Quotessence
Home / Topics / Excess Quotes

Excess Quotes

Browse 807 quotes about Excess.

Related topics

IfsMenPeopleWorldMeanThinkingHumansVirtueModerationWayKnowsNeedsMayLittlesMindShouldTwoBodyDoeWellsGivingToo MuchArtFeelingsSometimesVicesLongEffectsKindEvilGovernmentReasonStatesWantWealthCausesEnergyEnoughHas BeensPersonsSufferingUseYearsIndividualLooksPassionSpiritTryingYoungAmericaBalanceCasesDeficiencyEndsExtremesFirstsGreedIdeasLawMoralWould BeCertainChildrenCountryEyeInspirationalJoyLifePopulationSelfTermValuesAbuseAgeDesireFactsFeelsFormLightOrderProduceSaidSeemsSoulStillsViolentWholeWritingBookDangerDangerousDrinkingEarthEasyEconomyFallGrowthHandsHeartLibertymore

Excess Quotes

“An excess of development can undermine the most ephemeral but distinctive tool a writer possesses: authorial voice. A writer's voice is as individual and marked as a thumbprint, and is a playwright's truest imprimatur. It is as innate as breathing, and can be as unique as any genetic code. By its very singular nature, it is seldom born in the act of collaboration. True authorial voice always pre-dates the first rehearsal of a text. And it is - and will always be - an author's most distinguishing and valuable feature.”

FirstsIndividualVoiceBornDevelopmentUniqueToolsValuableCraftsBreathingCodeFeaturesCollaborationExcessInnateRehearsalPlaywrightTruestDistinctiveEphemeralThumbprintsWriter's Voice
Author:David Wright
Create image

“It is true that zeal is the soul of the virtues, but most certainly, Monsieur, it must be according to knowledge, as Saint Paul says; that means: according to knowledge of experience. And because young people ordinarily do not possess this experiential knowledge, their zeal goes to excess, especially in those who have a natural asperity.”

PeopleMeanSoulYoungValuesNaturalVirtueSaintExcessZealSaint Paul
Book:Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Correspondence; January 1640-July 1646)
Create image

“Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited and good to that of the limited), while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult—to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult); for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”

MenWayMeanReasonEvilEasyDifficultClassVirtueFailingMissingSucceedMarkVicesOne WayCharacteristicsExcessUnlimitedDefectsNicomachean Ethics
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
Create image

“Misfortune occurs or can occur to anyone, of any sort of character. The eudaimonic has more resources to avoid it (being in autonomous control of his appetites and assumptions) and more resources to deal with it if it occurs (being better able to put it in perspective and maintain his own evenness of self-mastery). Tragedy as a dramatic form is meant to foster the ethos of sophrosyne or moderation, "nothing to excess"; it nurtures a sense of distance from the dominant illusions and delusions that may infect even aristoi.”

IfsMaySelfPhilosophyCharacterAbleFormDealsPerspectiveIllusionResourcesTragedyDistanceDramaticAssumptionDelusionMisfortunesAppetiteExcessMasteryDominantNurtureModerationSelf MasteryAutonomousEthos
Author:Kenny Smith
Create image

“So exiled have even basic questions of freedom become from the political vocabulary that they sound musty and ridiculous, and vulnerable to the ultimate badge of shame-'That's so 60's!'-the entire decade having been mocked so effectively that social protest seems outlandish and 'so last century,' just another style excess like love beads and Nehru jackets. No, rebellion won't pose a problem for this social order.”

ProblemSeemsLastsPoliticalOrderSocialSoundLove IsCenturyStyleUltimateShameDecadesRidiculousVulnerableProtestRebellionExcessVocabularyJacketsLike LoveBadgesSocial OrderBeadsOutlandishNehru
Author:Laura Kipnis
Create image

“We learned long ago that liberty could be preserved only by limiting in some way the freedom of action of individuals; that otherwise liberty would necessarily yield to absolutism; and in the same way we have learned that unless there be regulation of competition, its excesses will lead to the destruction of competition, and monopoly will take its place.”

