Shallowness Quotes:

Upright simplicity is the deepest wisdom, and perverse craft the merest shallowness.

- Isaac Barrow

source: Isaac Barrow (1849). “Eighteen Sermons on Various Subjects”, p.38

topic: Simplicity, Crafts, Shallowness

Most of the times that I think about my relationship to Judaism, I not only accuse myself of a shallowness, but I feel certain that there's a shallowness there. That's not a bad thing, really.

- Jonathan Safran Foer

source: "Jonathan Safran Foer On Marriage, Religion And Universal Balances". "Fresh Air", www.npr.org. November 10, 2016.

topic: Thinking, Judaism, Shallowness

The supreme vice is shallowness.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.99, Oxford University Press on Demand

topic: Vices, Supreme, Shallowness

Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness.

- Oswald Chambers

source: Oswald Chambers (2011). “My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition”, p.363, Discovery House

topic: Sorrow, Amount, Shallowness

Beneath all the rhetoric about relevance lies a profoundly disturbing possibility - that people may base their lives upon an illusion, upon a blatant lie. The attractiveness of a belief is all too often inversely proportional to its truth... To allow "relevance" to be given greater weight than truth is a mark of intellectual shallowness and moral irresponsibility.

- Alister E. McGrath

topic: Irresponsibility, Blatant Lies, Shallowness

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Family, Happiness, Wonder And Mystery, Do Not Judge

We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.

- Robert M. Pirsig

source: Robert M. Pirsig (2009). “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values”, p.8, Harper Collins

topic: Sorry, Years, Gone, Monotony, Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

Cartooning is preaching. And I think we have a right to do some preaching. I hate shallow humor. I hate shallow religious humor, I hate shallow sports humor, I hate shallowness of any kind.

- Charles M. Schulz

topic: Sports, Religious, Hate, Shallow Person, Religious Humor

The fear of speculation, the ostensible rush from the theoretical to the practical, brings about the same shallowness in action that it does in knowledge. It is by studying a strictly theoretical philosophy that we become most acquainted with Ideas, and only Ideas provide action with energy and ethical significance.

- Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

source: "Lectures on the Method of Academic Study" by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, translated by E. S. Morgan, edited by Norbert Guterman, 1966.

topic: Philosophy, Knowledge, Ideas, Theoretical, Shallowness

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Attitude, Belief, Shallow, Shallowness

Trivial participation ultimately bores you, leaves behind a sense of shallowness, contributes little to your deeper sense of life. Significant participation, on the other hand, engages you, enthralls and satisfies you, it contributes to the meaning of your life

- Henryk Skolimowski

topic: Healing, Hands, Littles, Shallowness

Your shallowness or greatness of the soul shows up in your aura.

- Harbhajan Singh

topic: Greatness, Soul, Auras, Shallowness

To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders...It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.31, First Avenue Editions

topic: Judging, People, Wonder, Do Not Judge, Self Mastery

Unfortunately, I did not feel ready at 27. I felt that that world was too big for me and I might make some total mistakes. I was a little afraid of going on the road. When you're that age, there are so many handsome men around, and for me, love is first. That shallowness had already knocked me really bad, and I didn't need any more of that.

- Linda Perhacs

topic: Mistake, Love Is, Men, Handsome Men, Shallowness

Consumerism is at once the engine of America and simultaneously one of the most revealing indicators of our collective shallowness.

- Henry Rollins

topic: America, Revealing, Consumerism, Shallowness

She avoids deep thought like an empty restaurant, not out of stupidity, but a canny resolve to be happy.

- Alex Shakar

source: Alex Shakar (2011). “Luminarium”, p.165, Soho Press

topic: Stupidity, Deep Thought, Empty, Shallowness

"Very" is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen. For example, would you rather hear the mincing shallowness of "I love you very much" or the heart-slamming intensity of "I love you"?

- Florence King

topic: Love You, Writing, Heart, Shallowness, I Love You Very Much

The amateur has a long list of fears. Near the top are two: Solitude and silence. The amateur fears solitude and silence because she needs to avoid, at all costs, the voice inside her head that would point her toward her calling and her destiny. So she seeks distraction. The amateur prizes shallowness and shuns depth. The culture of Twitter and Facebook is paradise for the amateur.

