Quotes about worth (2216 quotes, page 22)

Hayley Williams (1988) American singer-songwriter and musician

"For me to be in love with someone means that I have to accept who I am, and not allow another person to define me. And if someone loves me in spite of all that, then that's a start."
Interview about her highschool years with the 'Sugar' magazine http://www.omgmusic.com/news/hayley-williams-girls-at-school-called-me-gay

Boy

“If Rio Ferdinand is worth £120,000 a week, Cannavaro is worth a hundred million a day.”

Fabio Cannavaro (1973) Italian footballer

Eamon Dunphy, on Fabio Cannavaro's performance during Germany 2006 http://www.elevenaside.com/quoteoftheday/

“Warmed by the instincts of a knightly heart, That roused at once if insult touched the realm, He spurned each Statecraft, each deceiving art, And met his foes, no vizor to his helm. This proved his worth; hereafter be our boast: Who hated Britons hated him the most.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Bernal Osborne adapting a Bulwer-Lytton poem at a speech to the Reform Club, 1850

Hate , Heart , Art

“Youth -- nothing else worth having in the world…and I had youth, the transitory, the fugitive, now, completely and abundantly. Yet what was I going to do with it? Certainly not squander its gold on the commonplace quest for riches and respectability, and then secretly lament the price that had to be paid for these futile ideals. Let those who wish have their respectability -- I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous and the romantic.”

Richard Halliburton (1900–1939) American writer

The Royal Road to Romance (1925).

Freedom , Search , Beauty , Youth

“Abstract cleverness of the mind only separates the thinker from the world of reality, and that world, the Forest of Real Life, is in a desperate condition now because of too many who think too much and care too little. In spite of what many minds have thought themselves into believing, that mistake cannot continue for much longer if everything is going to survive. The one chance we have to avoid certain disaster is to change our approach, and learn to value wisdom and contentment. These are things that are being searched for anyway, through Knowledge and Cleverness, but they do not come from Knowledge and Cleverness. They never have, and they never will. We can no longer afford to look so desperately hard for something in the wrong way and in the wrong place. If Knowledge and Cleverness are allowed to go on wrecking things, they will before much longer destroy all life on this earth as we know it, and what little may temporarily survive will not be worth looking at, even if it were possible for us to do so.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

The Now of Pooh.
The Tao of Pooh (1982)

Chance , Search , Learning , Knowledge

“The disembarkation was a fucking shambles and we only took Alexandria as quick as we did to get a fucking drink somewhere, because we were near dead with the thirst…. The town was full of a lot of half-starved blacks, near-blacks you could call them, in filthy rags, raising their hands to the bloody burning heavens when they saw us come in, shouting Allah Allah and so on. Some old bints with veils on gave us fucking filthy water to drink, but filthy or not it was like elation and ecstasy and so on. There was hardly a solitary fucking thing worth having in the whole town, all half-starved goats and so on, and talk about the fucking heat and the smell. Anyway, what they called sheiks came and gave him the keys, and the officers did all right with like knives and scimitars with jewels on, but then we had to move on to Damanhur and Rahmaniya and so on, near dropping with the fucking heat….”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, Napoleon Symphony (1974)

Water , Drink , Dead

“And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth?”

George Chapman The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613)

Truth , Personality

“Hey, you’re getting to be almost worth how much it costs to feed you.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

“Good thing, ’cause I got no plan to eat less.”
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 3 “Fever” (p. 48).

“Can it be doubtful that this is still the rule of human education; that the human creature needs first of all to be educated not that he may speak, but that he may have something weighty and valuable to say! If speech is the bank-note of an inward capital of culture, of insight and noble human worth, then speech is precious, and the art of speech shall be honored. But if there is no inward capital; if speech represent no real culture of the mind, but an imaginary culture; no bullion, but the fatal and now almost hopeless deficit of such? Alas, alas, said bank-note is then a forged one; passing freely current in the market; but bringing damages to the receiver, to the payer, and to all the world, which are in sad truth infallible, and of amount incalculable.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Stump Orator (May 1, 1850)

Art , Truth , World , Education

“You made the born noble yours, welcoming him as what he was, the Sent of Heaven: you did not force him either to die or become your enemy; idly neglecting or suppressing him as what he was not, a thing of no worth. You accepted the blessed light; and in the shape of infernal lightning it needed not to visit you. How, like an immense mine-shaft through the dim oppressed strata of society, this Institution of the Priesthood ran; opening, from the lowest depths towards all heights and towards Heaven itself, a free road of egress and emergence towards virtuous nobleness, heroism and well-doing, for every born man.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The New Downing Street (April 15, 1850)

Light

“He thought human life a poor thing at best, after the freshness of youth and of unsatisfied curiosity had gone by. This was a topic on which he did not often speak, especially, it may be supposed, in the presence of young persons: but when he did, it was with an air of settled and profound conviction. He would sometimes say, that if life were made what it might be, by good government and good education, it would be worth having: but he never spoke with anything like enthusiasm even of that possibility.”

