Top 100 Very Useful Quotes
#1. Unquestionably, this drug is is very useful to the artist, activating trains of association that would otherwise be inaccessible, and I owe many of the scenes in Naked Lunch directly to the use of cannabis.
William Burroughs
#2. I think the time in between albums, as much as it was not anticipated, it was much-needed, and very helpful, very useful. I've done nothing but hone my craft, and get better, and learn, and gather information in the process. So I'm grateful for it in retrospect.
Joe Budden
#3. As far as Marx's analysis of capitalism, there's a lot of very useful ideas in it, but he's developing an abstract model of 19th century capitalism. It's abstract and it's changed.
Noam Chomsky
#4. Under certain conditions, index numbers may do very useful service as an aid to investigation into the history and statistics of prices; for the extension of the theory of the nature and value of money they are unfortunately not very important.
Ludwig Von Mises
#5. But I value their hatred. I find it very useful. You see, people are always at their weakest when they're angry.
Lionel Luthor From Smallville
#6. The things that you know more about than you want to know are very useful.
Robert Stone
#7. I invented a book that listed every word in every language. It wouldn't be a very useful book, but you could hold it and know that everything you could possibly say was in your hands.
Jonathan Safran Foer
#8. I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it.
Bram Stoker
#9. If you're a politician it's very useful to say that we can have economic growth and at the same time green the economy, but writers just have to face up to the fact that there are some fundamental tensions between the economic order and the biological order.
Michael Pollan
#10. When I was CEO, and I'd listen to music, a lot of people listen to music and you get inspiration from it. And a lot of things in hip hop are very instructive for being in business. Particularly, hip hop is a lot about business, and so it was very useful for me in any job.
Ben Horowitz
#11. Several of our players at Stanford have used the J-Glove and J-Strap with excellent results. It is a very useful training tool for the player looking to improve both their shot and their percentage. I would recommend it to anyone looking for that extra edge.
Tara VanDerveer
#12. Crime is a human behavior problem, not a mechanical problem. Furthermore, if firearms were not very useful for self-defense, then police wouldn't carry them. In a free country, if the government can go armed, so should the citizens, if they so choose.
Charley Reese
#13. We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.
Jean De La Bruyere
#14. Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.
Jonathan Swift
#15. Everyone had memorized a chant of names and villages along footpaths in every direction. This was a very useful map.
Rory Stewart
#16. The inspired and expired air may be sometimes very useful, by condensing and cooling the blood that passeth through the lungs; I hold that the depuration of the blood in that passage, is not only one of the ordinary, but one of the principal uses of respiration.
Robert Boyle
#17. At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.
Bernard Cornwell
#18. I actually have two hats in my office; one says "network," one says "studio." Paul Lee over at ABC sent those over to us and I find it very useful.
Gary Numan
#19. I'm very lucky in the sense that I've got a voice that's distinctive. Not good, but distinctive. That's a very useful thing to have in this business. I'm glad on the one hand that I've got it, but I wish it was more powerful. I wish I had a greater range. I wish it was more accurate at times.
Gary Numan
#20. Everybody uses mime and gesture in real life, though we don't realize it. It's very useful as a performance technique, though it can be boring to watch on its own.
Anthony Daniels
#21. Anybody who gives away money is mostly looking at things where they think they can make a difference. I'm trying to help people who helped me, educational institutions that helped me with scholarships, or organizations that were very useful to me in growing up.
David Rubenstein
#22. Learning to focus attention and concentration is very useful; meditation can help you do that.
Andrew Weil
#23. Certainly these men who had so few spontaneous ideas might be very useful members of society under good feminine direction,
George Eliot
#24. I like 'nerves'! I like the word 'migraineur'. I like the word 'madness'. These are OK words. The 19th century had a very handy term: 'neurasthenic'. I think that's a very useful word. We all know what that means: it means extra-sensitive.
Siri Hustvedt
#25. Forgetting is a very useful kind of ignorance: it wipes the bad sums off our slates.
Nanamoli Thera
#26. Travel is very useful and it exercises the imagination. All the rest is disappointment and fatigue. Our own journey is entirely imaginary. That is its strength. It goes from life to death. People, animals, cities, things, all are imagined. It's a novel, simply a fictitious narrative.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
#27. Good analysis is very useful when you want to convert a political decision into an investment. It can also go the other way and drive policy.
Hans Rosling
#28. Style is a capitalist invention. It's a trademark. It's very useful in the world of commerce to have a good trademark, but it wasn't my first concern. I got restless
Art Spiegelman
#29. I'm very grateful I went to school to study law, particularly tax law, which really is interesting to me and very useful to me now with my position. Music, however, will always be my number one passion; I like how it connects everyone.
Armin Van Buuren
#30. Even a nonbeliever might find it useful to model himself after God. Very useful, in fact.