WayLongActionIndividualLibertyDestructionCompetitionYieldExcessRegulationLong AgoMonopolyAbsolutism
Author:Louis D. Brandeis
Create image

“Marital intercourse is certainly holy, lawful and praiseworthy in itself and profitable to society, yet in certain circumstances it can prove dangerous, as when through excess the soul is made sick with venial sin, or through the violation and perversion of its primary end, killed by mortal sin; such perversion, detestable in proportion to its departure from the true order, being always mortal sin, for it is never lawful to exclude the primary end of marriage which is the procreation of children.”

ChildrenMadeSoulEndsCertainOrderSexSinDangerousCircumstancesHolyProveSickMortalsPrimariesProportionExcessProfitableViolationIntercourseDeparturePerversionPraiseworthyProcreationMortal Sin
Author:Saint Francis de Sales
Create image

“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.”

PeopleDoeMadeMatterCareSufferingIndividualNationsConsequenceLuxuryProductiveExcessRuinedExertionExtravaganceCreditorsDebtors
Book:Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson
Create image

“A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.”

WealthPraiseFortuneMeritEnjoymentExcessObligedRiotBanquetsRecompenseCommendation
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
Create image

“Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.”

IfsMenFoundCan DoEffectsJudgingReturnAccountsWineDrinkingIllnessEvery ManExcessModerationObjectionsDrinking Wine
Book:Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson
Create image

“If there is anybody I detest, it is weak-minded sentimentalists-all those melancholy people who, out of an excess of sympathy for others, miss the thrill of their own essence and drift through life without identity, like a human fog, feeling sorry for everyone.”

PeopleIfsHumansFeelingsMissingIdentityWeakEssenceSorryMelancholyExcessThrillFogSentimentalityDetestFeeling Sorry
Book:John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings
Create image

“I think it absolutely necessary that the President should have the power of removing his subordinates from office; it will make him, in a peculiar manner, responsible for their conduct, and subject him to impeachment himself, if he suffers them to perpetrate with impunity high crimes or misdemeanors against the United States, or neglects to superintend their conduct, so as to check their excesses.”

IfsThinkingShouldStatesSufferingPresidentUnitedUnited StatesSubjectsCrimeOfficeShould HaveResponsibleChecksNeglectPeculiarExcessSubordinatesImpunityImpeachmentMisdemeanors
Book:The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790
Create image

“Alas, human vices, however horrible one might imagine them to be, contain the proof (were it only in their infinite expansion) of man's longing for the infinite; but it is a longing that often takes the wrong route. It is my belief that the reason behind all culpable excesses lies in this depravation of the sense of the infinite.”

MenHumansReasonMightLyingBeliefBehindsVirtueImagineInfiniteLongingVicesProofHorribleExcessExpansionRoutesAlas
Author:Charles Baudelaire
Create image

“To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its excess) is inconceivable: not because the human subject is too weak, but because passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something from you, that is the active paradox I must resolve: at one and the same time it must be known and not known: I want you to know that I don't want to show my feelings: that is the message I address to the other.”

KnowsWantHumansMadeShowsFeelingsPassionKnownSubjectsMessagesWeakEssenceActiveAddressesParadoxResolveHidingExcessI Want YouHiding Something
Author:Roland Barthes
Create image

“I do not admire a virtue like valour when it is pushed to excess, if I do not see at the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as one does in Epaminondas, who displayed extreme valour and extreme benevolence. For otherwise it is not an ascent, but a fall. We do not display our greatness by placing ourselves at one extremity, but rather by being at both at the same time, and filling up the whole of the space between them.”

IfsDoeWholeFallSpaceVirtueGreatnessOppositesExtremesAdmireExcessDisplayFillingBenevolenceSpace BetweenAscentExtremityValourFilling Up
Author:Blaise Pascal
Create image

“An active propaganda machinery controlled bv the world's largest corporations constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause our distress, and economic globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human species.”

WorldHumansCausesGrowthPathEconomicHistoricalSpeciesActiveCorporationsPropagandaControlledExcessConsumptionConsumerismDistressRestraintGlobalizationMachineryInevitabilityHuman SpeciesBoonEconomic Globalization
Author:David Korten
Create image