John Stuart Mill book Autobiography

Source: Autobiography (1873)
Source: https://archive.org/details/autobiography01mill/page/48/mode/1up p. 48

Life , Personality , Education , Youth

“Though they may think the proof incomplete that the universe is a work of design, and though they assuredly disbelieve that it can have an Author and Governor who is absolute in power as well as perfect in goodness, they have that which constitutes the principal worth of all religions whatever, an ideal conception of a Perfect Being, to which they habitually refer as the guide of their conscience; and this ideal of Good is usually far nearer to perfection than the objective Deity of those, who think themselves obliged to find absolute goodness in the author of a world so crowded with suffering and so deformed by injustice as ours.”

John Stuart Mill book Autobiography

Source: Autobiography (1873)
Source: https://archive.org/details/autobiography01mill/page/46/mode/1up p. 46

Religion , Universe , Perfection , Suffering

“With a soldier the flag is paramount. I know the struggle with my conscience during the Mexican War. I have never altogether forgiven myself for going into that. I had very strong opinions on the subject. I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign. I had taken an oath to serve eight years, unless sooner discharged, and I considered my supreme duty was to my flag. I had a horror of the Mexican War, and I have always believed that it was on our part most unjust. The wickedness was not in the way our soldiers conducted it, but in the conduct of our government in declaring war. The troops behaved well in Mexico, and the government acted handsomely about the peace. We had no claim on Mexico. Texas had no claim beyond the Nueces River, and yet we pushed on to the Rio Grande and crossed it. I am always ashamed of my country when I think of that invasion. Once in Mexico, however, and the people, those who had property, were our friends. We could have held Mexico, and made it a permanent section of the Union with the consent of all classes whose consent was worth having. Overtures were made to Scott and Worth to remain in the country with their armies.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

On the Mexican–American War, p. 448 https://archive.org/details/aroundworldgrant02younuoft/page/n4
1870s, Around the World with General Grant (1879)

Courage , Peace , Time , Country

“We humans are naturally compelled to compare ourselves with one another. We are continually measuring people’s status, the levels of respect and attention they receive, and noticing any differences between what we have and what they have. For some of us, this need to compare serves as a spur to excel through our work. For others, it can turn into deep envy—feelings of inferiority and frustration that lead to covert attacks and sabotage. Nobody admits to acting out of envy. You must recognize the early warning signs—praise and bids for friendship that seem effusive and out of proportion; subtle digs at you under the guise of good-natured humor; apparent uneasiness with your success. It is most likely to crop up among friends or your peers in the same profession. Learn to deflect envy by drawing attention away from yourself. Develop your sense of self-worth from internal standards and not incessant comparisons.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Chap. 10 : Beware the Fragile Ego
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

Drawing , Friendship , Success , People

“Youth is learning to read (which is all that one learns in school), and is learning where and how to find what he may later need to know (which is the best of the arts that he acquires in college). Nothing learned from a book is worth anything until it is used and verified in life; only then does it begin to affect behavior and desire. It is Life that educates, and perhaps love more than anything else in life.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Fallen Leaves (2014)

School , Behavior , Reading , Learning

“It was just a bowl of peasant's clay, red brown in color, thickly made and rough to the touch, not perfectly round, with a small indentation on one side where the potter had damaged the unfired clay. It was worth pennies, perhaps nothing. Yet it was the greatest treasure of Christendom. And he kissed it once, and then he drew back his strong archer's right arm, ran down to the sucking sea's edge, and threw it as far and as hard as he could. He hurled it away and it span for an instant above the gray waves, seemed to fly a heartbeat longer as if it were reluctant to let go of mankind, and then the bowl was gone.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

Strong , Kiss , Color , Flying

“Do yours the right way. If you’re young and wondering whether you should wait, whether you should just give in, become a live-in harlot/mimbo and do it the world’s way. If you’re wondering whether all of the mocking, the ridicule, the incredible difficulty of saving yourself for your spouse is worth it, let me tell you without a doubt that it is. Your wedding can be the most memorable day and night of your life… or just another party.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/waiting-till-the-wedding-night-getting-married-the-right-way

Night , Waiting , Wedding , Way

“There are things worth being loyal to, surely. Coffee, for instance, or one’s religion.”

