Utility Quotes

• Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Positive, Business

  "Geek mythology and Nikola Tesla" by Rebekah Higgitt, www.theguardian.com. August 20, 2012.

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• I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of time.

  Robert Browning

  Trust, Time, Spring

  Robert Browning, John Woolford, Daniel Karlin (1991). “The Poems of Browning: 1841-1846”, p.192, Pearson Education

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• Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

  Karl Marx

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Objects

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.462, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.

  Vannevar Bush

  Simple, Men, Understanding

  "Science is Not Enough" by Vannevar Bush, Ch. X, (p. 191), 1967.

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• Not to be, but to seem, virtuous - it is a formula whose utility we all discovered in the nursery.

  C. S. Lewis

  Deception, Nursery, Virtuous

  C. S. Lewis (1990). “Poetry and prose in the sixteenth century”, Oxford Univ Pr on Demand

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• Thou shalt learn
  The wisdom early to discern
  True beauty in utility.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  True Beauty

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1848). “Poems on Slavery, Early Poems, additional Poems, and Ballads”, p.12

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• Truth and right are above utility in all realms of thought and action.

  Charles William Eliot

  Inspirational, Action, Realms

  Charles William Eliot, Harvard University (1969). “A turning point in higher education: the inaugural address of Charles William Eliot as president of Harvard College, October 19, 1869”

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• Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The 'unquality' things are what cost money.

  Phil Crosby

  Money, Business, Effectiveness

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• All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.

  Zhuangzi

  Men, Useful Things, Futility

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• Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

  Mortimer Adler

  True Love, Love Is, Giving

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• Money and electricity are much alike. Both are stored energy. Living amidst electricity, using it constantly, you take its presence and its utility for granted. Treated with respect, it is constructive, tireless. Treated with disrespect, it is destructive, vicious. It will light your way, pull a twelve-car train from Washington to New York in a bit more than four hours, kill you or burn your house alike. Electricity is insulated, though, and children are not permitted to play with it.

  Evalyn Walsh McLean

  Money, New York, Children

  Evalyn Walsh McLean (2015). “Father Struck It Rich”, p.454, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none.

  Doug Larson

  Work, Two, Luxury

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• Nearly all of our existing power sources are generators which use a heat cycle. This includes our coal, oil, and gas fired utilities, our automobiles, trucks, and trains, and even our nuclear fission utility power plants.

  Wilson Greatbatch

  Oil, Nuclear, Coal

  Wilson Greatbatch (2000). “The Making of the Pacemaker: Celebrating a Lifesaving Invention”

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• Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Birthday, Power, Idols

  Friedrich Schiller (2012). “On the Aesthetic Education of Man”, p.26, Courier Corporation

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• Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Government, Two

  An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation ch. 1 (1789)

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• In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before.

  Mitt Romney

  Country, Gasoline Prices, Class

  Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, www.npr.org. August 30, 2012.

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• I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise.

  Peter Singer

  Workout, Lying, Exercise

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• Failures of perspective in decision-making can be due to aspects of the social utility paradox, but more often result from simple mistakes caused by inadequate thought.

  Herman Kahn

  Mistake, Simple, Perspective

  Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.208, Lexington Books

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• Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain.

  Hermann von Helmholtz

  Science, May, Vain

  Hermann von Helmholtz, David Cahan (1995). “Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays”, p.93, University of Chicago Press

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• Of all parts of wisdom, the practice is the best. Socrates was esteemed the wisest man of his time because he turned his acquired knowledge into morality, and aimed at goodness more than greatness.

  John Tillotson

  Greatness, Men, Wisest Man

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• The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.

  Frank Lloyd Wright

  Artist, Hands, Design

  Frank Lloyd Wright (1925). “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete 1925 "Wendingen" Series”, p.10, Courier Corporation

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• The utility model of computing - computing resources delivered over the network in much the same way that electricity or telephone service reaches our homes and offices today - makes more sense than ever.

  Scott McNealy

  Home, Office, Today

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• Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Business, Hands, Tyrants

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• Whenever you play dance music, it serves a function. It becomes a utility; you have to worry about the tempos and what you're going to play for people. But when you're playing for listening, you're free.

  Stan Kenton

  Play, People, Worry

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• Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure... they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Thinking, Government

  Jeremy Bentham (1838). “The works of Jeremy Bentham, now first collected: under the superintendence of his executor, John Bowring ...”, p.1

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