

  Norman Maclean

  Knowing, Forever, Way

  Norman Maclean (2017). “Young Men and Fire: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition”, p.43, University of Chicago Press

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• A proper disposition of time leaves a man at leisure in the very bustle of affairs; without delaying the attention of his concerns to the last or giving them unnecessary application at first: it affords a season for everything by affording everything its proper season.

  Norm MacDonald

  Time, Men, Giving

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• You've never had a hamburger before?" asks Christine, her eyes wide. "No," I say. "Is that what it's called?" "Stiffs eat plain food," Four says, nodding at Christina. "Why?" she asks. I shrug. "Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary." She smirks. "No wonder you left." "Yeah," I say,rolling my eyes. "It was just because of the food." The corner of Four's mouth twitches.

  Veronica Roth

  Eye, Self, Rolling

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• The key to the trap is, of course, education. The feminine mystique has made higher education for women seem suspect, unnecessary and even dangerous. But I think that education, and only education, has saved, and can continue to save, American women from the greater dangers of the feminine mystique.

  Betty Friedan

  Thinking, Keys, Feminine

  betty friedan (1963). “the year's most controversial bestseller the feminine mystique”

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• It is a popular fact that nine-tenths of the brain is not used and, like most popular facts, it is wrong. Not even the most stupid Creator would go to the trouble of making the human head carry around several pounds of unnecessary gray goo if its only real purpose was, for example, to serve as a delicacy for certain remote tribesmen in unexplored valleys.

  Terry Pratchett

  Stupid, Real, Brain

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “Small Gods: (Discworld Novel 13)”, p.91, Random House

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• They spoke very little of their mutual feeling; pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends.

  Thomas Hardy

  Expression, Feelings, Phrases

  Thomas Hardy (2016). “FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (British Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel”, p.378, e-artnow

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• Meg was going to have to learn for herself what Laurie had figured out over the summer - that it was better to leave well enough alone, to avoid unnecessary encounters with the people you'd left behind, to not keep poking at that sore tooth with the tip of your tongue. Not because you didn't love them anymore, but because you did, and because that love was useless now, just another dull ache in your phantom limb.

  Tom Perrotta

  Summer, People, Encounters

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

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• It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary

  John Steinbeck

  Kindness, Men, Understanding

  John Steinbeck (1993). “Cannery Row”, p.13, Penguin

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• To say nothing of what you lose, lose, lose, are losing, man. You fool, you stupid fool ... You've even been insulated from the responsibility of genuine suffering ... Even the suffering you do endure is largely unnecessary. Actually spurious. It lacks the very basis you require of it for its tragic nature. You deceive yourself.

  Malcolm Lowry

  Stupid, Responsibility, Men

  Malcolm Lowry (2012). “Under the Volcano: A Novel”, p.317, Open Road Media

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• Discipline isn't a dirty word. Far from it. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos and anarchy. Discipline implies timing. It's the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong: with discipline, punishment is unnecessary.

  Buck Brannaman

  Dirty, Punishment, Discipline

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• Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Psychosis, Neurosis, Sin

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.106, Hachette UK

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• According to Chekhov," Tamaru said, rising from his chair, "once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired." "Meaning what?" "Meaning, don't bring unnecessary props into a story. If a pistol appears, it has to be fired at some point. Chekhov liked to write stories that did away with all useless ornamentation.

  Haruki Murakami

  Writing, Gun, Stories

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• Sometimes, the unnecessary is necessary.

  Oscar Wilde

  Sometimes

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• Then she told herself to stop her nonsense. If you looked for things to make you feel hurt and wretched and unnecessary, you were certain to find them, more easily each time, so easily, soon, that you did not even realize you had gone out searching. Women alone often developed into experts at the practice. She must never join their dismal league.

  Dorothy Parker

  Hurt, Practice, League

  Dorothy Parker (2002). “Complete Stories”, p.264, Penguin

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• I don't know many rules to live by,' he'd said. 'But here's one. It's simple. Don't put anything unnecessary into yourself. No poisons or chemicals, no fumes or smoke or alcohol, no sharp objects, no inessential needles--drug or tattoo--and...no inessential penises either.' 'Inessential penises?' Karou had repeated, delighted with the phrase in spite of her grief. 'Is there any such thing as an essential one?' 'When an essential one comes along, you'll know,' he'd replied.

  Laini Taylor

  Tattoo, Grief, Simple

  Laini Taylor (2011). “Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy”, p.21, Hachette UK

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• The phytochemicals, antioxidants, and fiber- all of the healthful components of plant foods- originate in plants, not animals. If they are present, it is because the animal ate plants. And why should we go through an animal to get the benefits of the plants themselves? To consume unnecessary, unseemly, and unhealthy substances, such as saturated fat, animal protein, lactose, and dietary cholesterol, is to negate the benefits of the fiber, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are prevalent and inherent in plants.

  Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

  Animal, Substance, Benefits

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