John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English novelist and playwright

Flowering Wilderness (1932)

Coffee , Religion

“The pride comes from accomplishment. I have done what I wanted to do more than any other thing in life. I have become a writer, published two books of integrity and worth. I did not know what those two books would cost me, how very difficult it would be to write them, to survive the opposition to them.”

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer

"A Battered Wife Survives", (1978)
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1987

Life , Books

“Money speaks, but it speaks in a male voice. In the hands of women, money stays literal; count it out it buys what it is worth or less. In the hands of men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, recognition, loyalty, all manner of possibility.”

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer

Source: Pornography, Men Possessing Women (1979), p. 20.

Money , Sex , Loyalty , Women

“If there is a God we must look for him in the Universe. If he is not there, he is not worth looking for. I am being looked upon in various quarters as an atheist, but I am not. The growing discoveries in the science of astronomy and physics seem to be further and further revelations of God. Mahatmaji, religions cannot unite. Science offers the best opportunity for a complete fellowship. All men of Science are brothers.”

C. V. Raman (1888–1970) Indian physicist

In conversation with Mahatma Gandhi and Gilbert Rahm in 1945, from [Jayaraman, A, https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21675106, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman: A Memoir, 1989, Indian Academy of Sciences, 81-85336-24-5, Bengaluru, 143, 21675106]

God , Religion , Universe , Science

“On closing this book, if I was to leave you with only one thought, it would be this: My life story could only happen in America. Look at my life: Here was a guy with very little observable potential- nothing much behind him except a couple loving parents. But because of the way this country functions I was able to make my way through and have a very good life. I don't think I had any special talent or ability. Anybody could do what I did if he wanted to. I've never resented anybody ho has something I didn't have, because I knew that in this country if I worked hard enough I could have it, too. The system in America allows for and welcomes success. That's worth fighting for if someone threatens to take it away. You can have anything or be anything you want in this country if you put your mind to it. Don't let anybody take that away from you.”

Lynn Compton (1921–2012) Easy Company soldier turned noted jurist

Source: Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers (2008), p. 254

Love , Success , Country , Thinking

“The People is always worth more than individuals.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

As quoted in Portrayals of Revolution, Images, Debates, and Patterns of Thought on the French Revolution, p. 27, by Noel Parker, Southern Illinois University Press

People

“We may not stop until we have done our part to fashion a world in which there shall be some share of fellowship; which shall be better than a den of thieves. Let us not disguise the difficulties; and, above all, let us not content ourselves with nobel aspirations, counsels of perfection, and self-righteous advice to others. We shall need the wisdom of the serpent; we shall have to be content with short steps; we shall be obliged to give and take; we shall face the strongest passions of mankind — our own not the least; and in the end we shall have fabricated an imperfect instrument. But we shall not wholly have failed; we shall have gone forward, if we bring to our task a pure and chastened spirit, patience, understanding, sympathy, forbearance, generosity, fortitude, and, above all, an inflexible determination. The history of man has just begun; in the aeons which lie before him lie limitless hope or limitless despair. The choice is his; the present choice is ours. It is worth the trial.”

Learned Hand (1872–1961) American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge

"A Pledge of Allegiance" - speech for "I Am an American Day" Central Park, New York, New York. (20 May 1945) Hand credited H. G. Wells with inspiring some of the ideas expressed in this speech.
Extra-judicial writings

Despair , Understanding , History , Hope

“It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while If one, settling a
Pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
"That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all."”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

“Another old-fashioned practice I maintain is carrying a notebook, a small one I keep in my shirt pocket and never leave the house without. In it I register all the little things that strike me, not in great detail but just quickly. The following morning I'll review what I jotted down and look for the most meaningful moment in the previous day, the one in which I felt truly present.
It's worth mentioning that this is my edit. It wasn't easy revisiting what are now 156 volumes of my diary.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

"Introduction". p.6, 7 [Page numbers per the 2017 Little, Brown hardback UK edition.]
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)

Fashion , Housing

“A lawyer starts life giving $500 worth of law for $5 and ends giving $5 worth for $500.”

Benjamin Brewster (1828–1897) American businessman

J. Jonathan Gabay. Gabay's Copywriters' Compendium, p. 550. Elsevier 2007.

Life , Law

“Even the toughest politicians sometimes wonder whether political life is worth the personal cost.”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

Source: Leader of the Opposition (2009-2015), Battlelines book, (2013), p. 4.

Personality , Life

“Failure to live up to a truth doesn’t make it any less true, less worth striving for, or less worth defending.”