Cormac McCarthy
#31. I think critics are very useful. But I think that they, in a way, betray their position when they stop people looking for themselves.
Antony Gormley
#32. Working in this industry, I do feel that science and creativity turned out to be a very useful combination for me.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
#33. Oh, a very useful philosophical animal, your average tortoise. Outrunning metaphorical arrows, beating hares in races ... very handy.
Terry Pratchett
#34. Basic research is very useful, but it should be more geared toward application than it was before.
Luc Montagnier
#35. If tomorrow all the bridges disappear in the world, then we can learn perfectly how very useful they were! Losing something is an excellent teacher!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#36. I wouldn't go so far as to say I've got a plan. But I've got an idea. It's a very useful thing sometimes, an idea. - Superintendent Battle
Agatha Christie
#37. Debating clubs among boys are very useful, not only as affording pleasant meetings and interesting discussions, but also as serving for training grounds for developing the knowledge and the qualities that are needed in public life.
Annie Besant
#38. Acting has been very useful to me.
Jane Asher
#39. A certain number of Americans are already in Peking and most of us here feel that it would be very useful for the United States and especially for the Left-wing progressive movement in the United States if groups of students such as you mention could make a tour of China.
Anna Louise Strong
#40. Even if you are a little drop of water, you can still be very useful, you can at least quench the thirst of few ants! The holy road to be helpful is always open for those who want to be helpful!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#41. It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world.
Antonio Tabucchi
#42. For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God.
John Calvin
#43. To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
#44. Repeating moves in an ending can be very useful. Apart from the obvious gain of time on the clock one notices that the side with the advantage gains psychological benefit.
Sergey Belavenets
#45. I don't think nostalgia is very useful to me. There is a story to be told, there's behaviour to create or to bring to the screen that will help tell that story, and nostalgia is just not really a big part of my emotional package.
Harrison Ford
#46. There's a big difference between the role of an academic and the role of someone in government. That's a cliche, but in academic life if you say things that are common sense and people nod their heads, it's not very useful. You're not adding anything.
Cass Sunstein
#47. I was trying to think of something to say that would sound more meaningful, but when you get sown to it, words aren't very useful at baring our souls, they're just something else to hide behind.
Orhan Pamuk
#48. Politics has rough manners, but it is a very useful thing.
Bernard Crick
#49. When hope is fleeting, stop for a moment and visualize, in a sky of silver, the crescent of a lavender moon. Imagine it
delicate, slim, precise, like a paper-thin slice from a cabochon jewel.
It may not be very useful, but it is beautiful.
And sometimes it is enough.
Vera Nazarian
#50. I told my father to stop smoking around the age of two or three years old and he stopped smoking. So the relationship between the kid and the parent is very powerful, and if you give the kid the right information, it can be very useful to the family.
Doug E. Fresh
#51. Pain is very useful. It warns you of danger, teaches you of hazards and provides consequences for your actions.
Lisa Gardner
#52. I've hidden behind my hair more than clothes. Sometimes having long hair with a fringe is very useful when you don't want to look at people. I used to have very short hair, but long hair is my thing - a black nocturnal shield.
Bat For Lashes
#53. That whole idea of threats to national security is a very interesting one. The phrase is very useful for the government to try to encompass the citizenry in the same box as the government is in. To say, "We're all in this together. It threatens all of us."
Howard Zinn
#54. To accept that man has only mind and body but not any soul will be very useful for humanity to build a better future. Accepting truth always gives you a chance to find the solution!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#55. When part of what you're trying to get at is the truth hidden under a taboo, or when you want to nail a hypocrisy, laughter is a very useful tool. I want to show the painful side of existence, but there is no question I also want to make people laugh.
Todd Solondz
#56. All these stories are grist to the mill of the government because they build up a very useful war psychosis.
Helen Suzman
#57. Flash is one of those very useful, very closed, very proprietary non-weblike things that has great tools and serves a need very well. But in the long run, we see video as part of the web, and it should be handled just the way other html elements are.
Mitchell Baker
#58. Great things often come from actions and decisions taken by others, that are deemed wild, stupid or unreasonable at the time, but later prove to be very useful.
Innocent Mwatsikesimbe
#60. I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.
Alberto Gonzales
#61. Sometimes when you're going fast, your instincts can be very useful.
Andrea Arnold
#62. Read good books. Read bad books - and figure out why you don't like them. Then don't do it when you write. If you are a science fiction or fantasy writer, going to conventions and attending panels is very useful.
Patricia Briggs
#63. I think the gay - the gay/straight alliances in the school are very useful as far as creating understanding among kids and so kids aren't necessarily so stigmatized or demonized for being who they really are.
Jeanne Phillips
#64. I feel that I've had a happy life, not a very useful life, but a happy one.
