Superfluous Quotes

Be convinced that, if man were able to reach the end without preparatory studies, such studies would not be preparatory but tiresome and utterly superfluous.

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.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

A pure style in writing results from the rejection of everything superfluous.

If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.

After I write, I have nothing to say. The commentary afterwards is superfluous. I write. And that's enough.

To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.

Pessimists are not boring. Pessimists are right. Pessimists are superfluous.

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

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.

All that is not useful in a picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety; for superfluous details would, in the mind of the beholder, encroach upon the essential elements.

Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only.

If Christianity were only a development, then Christ was not needed. If Christianity were only a scheme of morals, then the divine incarnation was a thing superfluous.

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.

There are, while human miseries abound, A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth, Without one fool or flatterer at your board, Without one hour of sickness or disgust.

I suppose the longer anyone spends on earth, the closer we all get to becoming superfluous characters.

All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided.

Man finds happiness only in the superfluous. Under communism, he has only the essentials. How abominable and ridiculous!

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying Nature signs the last release, And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.

Full oft we see Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

I don't aspire, but I would be very happy if one of my poems suddenly offered someone a shady rest stop, a breather in our interminable march under the murderous, scorching heat of the superfluous.

The best of artists hath no thought to show which the rough stone in its superfluous shell doth not include; to break the marble spell is all the hand that serves the brain can do.

The superfluous is the most necessary.

Adequacy is sufficient. All else is superfluous.

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them.

There is a joy in going without things, a fine tang in eliminating the superfluous.

Two people getting together to write a book is like three people getting together to have a baby. One of them is superfluous.

The superfluous blossoms on a fruit tree are meant to symbolize the large way God loves to do pleasant things.

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

What God declares the believing heart confesses without the need of further proof. Indeed, to seek proof is to admit doubt, and to obtain proof is to render faith superfluous.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: We are our own Huns.

It is superfluous to be humble on one's own behalf; so many people are willing to do it for one.

I'm a Nietzschean about human nature. The bulk of humanity is exhausted and superfluous, miscreant, confused, latently criminal, opportunistic. I rely on that. That's leverage, man.

It's a good thing I was born in this century, when superfluous television seems to be part of the economy.

Superfluous money buys wasted time, propelling desires that otherwise lay buried beneath the feet of honest toil.

The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.

Mirth is a Proteus, changing its shape and manner with the thousand diversities of individual character, from the most superfluous gayety to the deepest, moat earnest humor.

When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.

Full is the earth of the superfluous; marred is life by the many-too-many. May they be decoyed out of this life by the "life eternal"!

Many a poem is marred by a superfluous verse.

Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full.

Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom.

It is but a poor establishment where there are not many superfluous things which the owner knows not of, and which go to the thieves.

For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

Everything in the Universe was as the Creator willed it - nothing superfluous, nothing lacking - a harmony.

Modeling is a lonely business... You don't speak. You don't really portray anything but an image... the business is so superfluous about dealing with the outside, it messes with your mind.

A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.

I don't live in Los Angeles and I don't do a lot of superfluous press.

Freelancing in Somalia during their civil war and in Kuwait right after the first Bush War, I had some rather intense experiences that made life in the U.S. seem rather shallow and superfluous.

It would be superfluous to receive by faith, things that can be known by natural reason