The greatest wastes are unused talents and untried ideas.
—Unknown
All progress is based upon the universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler
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
The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest, about thirty years after date.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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
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
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
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
I hold this as a rule of life: Too much of anything is bad.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
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
Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it—torn up to irrecoverable tatters.
—Samuel Butler
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
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
The waste of plenty is the resource of scarcity.
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) English Satirist, Novelist, Author
Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
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
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
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
In delay we waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life—its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness—conjoin to dull our sensory faculties.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Nothing in excess.
—Indian Proverb
Let us teach ourselves that honorable step, not to outdo discretion.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Pliability and liberality, when not restrained within due bounds, must ever turn to the ruin of their possessor.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
Riches are for spending.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Willful waste brings woeful want.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
All excess brings on its own punishment, even here.—By certain fixed, settled, and established laws of him who is the God of nature, excess of every kind destroys that constitution which temperance would preserve.—The debauchee offers up his body a living sacrifice to sin.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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
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
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