It is my humble prayer that I may be of some use in my day and generation.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
Consider the postage stamp, my son. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
It is inevitable that those to whom is vouchsafed a long life of usefulness should outlive the friends of their youth.
—Cleveland Abbe (1838–1916) American Meteorologist
Life is work, and everything you do is so much more experience. Sometimes you work for wages, sometimes not, but what does anybody make but a living? And whatever you have you must either use or lose.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
What praise is implied in the simple epithet useful! What reproach in the contrary.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Historian, Political Leader, Explorer
Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.
—W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American Sociologist, Social Reformer
The vulgar crowd values friends according to their usefulness.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness.
—Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) American Horticulturist, Botanist
We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have – for their usefulness.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
In the early West, law and politics were parallel roads to usefulness as well as distinction.
—John George Nicolay (1832–1901) German-Born American Author, Diplomat
A useless life is only an early death.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The search for static security—in the law and elsewhere—is misguided. The fact is security can only be achieved through constant change, adapting old ideas that have outlived their usefulness to current facts.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Jurist, Longest-serving Supreme Court Justice
When the air balloon was first discovered, some one flippantly asked Dr. Franklin what was the use of it. The doctor answered this question by asking another: “What is the use of a new-born infant? It may become a man.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
A person’s worth is quite independent of their usefulness to society.
—Kjell Magne Bondevik (b.1947) Norwegian Politician, Pastor
If you are seeking health, wealth, usefulness, skill in any direction, there is nothing and no one who can hinder your attainment of the coveted boon, if you are willing to work and wait.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
—Jacob Riis (1849–1914) Danish-American Reformer, Journalist, Photographer
The nature of an innovation is that it will arise at a fringe where it can afford to become prevalent enough to establish its usefulness without being overwhelmed by the inertia of the orthodox system.
—Kevin Kelly (b.1952) American Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine
Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness.
—William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
The useful and the beautiful are never separated.
—Periander (c.625–585 BCE) Tyrant of Corinth
Have I done anything for society? I have then done more for myself. Let that truth be always present to thy mind, and work without cessation.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor
Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men?. Then have I done much for myself.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful, but no one knows the usefulness of the useless.
—Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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