Unnecessary Quotes - Page 9

• Michael Ondaatje’s work taught me how to be at home in fragments, and how to think about a big story in carefully curated vignettes. All his books were odd, all of them ‘unfinished’ the way Chopin’s Études are unfinished: no wasted gestures, no unnecessary notes.

  Amitava Kumar

  Book, Home, Thinking

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• We . . . must try to live without causing unnecessary harm, not just to fellow humans but to all beings. We must try not to be stingy, or to exploit others. There will be enough pain in the world as it is.

  Gary Snyder

  Pain, Trying, World

  Gary Snyder (2010). “The Practice of the Wild”, p.4, Counterpoint Press

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• The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Government

  "Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources". Book by James Wood, 1899.

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• A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the process, because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him.

  George Orwell

  Fear, Stupid, People

  George Orwell (2012). “Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.86, Lulu.com

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• It is my art. I am better at it than I ever was. And I will do it as long as I can. When you reach a certain age you can slough off what is unnecessary and concentrate on what is. And why not?

  Arthur Miller

  Art, Writing, Long

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• I write every paragraph four times - once to get my meaning down, once to put in anything I have left out, once to take out anything that seems unnecessary, and once to make the whole thing sound as if I had only just thought of it.

  Margery Allingham

  Writing, Sound, Four

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• And though it be their sin and vanity that is the cause, it is nevertheless your sin to be the unnecessary occasion: for you must consider that you live among diseased souls. And you must not lay a stumblingblock in their way, nor blow up the fire of their lust, nor make your ornaments their snares; but you must walk among sinful persons, as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder; or else you may see the flame which you would not foresee, when it is too late to quench it.

  Richard Baxter

  Block, Blow, Fire

  "The Christian directory".

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• I'm afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn't fit that will become unnecessary

  David Byrne

  Triumph, World, Fit

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• Most troubles are unnecessary. We have Nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just for pleasure--wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-disputes.

  Sinclair Lewis

  War, Race, Hatred

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.143, Penguin

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• Caring for children is a dance between setting appropriate limits as caretakers and avoiding unnecessary power struggles that result in unhappiness.

  Charlotte Sophia Kasl

  Inspirational, Dance, Children

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• Bravely you jog along with the rope of class distinction drawing closer, close, tighter, tighter around you... I see it and know it, but I cannot help you... I am only an unnecessary, little, bush commoner, I am only a - woman.

  Miles Franklin

  Art, Women, Class

  Miles Franklin (2009). “My Brilliant Career”, p.463, The Floating Press

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• Kindness, as we will see, has many facets. But its essence is as simple as can be. We will find that kindness is a way of making _less_ effort. It is the most economic attitude there is, because it saves us much energy that we might otherwise waste in suspicion, worry, resentment, manipulation, or unnecessary defense. It is an attitude that, by eliminating the inessential, brings us back to the simplicity of being.

  Piero Ferrucci

  Attitude, Kindness, Simple

  Piero Ferrucci (2007). “The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life”, p.26, Penguin

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• Its avowed purpose is to excite sexual desire, which, I should have thought, is unnecessary in the case of the young, inconvenient in the case of the middle aged, and unseemly in the old.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Sex, Should Have, Desire

  Malcolm Muggeridge, Ian Hunter (2003). “The Very Best of Malcolm Muggeridge”, p.75, Regent College Publishing

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• Over and above the political, economic, sociological, and international implications of racial prejudices, their major significance is that they place unnecessary burdens upon human beings.

  Kenneth Clark

  Justice, Diversity, Political

  Kenneth B. Clark (1988). “Prejudice and Your Child”, p.37, Wesleyan University Press

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• The war against Iraq is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, purpose and motives, the worst war in American history... Our military men and women...were not called to defend America but rather to attack Iraq. They were not called to die for, but rather to kill for, their country. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters...?

  William Sloane Coffin

  Daughter, Country, Military

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• I got mouths to feed,
  Unnecessary beef is more cows to breed.

  GZA

  Rap, Hip Hop, Beef

  Song: 4th Chamber, Album: Liquid Swords

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• In this most powerful nation in the world, lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments, companies and workers into bankruptcy, while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

  John Conyers

  Powerful, Government, World

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• I attribute much of my success in New York to my ability to understand and avoid unnecessary distractions.

  Derek Jeter

  New York, Distraction, Attributes

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• In the realm of Nature there is nothing purposeless, trivial, or unnecessary

  Maimonides

  Realms

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• Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as 'unnecessary.' For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day; children being used as soldiers, abused and killed in armed conflicts; and children being bought and sold in that terrible form of modern slavery which is human trafficking, which is a crime against humanity.

  Pope Francis

  Inspiring, Wise, Children

  Pope Francis' 'State Of The World' Address To Diplomatic Corps, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 13, 2014.

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• I hate war, and I hate having to struggle. I honestly do because I wish I had been born into a world where it was unnecessary. This context of struggle and being a warrior and being a struggler has been forced on me by oppression. Otherwise I would be a sculptor, or a gardener, carpenter - You know, I would be free to be so much more… I guess part of me or a part of who I am, a part of what I do is being a warrior - a reluctant warrior, a reluctant struggler. But I do it, because I’m committed to life.

  Assata Shakur

  Hate, War, Struggle

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• When spiritual seeking becomes too complicated, its exercies too elaborated, its doctrines too esoteric, it becomes also too artificial and the resulting achievements too fabricated. It is the beginners and intermediates who carry this heavy and unnecessary burden, who involve themselves to the point of becoming neurotics.

  Paul Brunton

  Spiritual, Achievement, Beginners

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• I think a person has to believe in something,
  or search out some kind of faith;
  otherwise life is empty, nothing.
  How can you live not knowing why the cranes fly,
  why children are born, why there are stars in the sky...
  Either you know why you live,
  or it's all small, unnecessary bits.

  Sarah Ruhl

  Stars, Children, Believe

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• One should always avoid unnecessary unhappiness. Especially if one is an immortal. They taught us that in school.

  Kage Baker

  School, Taught Us, Unhappiness

  Kage Baker (2005). “In the Garden of Iden”, p.244, Macmillan

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• If we are understood, more words are unnecessary; if we are not likely to be understood, they are useless.

  Charles II of England

  Useless, Understood, Ifs

  "Hudibras" by Samuel Butler, edited by Henry George Bohn, (Part 1, Canto 1), 1859.

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