“You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.”
Jane Austen book Mansfield Park
Source: Mansfield Park
Quotes about worth page 2
“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”
C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 67
Context: For it all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
At the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California http://www.planbproductions.com/postnobills/reagan1.html (4 November 1991), the inscription on Reagan's tomb <br class="br">Post-presidency (1989&ndash;2004)
“Your cause of sorrow must not be measured by his worth, for then it hath no end.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Source: Macbeth: Playgoer's Edition
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
As quoted in Stepping Stones : The Complete Bible Narratives (1941)
Disputed
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
Third letter on sunspots (December 1612) to Mark Wesler (1558 - 1614), as quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 134 - 135; Italian text online at Liber Liber http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/g/galilei/lettere/html/lett08c.htm, also from IntraText http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ITA0188/_PQ.HTM.<br>Variant translation: In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.<br>As quoted in Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859) by François Arago, as translated by Baden Powell, Robert Grant, and William Fairbairn, p. 365 <br class="br">Other quotes <br class="br">Variant: In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man. <br class="br">Context: for in the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man. Besides, the modern observations deprive all former writers of any authority, since if they had seen what we see, they would have judged as we judge.
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
“Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing.”
Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician
Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star
“There is only one dream worth having…to live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead.”
Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist
From a speech entitled Come September http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/politics/comeSeptember.pdf. <br class="br">Speeches <br class="br">Source: The Cost of Living
Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
Context: But to go deeper, beneath what people said (and these judgements, how superficial, how fragmentary they are!) in her own mind now, what did it mean to her, this thing she called life? Oh, it was very queer. Here was So-and-so in South Kensington; some one up in Bayswater; and somebody else, say, in Mayfair. And she felt quiet continuously a sense of their existence and she felt what a waste; and she felt what a pity; and she felt if only they could be brought together; so she did it. And it was an offering; to combine, to create; but to whom?
An offering for the sake of offering, perhaps. Anyhow, it was her gift. Nothing else had she of the slightest importance; could not think, write, even play the piano. She muddled Armenians and Turks; loved success; hated discomfort; must be liked; talked oceans of nonsense: and to this day, ask her what the Equator was, and she did not know.
All the same, that one day should follow another; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; that one should wake up in the morning; see the sky; walk in the park; meet Hugh Whitbread; then suddenly in came Peter; then these roses; it was enough. After that, how unbelievable death was! — that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all.
“To know what life is worth you have to risk it once in a while.”
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
Source: No Exit and Three Other Plays
Christine de Pizan (1365–1430) Italian French late medieval author
Source: Der Sendbrief vom Liebesgott / The Letter of the God of Love
“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”
Mick Jagger (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones
Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji
Source: Tale of Genji, Ch. 17: Eawase (trans. Royall Tyler)
Source: The Tale of Genji
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
“No boy is worth crying over, and the one who is won't make you cry.”
Sarah Kane (1971–1999) playwright from England
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.”
VIII. 585–586 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
“the worst part about being lied to is knowing you werent worth the truth”
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
“True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.”
Cynthia's Revels (1600), Act III, scene ii
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
“If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. (Lazarus Long)”
Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love
Variant: Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Source: Time Enough for Love
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
Source: Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
“Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Get Up, Stand Up (cowritten with Peter Tosh), from the album Burnin (1973)
Song lyrics
“And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Source: The Book of Disquiet
“But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.”
Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician
Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Attributed to Karl Marx, a composer with the same name.
Misattributed
Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist
Source: Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life
“The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.”
Terry Pratchett book The Light Fantastic
Source: The Light Fantastic
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1900s, A Square Deal (1903)
Context: Among ourselves we differ in many qualities of body, head, and heart; we are unequally developed, mentally as well as physically. But each of us has the right to ask that he shall be protected from wrong-doing as he does his work and carries his burden through life. No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing; and this is a prize open to every man, for there can be no better worth doing than that done to keep in health and comfort and with reasonable advantages those immediately dependent upon the husband, the father, or the son. There is no room in our healthy American life for the mere idler, for the man or the woman whose object it is throughout life to shirk the duties which life ought to bring. Life can mean nothing worth meaning, unless its prime aim is the doing of duty, the achievement of results worth achieving.
“The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Source: Veronika Decides to Die
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
"What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?" http://www.mtwain.com/What_Paul_Bourget_Thinks_of_Us/0.html, in How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897)
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
“If you believe that life is worth living then your belief will create the fact.”
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States
“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.”
Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman
Willy
Death of a Salesman (1949)
Source: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
“Worth dying for. Worth killing for. Worth going to hell for. Amen.”
Frank Miller book The Hard Goodbye
Source: The Hard Goodbye
“When the fight begins within himself,
A man's worth something.”
"Bishop Blougram's Apology".
Men and Women (1855)
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist
Source: A Family Collection: Life on the Farm and in the Country, Making a Home; the Ways of the World, a Woman's Role
“Obscurity and a competence—that is the life that is best worth living.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Notebook
“Some idiotic things are well worth doing.”
Richard Ford book Independence Day
Source: Independence Day
“Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
“Some risks are worth taking, even if it means losing a life.”
Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire
Source: The Throne of Fire
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Existencilism (2002)
“It's only worth staying in bed if you're young and in good company.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game
Source: The Angel's Game
William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
"Is Life Worth Living?"
Variant: Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
Source: 1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
“Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!”
Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass
Source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
“a fully belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”
Mark Twain book The Prince and the Pauper
Source: The Prince and the Pauper
Source: The Crucible (1953)
Context: Danforth: Do you mean to deny this confession when you are free?
Proctor: I mean to deny nothing!
Danforth: Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why you will not let —
Proctor: [With the cry of his whole soul] Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!
Virginia Woolf book Jacob's Room
Variant: But then anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.
Source: Jacob's Room
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer
Source: The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Two: 1920-1924
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism, and Selected Critical Prose
“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”
Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary
“Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
22 August 1944
My Day (1935–1962)
Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
Anthony Bourdain book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Source: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Context: Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold. Oh, I'll accommodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine. (p. 70).
“All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.”
Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin
Source: The Blind Assassin (2000)
Context: All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. …Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.
“Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“A picture is worth 1,000 denials.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
“You're more trouble than you're worth."
"I'm a girl. That's my job.”
Tamora Pierce book Street Magic
Source: Street Magic
