Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Usefullness

How often do we sigh for opportunities of doing good, whilst we neglect the openings of Providence in little things, which would frequently lead to the accomplishment of most important usefulness! Dr. Johnson used to say, “He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do any.” Good is done by degrees. However small in proportion the benefits which follow individual attempts to do good, a great deal may thus be accomplished by perseverance, even in the midst of discouragements and disappointments
George Crabbe

A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.
Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian

We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can… . The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the ore our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.
William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician

There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) American Horticulturist, Botanist

A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.
Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer

Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American Sociologist, Social Reformer

To waste and destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer

A useless life is only an early death.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet

Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer

Take what you can use and let the rest go by.
Ken Kesey (1935–2001) American Novelist, Essayist, Short Story Writer

When the air balloon was first discovered, some one flippantly asked Dr. Franklin what was the use of it. The doctor answered this question by asking another: “What is the use of a new-born infant? It may become a man
Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist

Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men?. Then have I done much for myself
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet

Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer

We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist

The vulgar crowd values friends according to their usefulness
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend.
Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet

Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
Jacob Riis (1849–1914) Danish-born American Social Reformer, Journalist, Photographer

I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work
Jose Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese Novelist

If you are seeking health, wealth, usefulness, skill in any direction, there is nothing and no one who can hinder your attainment of the coveted boon, if you are willing to work and wait
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist

What praise is implied in the simple epithet useful! What reproach in the contrary.
David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian

It is, indeed an incredible fact that what the human mind, at its deepest and most profound, perceives as beautiful finds its realization in external nature…. What is intelligible is also beautiful.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–95) Indian-American Astrophysicist

A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness.
William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Academic, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist

The great aim of human life
Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist

Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful, but n o one knows the usefulness of the useless.
Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher

Consider the postage stamp, my son. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer

Have I done anything for society? I have then done more for myself. Let that truth be always present to thy mind, and work without cessation.
William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor

Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist

It is my humble prayer that I may be of some use in my day and generation.
Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian

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