Uselessness Quotes - Page 2

• A friend who is near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.

  George Ade

  Best Friend, Time, Funny Friend

  George Ade (1903). “People You Know”

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• The useless men are those who never change with the years.

  James M. Barrie

  Motivational, Change, Years

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• ... the attempt to control poetry, to subordinate it to extrapoetic ends, constitutes misuse.... it may be poetry's stubborn quality of rockbottom, intrinsic uselessness whichconstitutes the guarantee of its integrity, and hence of its ultimate value to us.

  Jan Clausen

  Integrity, Poetry, Feminism

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• The most useful thing about art is it's uselessness.

  Tom Robbins

  Art, Useful Things, Art Is

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• Ability without honor is useless.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Army, Honor, Useless

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• It is useless to close the gates against ideas; they overlap them.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Ideas, History, Useless

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• What is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Matter, Rich Poor, Riches And Poors

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion”, p.316, e-artnow

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• Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Desire, Useless

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• Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.

  William Ellery Channing

  Friends, Vanity, Sloth

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• If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art.

  Eugene Ionesco

  Art, Doe, Useless

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• Play exists for its own sake. Play is for the moment; it is not hurried, even when the pace is fast and timing seems important. When we play, we also celebrate holy uselessness. Like the calf frolicking in the meadow, we need no pretense or excuses. Work is productive; play, in its disinterestedness and self-forgetting, can be fruitful.

  Margaret Guenther

  Fun, Self, Play

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• The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching them―noticing them―that was essential. If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement. The part of the man's statement that was true, however, was about the uselessness of speaking up. If I know that the teacher is wrong, and say nothing, then I remain the only one who knows, and that gives me an advantage over those who believe the teacher.

  Orson Scott Card

  Teacher, Mistake, Believe

  Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.79, Macmillan

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• Indolence is the dry rot of even a good mind and a good character; the practical uselessness of both. It is the waste of what might be a happy and useful life.

  Tryon Edwards

  Character, Mind, Dry

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.651, Ravenio Books

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• Remove the temptation of idleness and Cupid's bow is useless.

  Ovid

  Temptation, Useless, Bows

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• So, let's make a deal: If you do not voice all the withering comments about the weight or uselessness of this jacket that are no doubt swirling in that big brain of yours, then I will not mention the super-laser episode again. Agreed?" This jacket is really cutting into my shoulders, thought Artemis. And it's so heavy that I could not outrun a slug. But he said, "Agreed.

  Eoin Colfer

  Cutting, Voice, Brain

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• I had never wanted to be one of those girls in love with boys who would not have me. Unrequited love - plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing - turned you into a salesperson, and what you were selling was something he didn't want, couldn't use, would never miss. Unrequited love was deciding to be useless, and I could never abide uselessness. Neither could James. He understood. In such situations, you do one of two things - you either walk away and deny yourself, or you do sneaky things to get what you need. You attend weddings, you go for walks. You say, yes. Yes, you're my best friend, too.

  Elizabeth McCracken

  Girl, Unrequited Love, Boys

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• The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they would tremble. For Chuang Tsǔ spent his life in preaching the great creed of Inaction, and in pointing out the uselessness of all things.

  Oscar Wilde

  Lying, Perspective, Healthy

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.222, University of Chicago Press

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• He thought with a kind of astonishment of the biological uselessness of pain and fear, the treachery of the human body which always freezes into inertia at exactly the moment when a special effort is needed.

  George Orwell

  Pain, Effort, Special

  George Orwell (1983). “1984”, p.229, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering.

  Bernard Malamud

  Suffering, Taught

  Bernard Malamud (2004). “The Fixer: A Novel”, p.333, Macmillan

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• Evie wanted to cry. From fear. From exhaustion, yes. But mostly from the cruel uselessness, the damned stupid arbitrariness of it all.

  Libba Bray

  Stupid, Cry, Wanted

  Libba Bray (2012). “The Diviners: Number 1 in series”, p.317, Hachette UK

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• Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

  Pablo Picasso

  Funny, Witty, Technology

  Quoted inWilliam Fifield, In Search of Genius (1982)

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• If it were considered desirable to destroy a human being, the only thing necessary would be to give his work a character of uselessness

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Inspiration, Character, Giving

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• The truly scientific mind is altogether unafraid of the new, and while having no mercy for ideas which have served their turn or shown their uselessness, it will not grudge to any unfamiliar conception its moment of full and friendly attention, hoping to expand rather than to minimize what small core of usefulness it may happen to contain.

  Wilfred Trotter

  Truth, Science, Ideas

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• Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Gratitude, Useless, Dictionary

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• I took to writing at an early age to escape from meaninglessness, uselessness, unimportance, insignificance, poverty, enslavement, ill health, despair, madness, and all manner of other unattractive, natural and inevitable things.

  William Saroyan

  Writing, Ill Health, Despair

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