Shaun Chamberlin

"Confessions of a Hypocrite: Utopia in the Age of Ecocide" Kosmos (2016) https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/confessions-of-a-hypocrite-utopia-in-the-age-of-ecocide/

Truth , Making love , Failure

“I could actually tell stories and narratives which were little alternative and radical. For whatever its worth, you can support imperfection.”

Ekta Kapoor (1975) TV and film producer

as an answer to the evolving tastes of the Indian Audience and the rise of the Digital Streaming Platforms

CNN News18 - Ekta Kapoor Interview with Rajeev Masand - 4 Oct 2019, at 14 Min 48 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX-C4jRzxM4
From interview with Rajeev Masand

Support

“When healthy animals, whose prospects include the possibility of lives that are worth living, are killed, then they suffer the loss of those prospects, even if they do not suffer pain or anxiety in the killing process. So, the mass killing or "slaughter" of animals for food always involves mass suffering. If the phrase "humane slaughter" is supposed to indicate a killing process without suffering, it is a false label.”

Steve F. Sapontzis (1945)

" Morals, Reason and Animals: Steve Sapontzis Interviewed by Claudette Vaughan https://web.archive.org/web/20100114161007/http:/www.abolitionist-online.com/08_steve_sapontzis.shtml", Abolitionist Online (2009)

Loss , Pain , Food , Suffering

“By this time, the era of cut-and-run economics ought to be finished. Such an economy cannot be rationally defended or even apologized for. The proofs of its immense folly, heartlessness, and destructiveness are everywhere. Its failure as a way of dealing with the natural world and human society can no longer be sanely denied. That this economic system persists and grows larger and stronger in spite of its evident failure has nothing to do with rationality or, for that matter, with evidence. It persists because, embodied now in multinational corporations, it has discovered a terrifying truth: If you can control a people’s economy, you don’t need to worry about its politics; its politics have become irrelevant. If you control people’s choices as to whether or not they will work, and where they will work, and what they will do, and how well they will do it, and what they will eat and wear, and the genetic makeup of their crops and animals, and what they will do for amusement, then why should you worry about freedom of speech? In a totalitarian economy, any "political liberties" that the people might retain would simply cease to matter. If, as is often the case already, nobody can be elected who is not wealthy, and if nobody can be wealthy without dependence on the corporate economy, then what is your vote worth? The citizen thus becomes an economic subject.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"Conserving Forest Communities"
Another Turn of the Crank (1996)

Time , Dependency , Freedom , People

“The future depends on us taking a different approach. One in which we can all express ourselves and contribute to society by using our unique imagination and talent. It’s our brains not our brawn that makes us special and life worth living. Artists had that worked out a long time ago.”

Will Gompertz (1965) British journalist

Think Like an Artist (2015)

Imagination , Time , Dependency , Future

“Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones.
There is no prow that can cut through a cloudbank of ideas. A powerful idea, waved before the world at the proper time, can stop a squadron of iron-clad ships, like the mystical flag of the Last judgement.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Our America (1891)

World , Idea , Time , Relation ships

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

Folly and Female Education
What's Wrong With The World (1910)

“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Tweet, as quoted by * 2020-04-26

Trump says briefings 'not worth the effort' amid fallout from disinfectant comments

Lauren Aratani

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/25/donald-trump-stays-away-from-briefings-amid-fallout-from-disinfectant-comments
2020s, 2020, April

Time , Housing , Hostility , Question

“I mean, with all this talk of building walls, and stuff like that, I think it’s worth remembering that if you look at the servicemen and the military in this country, a lot of them have names like Ramirez and Hernandez and Rodriguez. And just from my reading, it’s interesting that many of these men fight and die for their country – and women – and some of them don’t even get their citizenship until after they’re dead. So I think talk of walls and so forth is nonsensical.”

Mel Gibson (1956) American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter

Interview with Jorge Ramos on 2016 U.S. Presidential election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b20BuX_Y-k/

Dead , Reading , Country , Thinking

“You can't be pretentious about what we do, because at the end of the day, movies are about entertainment, and if people get 10 dollars' worth, then that's okay.”

Jason Statham (1967) English actor, film producer, martial artist and former diver

People

“Today, most education, for what it is worth, is education for jobs. People are simply fitted to make their living in the outer commercial world under the whip of competition.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Source: Maitreya's Mission Vol. III (1997), p. 252

World , Education , Making love , People

“Agreement got by compulsion or trickery is not agreement, but a thing akin to slavery. Free minds are the only company worth having.”

