Superficiality Quotes

The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.

What many men desire--that 'many' may be meant By the fool multitude that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, Which pries not to th' interior, but like the martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty.

I don't understand how people can stand next to you one year,and next year, they cannot. They're going crazy, screaming. They can't take it that you're there. But last year I was in the same club,walking around,lonely like a motherfucker. Couldn't get a date or a dance. I was too skinny, too something, and now, "He's just adorable. He's just, oh!

Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow's bliss.

You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.

Men flocked to see it and ascended it as it was a novelty and of unique dimensions. It was the toy of the exhibition. So long as we are children we are attracted by toys, and the tower was a good demonstration of the fact that we are all children attracted by trinkets. That may be claimed to be the purpose served by the Eiffel Tower.

Give me truths for I am weary of the surfaces.

If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and America hasn't even begun to pull out the knife.

Too much to know is to know nought but fame;And every godfather can give a name.

[Mrs. Allen was] never satisfied with the day unless she spent the chief of it by the side of Mrs. Thorpe, in what they called conversation, but in which there was scarcely ever any exchange of opinion, and not often any resemblance of subject, for Mrs. Thorpe talked chiefly of her children, and Mrs. Allen of her gowns.

Art may varnish and gild, but it can do no more.

Brandon is just the kind of man whom every body speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.

I find it, as ever, very unprofitable to have much to do with men. It is sowing the wind, but not reaping even the whirlwind; onlyreaping an unprofitable calm and stagnation. Our conversation is a smooth, and civil, and never-ending speculation merely.

If you fall in love based on zero hours spent with me? That's maybe something to be aware of. That will fade fast. You can't be in love with a google search.

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

There are men who can think no deeper than a fact.

It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

... Arthur Gride, whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties, and were blind to the spirit which reigned within, evinced - a fantastic kind of warmth certainly, but not exactly that kind of warmth of feeling which the contemplation of virtue usually inspires.

She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt

Anyone who has looked deeply into the world may guess how much wisdom lies in the superficiality of men. The instinct that preserves them teaches them to be flighty light, and false.

If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress.

There is no sphere of human thought in which it is easier to show superficial cleverness and the appearance of superior wisdom than in discussing questions of currency and exchange

When someone sticks a knife six inches into your back, and then pulls it out two inches and claims he's doing you a favor, don't believe him.

He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

A smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.

How can they knowTruth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone,And there alone, that have no solitude?So the crowd come they care not what may come.They have loud music, hope every day renewedAnd heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb.

What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that practically I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me at all.

You shall not come nearer a man by getting into his house.

I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman simply because she has regular features.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.

People say sometimes that Beauty is superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

Popularity - a piece of faded tinsel, that is out of date.

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

Those loves which are for the sake of a colour are not love. In the end they are a disgrace.

Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

Whoever has looked deeply into the world might well guess what wisdom lies in the superficiality of men.

To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders...It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.

What are the libraries of science but files of newspapers?

The world is satisfied with words, few care to dive beneath the surface.

He who rides and keeps the beaten track studies the fences chiefly.

Sphinxes without secrets.

A dilettantism in nature is barren and unworthy. A fop of fields is no better than his brother on Broadway.

Conservatism is affluent and openhanded, but there is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe that they take somewhat for everythingthey give. I look bigger, but am less; I have more clothes, but am nit so warm; more armor, but less courage; more books, but less wit.

Look on beauty, and you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight.

Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.

Culture is one thing and varnish is another.

Love not the flower they pluck and know it not, And all their botany is Latin names.

Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.