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.
"I am not so foolish as to declaim against forms. Forms are as essential as bodies; but to exalt particular forms, to adhere to oneform a moment after it is outgrown, is unreasonable, and it is alien to the spirit of Christ."
"The escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love of what is simple and beautiful; independence, and cheerful relation, these are the essentials."
"Power is in nature the essential measure of right."
"The compassionate actions of a Buddha are essential to reforming and revitalizing society."
"I also know that we should cultivate our gardens."
"The public must retain control of the great waterways. It is essential that any permit to obstruct them for reasons and on conditions that seem good at the moment should be subject to revision when changed conditions demand."
"Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic."
"Agreeable society is the first essential in constituting the happiness and of course the value of our existence."
"What is essential does not die but clarifies."
"Hitler understood the demagogues' essential principle to teach or persuade is far more difficult than to stir emotion."
"What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man's safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough."
"Systems and processes are essential to keep the crusade going, but they should not replace the crusade."
"Everything depends on the attitude of the artist toward his subject. It is essential."
"We live in an essential and unresolvable tension between our unity with nature and our dangerous uniqueness. Systems that attempt to place and make sense of us by focusing exclusively either on the uniqueness or the unity are doomed to failure. But we must not stop asking and questing because the answers are complex and ambiguous."
"It was essential that I never show doubt about what I was doing."
"The fire in the belly is essential, otherwise you become Michael Buble - famous and meaningless."
"People don't realize that when they 'throw out' their back, it's often because of weak abs. These muscles are essential for lower-back strength and good posture."
"The essentials are to learn to shape God with forethought, care, and work; to educate and benefit their community, their families and themselves; and to contribute to the fulfillment of the Destiny."
"Room to swing a cat, it seemed was absolutely essential. It was an infrequent but indispensable operation."
"I have lived hard and ruined the essential innocence [sic] in myself that could make it that possible [sic], and the fact that I have abused liquor is something to be paid for with suffering and death perhaps but not renunciation."