Neal Stephenson book Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

Source: Fall; or, Dodge in Hell (2019), Chapter 43

“I am an old man
With my bones very brittle,
Though I am a poor old man
Worth very little,
Yet I suck at my long pipe
At peace in the sun,
I do not fret nor much regret
That my work is done.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"Brittle Bones"
Country Sentiment (1920)

Sun , Peace

“There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling,
Whether as learned bard or gifted child;
To it all lines or lesser guards belong
That startle with their shining
Such common stories as they stray into.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"To Juan at the Winter Solstice" from Poems 1938-1945 (1946)
Poems

Learning

“On my view there is no net benefit to coming into existence and thus coming into existence is never worth its costs.”

David Benatar (1966) South African philosopher

Source: Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (2006), Introduction, p. 13

“We must learn to judge people, not by their color or race or creed, but rather by their worth as human beings.”

Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader

Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 141
1950s, Address before the Indian Council on World Affairs (1956)

Color , People , Learning

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Paul of Tarsus book Epistle to the Romans

Epistle to the Romans

God , Pain , Time , Waiting

“That evening, as I watched the sunset’s pinwheels of apricot and mauve slowly explode into red ribbons, I thought: The sensory misers will inherit the earth, but first they will make it not worth living on.”

Diane Ackerman book A Natural History of the Senses

Source: A Natural History of the Senses (1990), Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 256)

Making love

“I also come from a matriarchal family. My grandmother was left alone, not by choice. And then my mother as well. We lost my father when I was 16; he died. I was an adolescent figuring out that you’re not really worth much when you’re all women…”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On how her village shunned Downs’ solely female household in “Lila Downs Reminds Us of the Strength Women Bring to Latin America and its History” https://sheshredsmag.com/lila-downs-14/ in She Shreds (2018 May 3)
Womanhood

Family , Women

“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”

Charlotte Brontë book Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Soul , Time , Law

“Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job. It's indentured servitude. All labor has dignity and the way that we give labor dignity is by paying people the respect and the value that they are worth... We have to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter Post https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1134631705153802241, (31 May 2019)
2019, Twitter Quotes (2019), May 2019

Way , People

“[W]e understand that if the child were to give in to the overpowering character of reality and experience he would not be able to act with the kind of equanimity we need in our non-instinctive world. So one of the first things a child has to do is to learn to “abandon ecstasy,” to do without awe, to leave fear and trembling behind. Only then can he act with a certain oblivious self-confidence, when he has naturalized his world. We say “naturalized” but we mean unnaturalized, falsified, with the truth obscured, the despair of the human condition hidden, a despair that the child glimpses in his night terrors and daytime phobias and neuroses. This despair he avoids by building defenses; and these defenses allow him to feel a basic sense of self-worth, of meaningfulness, of power. They allow him to feel that he controls his life and his death, that he really does live and act as a willful and free individual, that he has a unique and self-fashioned identity, that he is somebody—not just a trembling accident germinated on a hothouse planet that Carlyle for all time called a “hall of doom.””

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

We called one’s life style a vital lie, and now we can understand better why we said it was vital: it is a necessary and basic dishonesty about oneself and one’s whole situation. This revelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud We don’t want to admit that we arerevelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud. We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don’t want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us. This power is not always obvious. It need not be overtly a god or openly a stronger person, but it can be the power of an all-absorbing activity, a passion, a dedication to a game, a way of life, that like a comfortable web keeps a person buoyed up and ignorant of himself, of the fact that he does not rest on his own center. All of us are driven to be supported in a self-forgetful way, ignorant of what energies we really draw on, of the kind of lie we have fashioned in order to live securely and serenely. Augustine was a master analyst of this, as were Kierkegaard, Scheler, and Tillich in our day. They saw that man could strut and boast all he wanted, but that he really drew his “courage to be” from a god, a string of sexual conquests, a Big Brother, a flag, the proletariat, and the fetish of money and the size of a bank balance.
Human Character as a Vital Lie
The Denial of Death (1973)

Despair , Life , Confidence , Time

“The essence of leadership is to get others to do something because they think you want it done and because they know it is worth while doing -- that is what we are talking about.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Remarks at the Republican Campaign Picnic at the President's Gettysburg Farm (September 12, 1956). Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20210125121539/https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes from the original https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes on January 25, 2021.
1950s

Thinking

“I call special attention to the fact that it is only our universal suicide which would prove a panacea for all the ills our ' flesh is heir to j individual suicides can do little or no good, save to the individuals themselves; Thus true philosophers may rationally and generously deny themselves the luxury of self-murder, because their death must leave the human average still worse than it is; and, besides, death’s coming is so certain and (at farthest) so near, that it is scarcely worth while to put one’s self out of breath hastening to meet him.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VII, p. 91
Essays and Phantasies (1881)

