To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and…

In discovering books, you became free to explore the full range of human motives, desires, secrets, and lies. All my life, people have scolded…

— Betsy Lerner

My conscience is really active. So I feel bad about spending excess amount of money on things.

— Syd

Christianity does not oppose debauchery and uncontrollable passions and the like as much as it opposes... flat mediocrity, this nauseating atmosphere, this homey, civil…

— Soren Kierkegaard

A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./Excess attention to the jonquil/turns it gentian. Flowers/need it tranquil to get/their hues right. Some/only open at…

— Kay Ryan

This isn't a picture filled with wonder and a sense of fun; it's so jaded and crass that I almost wonder if it's a…

— Stephanie Zacharek

Enjoy the necessities of life but eschew the excesses.

— Ian Gardner

Most of us try to do too much because we are secretly afraid we will not be able to do anything at all.

— Rick Aster

As the future is never known with certainty, the evaluation of the prospective benefits requires the formation of expectations. An acceptable house, partner or…

— Dale T. Mortensen

I believe that government should confine itself to the public realm and that it should be as stripped down as possible, within reason. It…

— Camille Paglia

All excess is ill; but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is…

— William Penn

“The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory. He’s got esprit up to here. Right now, he is preparing to carry out…

— Neal Stephenson

Well, as you know, we're working through a difficult period in our financial markets right now as we work off some of the past…

— Henry Paulson

The saints differ from us in their exuberance, the excess of our human talents. Moderation is not their secret. It is in the wildness…

— Phyllis McGinley

Despite the recent conviction of many that we're headed back to inflation, I think deflation remains the more likely prospect. You've just got too…

— Gary Shilling

Look at what I am proposing, and we [wih Bernie Sanders] have a vigorous agreement here. We both want to reign in the excesses…

— Hillary Clinton