Vladimir Nabokov
Novelist
"And the rest is rust and stardust."
Rust quotes
Rust
76 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Wilder Penfield
Neurosurgeon
"Rest, with nothing else, results in rust. It corrodes the mechanisms of the brain. The rhubarb that no one picks goes to seed."
William Shakespeare
Playwright, Poet
"I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion."
Seneca the Younger
Philosopher, Statesman
"The rust of the mind is the destruction of genius."
Anne Sexton
Poet, Author
"There is rust in my mouth,the stain of an old kiss."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside rust — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Rust quotes (page 1 of 4)
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"I might have preferred iron - but bronze will do. It won't rust. This time I hope, the head will stay on."
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"Most people rust out due to lack of challenge. Few people rust out due to overuse."
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"Shun idleness. It is rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals."
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"What's the point of prolonging your life if you don't enjoy it? It's your body. Do whatever you want with it. Better to wear out than rust over."
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"Great talents, by the rust of long disuse, Grow lethargic and shrink from what they were."
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"Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them."
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"Prefer diligence before idleness, unless you esteem rust above brightness."
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"We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out."
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"No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches."
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"Tis better to have love and lust Than to let our apparatus rust."
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"I shall be dumped where the weed decays, And the rest is rust and stardust"
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"If you find the mirror of the heart dull, the rust has not been cleared from its face."
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"Character, character, character. First, second and third ... we were pretty rusty initially. When you have a break for a few weeks you get a bit of rust."
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"What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin."
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"Rust rust rust in the engines of love and time."
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"Just as rust, which arose from the iron itself, wears out the iron, likewise, performing an action without examination would destroy us by projecting us into a negative state of existence."
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"Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust."
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"Although I do not care for the slogan "art for art's sake", there can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art."
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"Worry... is rust upon the blade."
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"Everything there is but lovin' leaves a rust on your old soul"
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