Universe , Self-confidence , Suicide , Death

“Difficult or sad events belong to every being. Whenever it happens to have, it must seriously think if that situation is really worth getting a smile. Who has and knows how to give smile, is the master of the whole world.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Eventi duri, difficili o tristi appartengono ad ogni essere. Ogniqualvolta dovesse capitare di averne, bisogna seriamente pensare se per quella situazione valga davvero la pena farsi togliere il sorriso. Chi ha e sa donare sorriso, è padrone del mondo intero.
Source: prevale.net

World , Smile , Sadness , Thinking

“Every single individual worth what he thinks he is worth.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Ogni singolo individuo vale quanto pensa di valere.
Source: prevale.net

Thinking

“I feel like saying over and over and over, what I have said many times before, that we do not know the world of living, longing, suffering, enjoying life in the midst of which we have evolved. The inhabitants of our own fields and dooryards are strangers to us. We are so little, and proud, and selfish, we never think it worth while to stop and look into their faces and get acquainted with them. It never occurs to us what a great favour it would be to them if we would actually get over into their places occasionally and realise what tragedies are constantly being enacted in their lives as a result of our insensate natures. We treat them with no consideration or respect because we have no understanding of them; and we do not understand them because we do not care anything at all about the matter. We are too busy tossing bouquets at ourselves to have much time or thought left for anybody else. We have grown up in the belief that all those who have a different shape from what we have were intended, not for life and happiness and immortality, as we were, but for death and wretchedness and chymification, and we are too dull-minded and selfish to make any change now.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), The Thesis of the New Ethics, p. 37

Selfishness , Time , Understanding , Making love

“Achieving strategic clarity is hard. It takes asking tough questions about tradeoffs, deep concentration to get to the very essence of the issues and real courage to cut off competing priorities. It is worth the effort because with real clarity, people, teams and organizations can fully mobilize, break through to the next level and achieve something truly great.”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Journal Articles

Courage , Effort , People , Question

“Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it.”

movie American History X

Life , Time , Hate

“Now … for what it's worth.”

Paul Harvey (1918–2009) American broadcaster

Regular tag lines

“Oh! if thou hast at length
Discover'd that my love is worth esteem,
I ask no more—but let us hence together,
And I — let me say we”

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

shall yet be happy.
Assyria is not all the earth—we'll find
A world out of our own — and be more bless'd
Than I have ever been, or thou, with all
An empire to indulge thee.
Act IV, scene 1.
Sardanapalus (1821)

Love , Making love

“Now if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth,
Well I wonder what would happen to this world.”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

World , Life , Time

“My job is to save the fucking wilderness. I don't know anything else worth saving.”

Edward Abbey book The Monkey Wrench Gang

George Hayduke, page 229
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

“Mostly it is the loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Sad , Loss

“In society, we do horrible things to one another because we don't see the person it affects. We don't see their face. We don't see them as people. Which was the whole reason the hood was built in the first place, to keep the victims of apartheid out of sight and out of mind. Because if white people ever saw black people as human, they would see that slavery is unconscionable. We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 222
Born a Crime

World , Personality , Pain , People

“A man provides leadership.
A man provides direction, caution, and advice to others.
A man provides emotional and spiritual support.
A man provides stability and order.
A man provides companionship and good company.
A man provides identity.
A man provides an example.
All of these things require personal sacrifices of time, dedication, and effort. And from where does the strength and inspiration for that come? Or, in other words, what is worth living for, sacrificing for, and even dying for?”

William G. Boykin (1948) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World (2020), p. 5

Support , Time , Personality , Effort

“The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

Sense

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

Knowledge

“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

“The worth of man lies in his consciousness of the Absolute, and consequently in the integrality and depth of this consciousness; having lost sight of it by plunging himself into the world of phenomena viewed as such, man needs to be reminded of it by the celestial Message. This Message comes finally from "himself", not of course from his empirical "I" but from his immanent Selfhood, which is that of God and without which there would be no "I", whether human, angelic or other; the credibility of the Message results from the fact that it is what we are, both within ourselves and beyond ourselves. In the depths of transcendence is immanence, and in the depths of immanence, transcendence.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 127-128, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Miscellaneous, Revelation

