Quotes About Practicality

Enthusiasm is as brittle as crystal, but Common Sense is durable as brass.

truth is a poor test for knowledge. The real test is utility.

All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless!

Much contemporary popular writing on genetics assumes that it should be possible to reconstruct living systems from the bottom up, starting with the raw DNA code. And that is precisely the sort of procedure we have just seen to be so entirely impracticable. Clearly, we need first to narrow the options. And there is only one way to do that; we must observe how nature itself has narrowed the options.

Case in point: On one of their first dates, he brought her a box of Ivory Flakes soap. Who needs flowers? Roses fade, but flaky soap available from the PX lasted months. Having Ivory Flakes was a rarity in itself, and also saved her valuable time—one less line to stand in, only to find that the grocer was out. Again. That was romance, as far as Colleen was concerned. Maybe this guy was a keeper after all.

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

The benefits of knowledge can only be realized in practice.

Knowledge without action, is like having no knowledge at all!

My practicality consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall - that is my strength, my only strength.

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

We learn to do by doing.

All models are wrong; some models are useful.

In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

Only irrational fools would consistently and practically deny that 2 + 2 = 4. Not only is the answer to this equation a part of common sense, it is easily demonstrable and highly useful.

We build cars, not intellectuals

As a model, of course, I'd carried my face like a sign, holding it out a foot or so in front of me—not out of pride or vanity, God knew; those had been stamped out long ago, or at any rate, disjoined from my physical appearance. No, out of sheer practicality: here's what I am. Calling card, handshake, précis, call it what you like; it was what I had to offer to the world where I had spent my life.

I've found duct tape more effective than advice, myself.

Professional chefs aren't the only ones who get to wear an apron to work. There are welders and farriers and fishmongers and printers and grocery clerks and artists and florists and bakers and housekeepers and lab technicians and carpenters, to name a few who call an apron their uniform, and lucky them. How nice to be able to shift gears from leisure to work and back again with the tug of an apron string.

That was the essence of the good feeling: to be able to remain calm and relax while he was keyed up and confident. Never panic. Never run. Face whatever had to be faced. Be practical, reasonable, up to a point. And if reason doesn't work, get up and kick it in the teeth. Whatever the problem is.

I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.

that rational animals can hold off acting on impressions until they are scrutinized and assessed; and (2) if they are judged unreasonable – i.e. irrational or merely impractical – we can and should withhold our assent from them.

The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

You have to free your brain to roam to places that are a little impractical, and innovation consultants have come up with some great ways to encourage that. One of my favorites comes from Legrand, who tells people in group brainstorming sessions to try to come up with the WORST possible ideas that they can think of. ... Once you have a list of really, really bad suggestions - and coming up with them does force your brain to work in a different way - you try to flip them over into the positive.

It is better to be safe than sorry.