Essentials quotes
1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside essentials — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"The Warren Court wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution... I intend to succeed where they failed."
"For me, Lincoln is like just a handful of people - a Gandhi, or a Picasso, or a Martin Luther King Jr. - who is an original and captures something essential."
"Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success."
"Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman."
"Will a nominee embrace and uphold the essential meaning of the four words inscribed above the entrance of the Supreme Court building: Equal justice under law?"
"Everybody has to know where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, who they are. These are essentials."
"Nothing is so essential as dignity…Time will reveal who has it and who has it not."
"I do put on a little make-up every day because it helps me feel put together. Mascara is essential."
"It is essential that you realize that you are nothing in yourself. If you are rich and satisfied, you cannot receive anything from God. It is frightful to meet that spirit in a person. It totally hinders all spiritual growth and development."
"We live in the kind of world where courage is the most essential of virtues; without courage, the other virtues are useless."
"It was most essential for me to have a normal life in the real world as a counterpoise to that strange inner world. My family and my profession remained the base to which I could return."
"In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential that we embody. If we do not embody that, life is wasted."
"To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin."
"The MacGuffin is that thing which is most important to us - that most essential thing. The audience will supply it, each member for himself."
"What is essential here is the presence of the spirit of dialogue, which is in short, the ability to hold many points of view in suspension, along with a primary interest in the creation of common meaning."
"Only what is essential must be said."
"Music, I suppose, will be the thing that sustains me in the time of my life when I am too old for sex and not quite ready to meet God. It has always been an essential part of me."
"My ignorance is essential. I do not write what I know but what I need to know."
"You are not merely the physical body that you identify with out of habit. Your essential state is a field of infinite possibilities."
"Surveillance technologies now available - including the monitoring of virtually all digital information - have advanced to the point where much of the essential apparatus of a police state is already in place."