God , World , Angels

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

This expression is widely misattributed to Emerson in journalism, tweets, and memes on the internet. This quotation in an earlier phrasing of Jared Eliot's statement “It used to be the Saying of an old Man, That an Ounce of Experience is better than a Pound of Science.” (Essays upon Field Husbandry, 1748; quotation reprinted in "Jared Eliot, Minister, Physician, Farmer" by Rodney H. True. Agricultural History Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1928) https://www.jstor.org/stable/3739311, p199). The quote has also been misattributed to Friedrich Engels, a claim possibly originating from the 1975 book The Strange Case of Victor Grayson by Reg Groves ( link http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Udk7LCxtvugJ:socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2010_05_02_archive.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)
Misattributed

“I believe in one thing—that only a life lived for others is a life worth living.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 91

Life

“God is not interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where every man will respect the dignity and worth of personality. So when we sing We Shall Overcome, we are singing a hymn of faith, a hymn of optimism, a hymn of faith in the future.
I can still sing that song because I have faith in the future. I believe that we, as Negroes, are going to gain our freedom in America because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1965)

Personality , Optimism , Men , God

“A law without specifics and penalties is not worth the paper it is written on; when it is created as deception, it is far worse than no law.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Law , Penalty

“The priest’s breath was sour and hot as he moved towards me…Then there was blackness...I remembered every single moment up to a point…Then it’s concreted over. What’s buried there? Is it something worth exhuming?..Yes. Maybe if I say it, it will lose its power over me.”

Gabriel Byrne (1950) Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator

On confronting the memories of his sexual abuse by a priest in “Gabriel Byrne: 'There’s a shame about men speaking out. A sense that if you were abused, it was your fault'” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/08/gabriel-byrne-its-an-obscenity-to-tell-innocent-children-theyre-going-to-hell in The Guardian (2020 Nov 8)

“Magazine journalism is worth remembering. They're mostly gone now, but for a long time magazines played a significant role in the life of the country. If you wanted to understand what the rest of the world was like, you read magazines.”

Tucker Carlson (1969) American political commentator

Tucker Carlson The Long Side, From the Introduction https://www.tuckercarlson.com/
2020s, 2021

World , Time , Reading , Country

“There is no power worth defending by bloodshed of the people.”

Abdurrahman Wahid (1940–2009) 4th President of Indonesia, Islamic cleric

Ex-President Gus Dur's vision for democratic Islam in Indonesia, Wahid, Alissa, 7 September 2017, Deutsche Welle https://www.dw.com/en/ex-president-gus-durs-vision-for-democratic-islam-in-indonesia/a-40394288,

People

“So many sacrifice other needs to pay for the cost of this Catholic education. It isn't always easy, and isn't always appreciated, yet the sacrifice is worth it.”

Paul J. Swain (1943–2022) Catholic bishop

Bishop stresses education during Catholic Schools Week Mass https://www.aberdeennews.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2018/02/01/bishop-stresses-education-during-catholic-schools-week-mass/116585660/ (February 1, 2018)

Education

“In a relationship, the word 'sorry' is worth more than gold. However, the more it's mentioned the lesser your love and affection becomes.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love

“Instead of licking the boots of the rich people and bowing before them daily—We can stop doing that by simply knowing our worth in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People , Life

“I've been frequently told that I'm worth more than what I thought. But I still don't see any difference in their opinions.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“But every time I look at myself and think, oh, my body's not OK or my worth in value are determined by my appearance and my marketability, I'm kind of engaging in one form of this same narrative. So writing this work has been really cathartic and humbling for me.”

Sarah Jones (stage actress) (1973) African-American actress, playwright, and poet from the United States

On identifying with various characters in Sell/Buy/Date in “Playwright Sarah Jones Takes On The Sex Industry In 'Sell/Buy/Date'” https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657200487/playwright-sarah-jones-takes-on-the-sex-industry-in-sell-buy-date in NPR (2018 Oct 13)

Appearance , Time , Thinking

“The amazing thing about cities is that they're worth so much more than it costs to build them.”

Paul Romer (1955) American economist

TED 2011 "The world's first charter city?" https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer_the_world_s_first_charter_city

“Time brings everything to light and reveals the true worth and meaning of everyone and everything.”

Kuruvilla Pandikattu (1957) Indian philosopher

Source: The Wisest of All Times is Now! p. 8. (2021)

Time , Light

“You must master the vices. You know that if a thing is worth doing it's worth doing well. If, however, a thing is not worth doing then it's worth doing fabulously, amazingly, with grace, style and panache.”