Ryan Shawcross
#65. He felt a spasm of excitement because he knew instinctively who it was, or at least knew who it was he wanted it to be, and once you know what it is you want to be true, instinct is a very useful device for enabling you to know that it is.
Douglas Adams
#66. Adjustment of constants to make everything fit - that I couldn't be sure it was very useful. I wanted a rather deeper understanding
Richard Feynman
#67. Esperanto was a very useful language, because wherever you went, you found someone to speak with.
George Soros
#68. Tape reading is a lost art that today is not very useful.
Steven A. Cohen
#69. Sometimes it is very useful to have a reputation for being a reclusive, amoral jerk.
Brandon Sanderson
#70. I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.
Samuel Johnson
#71. Am I as experienced, or mature, or smart as others CEOs? No probably not, but there's something, I think, very useful about having a founder as the CEO.
Andrew Mason
#72. Say what you want without saying it yourself: quote. Very useful, this, sometimes lovely, and versatile, too: big thoughts in small pieces, neatly wrapped and bundled in bulk, in different flavors for different tastes.
Willis Regier
#73. Still, there may be technologies that are very useful in identifying people over the age of 18 because they have all kinds of identifying characteristics, while those same tech may be useless for 12- and 13-year-olds.
Richard Blumenthal
#74. Fairy dust is very useful. I use it to turn oatmeal into cake.
David Shannon
#75. In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practice it much.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#76. The blogosphere might be very useful as propaganda or as therapy. But it's not journalism.
Pete Hamill
#77. People who get Nobel prizes aren't necessarily the most imaginative of people. People who sometimes find a system, develop a system, do very useful work.
Aaron Klug
#78. Good God. He doesn't know me at *all*.
How crushing.
How illuminating.
How ... potentially very useful.
Julie Anne Long
#79. Tradition is a fine thing. Nothing comes out of the blue, except perhaps thunderbolts and they are not really very useful things.
Stacy Aumonier
#80. I think socialism is really about recognizing that there are limits to what the market can do. The market is very useful; at times it works very well, but it doesn't always work.
Gillian Tett
#81. Even though effective competition is the best tool to strengthen innovation and competitiveness in Europe, state aid can also play a very useful supporting role,
Neelie Kroes
#82. There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful.
Boyd K. Packer
#83. Fear isn't a very useful emotion for a warrior. Rage is better.
Kirby Crow
#84. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
Bertolt Brecht
#85. Some reporter called me 'the angriest gay man in the world' or some such. Well, it stuck, but I realized it was very useful.
Larry Kramer
#86. After all, a right that can't be exercised is not very useful to anyone.
Jessica Valenti
#87. I'm a very good storyteller; I have a lot of compassion for people. That's very useful for a novelist. A lot of novelists are snots. They're just mean people. I'm not a terribly skilled stylist, nor do I want to be. I want a lot of people to read one of my stories and go, 'That was pretty cool.'
James Patterson
#88. I want to make it clear that the lobbying sector does an important job. It is very useful to the government to hear the views of a broad range of groups to make sure we get the best.
Andrew Lansley
#89. Knowing the truth about the vanishing did not lessen their opinion of Bilbo at all; for they saw that he had some wits, as well as luck and a magic ring - and all three are very useful possessions.
J.R.R. Tolkien
#90. I think it is very useful to know ourselves, but when we start naming and labeling, that is dangerous, that gets problematic. It negates that things are always changing. Besides, it's hard to pin a label onto something that's always moving.
Ani DiFranco
#91. Anyway, in my writing I've always been interested in finding places to stand, and I've found it very useful to have a direct experience of what I'm writing about.
Michael Pollan
#92. Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It's just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.
Benjamin Hoff
#93. Everybody engaged in complex work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing.
Charlie Munger
#94. And I think in your 40s, you land a little bit, physically and mentally, you arrive at a place where you feel you've learned some stuff. Having children at that point meant I had something very useful to do for the next 20 years.
Mark Strong
#95. I don't think it's very useful to open wide the door for young artists; the ones who break down the door are more interesting.
Paul Schrader
#96. I think it's very useful for you folks (reporters) to try your damndest to be precise. And don't repeat things that are inaccurate if you can possibly avoid it. And when you see things that are inaccurate, knock them down
because there's a bucket of it floating around.
Donald Rumsfeld
#97. Industrial hemp is a very useful plant. I challenged the attorney general to get rid of the criminal stigma associated with hemp so we can look at it in terms of how it might be useful.
Jesse Ventura
#98. It's never very useful to see your character as a villain. You have to play them the way they see themselves.
Lucy Lawless
#99. I always thought the story [Anthem] would work in three dimensions - and studying that cut material was very useful.
Jeff Britting
#100. All I could do was think. You try doing nothing but thinking for a few months. It's a very useful exercise for shaking some of the chaff out of your life.
Patricia Ryan
