Pliability and liberality, when not restrained within due bounds, must ever turn to the ruin of their possessor.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
In delay we waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Let pleasure be ever so innocent the excess is always criminal.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
It gives a lovely light.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist
I hold this as a rule of life: Too much of anything is bad.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
Violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die; like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume.—They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Willful waste brings woeful want.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The waste of plenty is the resource of scarcity.
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) English Satirist, Novelist, Author
Nothing in excess.
—Indian Proverb
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin; such conquests, without blood or sweat, do sufficiently revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The word which gives the key to the national vice is waste. And people who are wasteful are not wise, neither can they remain young and vigorous. In order to transmute energy to higher and more subtle levels one must first conserve it.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
There can be no excess to love, to knowledge, to beauty, when these attributes are considered in the purest sense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Too much noise deafens us; too much light blinds us; too great a distance, or too much of promixity equally prevents us from being able to see; too long or too short a discourse obscures our knowledge of a subject; too much of truth stuns us.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
All progress is based upon the universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler
We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for their abundance.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
He who indulges his sense in any excesses, renders himself obnoxious to his own reason; and to gratify the brute in him, displeases the man, and sets his two natures at variance.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Let’s not quibble! I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, “I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.”
—Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
The body oppressed by excesses, bears down the mind, and depresses to the earth any portion of the divine Spirit we had been endowed with.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
We are no longer in a state of growth; we are in a state of excess. We are living in a society of excrescence. The boil is growing out of control, recklessly at cross purposes with itself, its impacts multiplying as the causes disintegrate.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do; and with them, everything.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Riches are for spending.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The greatest wastes are unused talents and untried ideas.
—Unknown
All things that are pernicious in their progress must be evil in their birth, for no sooner is the government of reason thrown off, than they rush forward to their own accord; weakness takes a pleasure to indulge itself; and having imperceptibly launched out into the main ocean, can find no place where to stop.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
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