Isla Dewar (1946–2021) Scottish novelist who died in 2021

Women Talking Dirty

“This lack of pride has led to a serious weakening of the Hindu psyche. Hindus are no more prepared to stand up and fight for anything, because they no more believe or feel that anything is worth fighting for, not at least to the bitter end.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Source: Defence of Hindu Society (1983)

Fight , Feeling

“Every time I do a show, I die a little bit, but no shit is worth doing unless you're willing to die for it.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

From Madonna Confessions book by Guy Oseary http://www.powerhousebooks.com/madonna_confessions/

Time

“It was not worth shedding so much blood for such a trifle!”

Louis de Potter (1786–1859) pamphleteer, politician (1786-1859)

Source: Belgium since the Revolution of 1830, Page 198. https://be1830.be/onewebmedia/Belgi%C3%AB_sedert_de_omwenteling_in_1830%20I.pdf Louis de Potter, who would have preferred Belgium to become a republic after the revolution of 1830, is disappointed when the National Congress opts for a hereditary monarchy instead.

“You think life is worth living, Dar?”

Philip K. Dick book The Crack in Space

Source: The Crack in Space (1966), Chapter 14 (p. 195)
Context: Hadley demanded suddenly.
“Who knows. And if you have to ask, there’s something wrong with you.”

Life , Thinking

“A story with no moral isn't worth writing; a story with no plot isn't worth reading. And if people get your point before they get your story, you are to hire a soapbox instead.”

Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930–1999) Novelist, editor

Source: Introduction to Hawk’s Hill in Marion Zimmer Bradley (ed.), Sword and Sorceress 7 (1990), p. 183

Reading , People

“Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown.
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin.'”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), The Times They Are A-Changin

Time , People , Water

“My principles which I always follow are that no authority, no power is worth a drop of blood.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: "Yanukovych: 'I Was Wrong' To Ask Russian Troops Into Crimea" in NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/02/298385578/yanukovych-i-was-wrong-to-ask-russian-troops-into-crimea (2 April 2014)

“Thrones and crowns of worldly kings carry worth less than shows of donkey for us.”

Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1209–1324) Indian Sufi saint

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 270

“The wise man's rule is worth much more to him than the fool's revenue.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Pt. II, Lib. III, Ch. III.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

Fools

“We have to also realise that celibacy itself is not an easy life and I think anyone who tells you it's an easy life, will not be truthful. Celibacy is not an easy life but is a life that is worth living with the grace of God.”

Robert Ndlovu (1955) Archbishop of Harare

Source: ‘Pius Ncube now living a life of prayer’ https://thestandard.newsday.co.zw/2012/08/05/pius-ncube-now-living-a-life-of-prayer/ (5 August 2012)

God , Truth , Thinking , Life

“I have amazing potential i can make good choices i am never alone i can do hard things i am beautiful inside and out i am of great worth he has a plan for me i know who i am a daughter of God.”

Sisi Yemmie (1984) Nigerian Youtuber

Source: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/361554676307752972/?d=t&mt=login

God , Daughters , Beauty

“They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do just as well—you just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Source: Revelations (1993)

Marijuana , Lie , Effort

“Now a bit of praise isn't much to give,
But it's dear to the hearts of all who live;
And there's never a man on this good old earth
But is glad to be told that he's been of worth;
And a kindly word when the work is fair
Is welcomed and wanted everywhere.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

If I Were a Boss, third stanza.
Source: The Passing Throng (1923)

Heart

“'Tis a world
Where all is bought, and nothing's worth the price.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892), Fortunatus in Act I, sc. ii; p. 17.

World

“The difference 'twixt good and bad is not so very much,
A few more minutes at the task, an extra turn or touch,
A final test that all is right—and yet the men are few
Who seem to think it worth their while these extra things to do.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.50 - Clinching the Bolt, stanza 3.

Thinking , Men

“There's nothing in the world that I'd like more
than to be left standing outside your door,
where perhaps I might be asked to come in.
There I could very easily demonstrate
of what now appears to be my fate,
you see I'm hooked on something
and it's not heroin.
Oh, I just can't get enough of you.
No, I can't get enough. What am I gonna do?
I've tried every trick in the book that's going,
now I've decided that they're not worth knowing,
my predicament is as simple as this:
I'm not satisfied, and the reason is
I just can't get enough of you.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Can't Get Enough of You" (song)
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Can't Get Enough of You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S51SnVzay3Y (song on YouTube)

Fate , Appearance , Books , World

“Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community; interrupt kids with bells and horns all the time and they will learn that nothing is important or worth finishing; ridicule them and they will retreat from human association; shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly.”

John Taylor Gatto book Dumbing Us Down

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), p. 68

Communication , Children , Learning , Chance

Quotes about worth page 22

Quotes about worth
page 22