18 Quotes Tagged: superficiality

Pleasure is a false god. Research shows that people who focus their energy on superficial pleasures end up more anxious, more emotionally unstable, and more depressed. Pleasure is the most superficial form of life satisfaction and therefore the easiest to obtain and the easiest to lose. But pleasure, while necessary in life (in certain doses), isn't, by itself, sufficient. Pleasure is not the cause of happiness; rather, it is the effect.

True beauty is measured by the number of pearls within you, not those around your neck.

Beware of those who are too focused with polishing and beautifying their outer shells. They lack true substance to understand that genuine beauty is reflected from the heart that resides inside.

E poi è crudele, ed è necessario dirlo: c’è sempre un momento in cui una donna chiede a se stessa se realmente siano state le grandi qualità morali del suo amante a soggiogarla. Perché in quel caso ci sarebbero delle giustificazioni. E c’è una profonda umiliazione nella nostra coscienza quando arriviamo a convincerci che se amiamo un uomo non è stata solo la nobiltà delle sue idee e l’ideale dei suoi sentimenti a dominarci, ma un non-so-che, in cui c’entra forse il colore dei suoi capelli e il nodo della sua cravatta. Siamo franche, perché mascherare la pochezza delle nostre inclinazioni? Perché colorare di ideali l’origine volgare delle nostre preferenze? Non voglio dire che l’integrità morale non sia un poderoso incentivo alla simpatia istintiva, ma ciò che in realtà ci colpisce è l’aspetto esteriore di un uomo. Tutte coloro che leggeranno queste dolorose confidenze si consultino nel silenzio del proprio cuore e dicano che cosa ha suscitato in loro quella sensazione: se è stato il carattere o l’aspetto. E le più franche diranno che nella vita influisce forse di più il colore del frac che la grandezza d’animo.

songs, to me, were more important than just light entertainment. They were my preceptor and guide into some altered consciousness of reality. Some different republic, some liberated republic... whatever the case, it wasn't that I was anti-popular culture or anything and I had no ambition to stir things up. I just thought of mainstream culture as lame as hell and a big trick. It was like the unbroken sea of frost that lay outside the window and you had to have awkward footgear to walk with.

Most people will never learn the lessons meant for them in this lifetime, nor become the person they were meant to be, simply because they are too busy being someone else, or someone they are not.

The people of today would rather stand next to a man with no substance but covered in gold, rather than the man with substance and wisdom of gold. What if God was dressed as a carpenter with dirty nails and beaten boots? Would you recognize your Maker? Would you give him your time? Your vote? A cup of tea or water? Only those with truth in them will recognize truth. And you must learn to recognize all that is untrue to get the truth.

A woman who holds her head up too high, is trying to breathe from her own pollution.

Guy suddenly wanted to scald his face, gain fifty pounds, shear his hair. He was sick of his beauty, his “eternal” beauty. People thought he was purer, more intelligent, kinder, nobler than he was because they ascribed all these virtues to him. What if he were stripped of his looks, if he stabbed the grotesque painting in the attic? If they saw him for what he really was – empty-headed, vicieux (how did you translate that? “Riddled with vices?”), narcisse? Used to being indulged and pursued, terrified he’d outlive his fatal appeal and yet longing to be free of it?

Is love so gross a thing that it must feed upon publication and public notice ? It would seem so.

She had liked him for himself, that was indisputable. And yet, much as she had liked him she had liked the bourgeois standard of valuation more.

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.

In the last 10 years, we have seen a rise in selfishness: selfies, self-absorbed people, superficiality, self-degradation, apathy, and self-destruction. So I challenge all of you to take initiative to change this programming. Instead of celebrating the ego, let's flip the script and celebrate the heart. Let's put the ego and celebrity culture to sleep, and awaken the conscience. This is the battle we must all fight together to win back our humanity. To save our future and our children.

You are too timid for me. You care too much about what other people think. But you know what? Because you are so desperate to win the approval of others, you'll never get rid of their criticisms, no matter how hard you try. You say you want to travel the path, but you don't want to sacrifice anything to that end. Money, fame, power, lavishness, or carnal pleasure - whatever it is that one holds most dear in life, one should dispose of that first.

Once upon a time there were mass media, and they were wicked, of course, and there was a guilty party. Then there were the virtuous voices that accused the criminals. And Art (ah, what luck!) offered alternatives, for those who were not prisoners to the mass media.

Well, it's all over. We have to start again from the beginning, asking one another what's going on.