“Without acknowledging the ever-present gaze of death, the superficial will appear important, and the important will appear superficial.”

Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 9, “...And Then You Die” (p. 206)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Without acknowledging the ever-present gaze of death, the superficial will appear important, and the important will app…" by Mark Manson?

Mark Manson50

American writer and blogger 1984

Related quotes

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“It appears from this inquiry that color and other physiological characters are of a more superficial and accidental nature than was at one time supposed.”

Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

Source: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 278

“Even the most superficial of a newspaper reveals an important aspect of human psychology: our preoccupation with the short term.”

John Allen Paulos book A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

Source: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995), Chapter 21, “Researchers Look to Local News for Trends” (p. 96)

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”

Thomas Paine book Common Sense

Source: 1770s, Common Sense (1776)

“All of us, I am certain, are united by more important things than those which superficially divide us. We are united, for instance, by a common detestation of colonialism in whatever form it appears. We are united by a common detestation of racialism. And we are united by a common determination to preserve and stabilise peace in the world....”

Sukarno (1901–1970) first President of the Republic of Indonesia

Speech at the Opening of the Bandung Conference

“If we don't want to define ourselves by things as superficial as our appearances, we're stuck with the revolting alternative of being judged by our actions, by what we do.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

My Point... And I Do Have One. New York: Bantam Books, 1995

“There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

“In selecting human assistants such superficialities as education, as physical strength, even antecedent morality, are not as important as the inner attitudes, proclivities, character, which after all determine the man or woman.”

Harrington Emerson (1853–1931) American efficiency engineer and business theorist

Source: The twelve principles of efficiency (1912), p. 176; cited in Münsterberg (113; 52)

“In war-as-spectacle, appearances could be more important than reality, because appearance often ended up determining reality.”

Andrew Bacevich (1947) United States Army officer

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005).

“All God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable. The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one's soul shine through. If there are places on your body where this is a possibility, you are not attractive — you are leaking.”

Fran Lebowitz book Metropolitan Life

"Manners" (p. 6).
Metropolitan Life (1978)

“Without acknowledging the ever-present gaze of death, the superficial will appear important, and the important will appear superficial.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Mark Manson50

Related quotes

Related topics