- Steven Pressfield

topic: Motivational, Destiny, Two, Twitter And Facebook, Shallowness

Society takes upon itself the right to inflict appalling punishment on the individual, but it also has the supreme vice of shallowness, and fails to realize what it has done. When the man's punishment is over, it leaves him to himself; that is to say, it abandons him at the very moment when its highest duty towards him begins.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.101, Oxford University Press on Demand

topic: Men, Vices, Done, Shallowness

It is often said that in today's modern and postmodern world that the forces of darkness are upon us. But I think not; in the Dark and the Deep there are truths that can always heal. It is not the forces of darkness but of shallowness that everywhere threaten the true, and the good, and the beautiful, and that ironically announce themselves as deep and profound. It is an exuberant and fearess shallowness that everywhere is the modern danger, the modern threat, and that everywhere nonetheless calls to us as savior.

- Ken Wilber

source: Ken Wilber (2001). “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition”, p.7, Shambhala Publications

topic: Beautiful, Dark, Thinking, Shallowness, Postmodern

Fine," Connor tells him. "Think about stuff until your head explodes. But the only thing I want to think about is surviving to eighteen." I find your shallowness both refreshing and disappointing at the same time. Do you think that means I need therapy?

- Neal Shusterman

source: Neal Shusterman (2009). “Unwind”, p.104, Simon and Schuster

topic: Mean, Thinking, Needs, Unwind, Shallowness

People want poetry and need it - we need what's not honored by the corporate mentality that has taken over. It gives people a language for responding to the violence, the shallowness, the near-nothings, the toys we're all supposed to want. It's a way for people to be able to connect with themselves.

- Joan Larkin

source: "Road Trip". Interview with Ali Liebegott, logger.believermag.com. October 25, 2013.

topic: Taken, People, Giving, Shallowness

The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the 'broader and kinder systems', as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.

- J. C. Ryle

topic: Teacher, Writing, School, Vagueness, Aimlessness

I wonder if ever again Americans can have that experience of returning to a home place so intimately known, profoundly felt, deeply loved, and absolutely submitted to? It is not quite true that you can't go home again. I have done it, coming back here. But it gets less likely. We have had too many divorces, we have consumed too much transportation, we have lived too shallowly in too many places.

- Wallace Stegner

topic: Home, Divorce, Done, Shallowness, Home Place

A new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God's gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished-not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty - a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption that deaden our souls and poison our relationships.

- Pope Benedict XVI

source: Eucharistic Celebration On The Occasion Of The 23-rd World Youth Day, w2.vatican.va. July 20, 2008.

topic: Life, Christian, Love Is, Beauty Of Life, Self Absorption

As for the fashion world, the one thing I respect is its shallowness: it's so deep - it's so serious. It can be hard to get that kind of shallowness because of its depth and seriousness.

- Nikki S. Lee

topic: Fashion, Serious, Depth, Fashion World, Shallowness

The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.

- Aiden Wilson Tozer

topic: World, Worship, Imitation, Shallowness, Hollowness

Yes, I'm shallow, I don't mind admitting it. Perhaps I should admit that there's no end to the depths of my shallowness.

- Franny Billingsley

topic: Mind, Depth, Admitting, Shallowness

There's a way in which all of these grazers at the spirituality buffet are performing a service, because you could argue that grazing leads to a kind of tolerance. People who incorporate teachings from a lot of different traditions into their own belief systems are going to be more tolerant than people who confine themselves within the strict boundaries of one particular religion. Does it contribute to our confusion? I don't know if it contributes to confusion so much as it is evidence of a certain kind of silliness and shallowness.

- Wendy Kaminer

topic: Teaching, Confusion, People, Shallowness

It was not the violence of our enemies [in World War I] that would undo us, I thought, but our own spiritual weakness, the shallowness of our convictions.

- Learned Hand

topic: Spiritual, War, Enemy, World War I, Shallowness

People say sometimes that Beauty is superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.27, Diversion Books

topic: People, Judging, World, Do Not Judge, Shallowness

The '80s to me, more than anything else, represents a time of real criminal activity in the office of the president: an incredibly disparate economy in terms of the class distinctions and whatnot, and a tremendous shallowness - a lot of sort of bank robbery by executives.

- Martha Plimpton

topic: Real, Class, Office, Class Distinction, Bank Robbery

Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and comercials.

- Neil Postman

topic: Ideas, Looks, Arguing, Shallowness