--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is in vain for us to devise schemes by…" description: "\"It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is the condition of life.\" — Lyman Abbott" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg" --- # It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which… ![“It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is the condition of life.” quote by Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg) > “It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is the condition of life.” [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Attempting to eliminate competition is futile; competition is an inherent life condition. **In simple terms:** Competition cannot be removed. Key Takeaway Accept and channel competition positively. Themes competition life strategy Mood thoughtful analytical Type philosophical strategic When to use this quote - business - sports - education Key Concepts economics philosophy Questions to Reflect On - How can competition be harnessed constructively? - What alternatives exist to pure competition? A Different Perspective Competition can be destructive if misused. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Civilized](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civilized/) [Competition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/competition/) [Competition Civilized](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/competition-civilized-3574795/) [Competition Condition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/competition-condition-3574797/) [Conditions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conditions/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Life Competition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-competition-653055/) [Schemes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schemes/) [Schemes Competition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schemes-competition-3574796/) [Vain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vain/) ## Related quotes > [In economic life competition is never completely lacking, but hardly ever is it perfect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-a-schumpeter/in-economic-life-competition-is-never-completely-lacking-but-hardly/) [Joseph A. Schumpeter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-a-schumpeter/) > [Life is not a competition .don't put yourself in a hurry coz somembody is ahead of u .do things with your own pace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brighton-simpsons/life-is-not-a-competition-don-t-put-yourself-in-a-hurry-coz-somembody/) [Brighton Simpsons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brighton-simpsons/) > [“Life is not a competition between men and woman. It is a collaboration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-alejandro-fearnhead/life-is-not-a-competition-between-men-and-woman-it-is-a-collaboration/) [David Alejandro Fearnhead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-alejandro-fearnhead/) > [“Life is not a competition. No one has to lose for someone else to win. A true blessing blesses everyone.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-goddard/life-is-not-a-competition-no-one-has-to-lose-for-someone-else-to-win-2/) [Donna Goddard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-goddard/) > [Life is not a competition with others. In its truest sense it is a rivalry with ourselves. We should each day seek to break…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-george-jordan/life-is-not-a-competition-with-others-in-its-truest-sense-it-is-a/) [William George Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-george-jordan/) > [I've been an athlete and competitor my whole life, and there's nothing more that I get off on than competition.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikki-bella/i-ve-been-an-athlete-and-competitor-my-whole-life-and-there-s-nothing/) [Nikki Bella](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikki-bella/) > [Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertrand-russell/life-is-nothing-but-a-competition-to-be-the-criminal-rather-than-the/) [Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertrand-russell/) > [Your desires are immense, almost infinite. Because of your desires life becomes a competition, and wherever there is competition, there is anxiety and angst;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/your-desires-are-immense-almost-infinite-because-of-your-desires-life/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Remember, life is not a competition. If anything, it's simply motivation for you to do better and try harder.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diana-rikasari/remember-life-is-not-a-competition-if-anything-it-s-simply-motivation/) [Diana Rikasari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diana-rikasari/) > [In life, it's winning - when I go to the supermarket, and I go with a friend, I try to get through the door…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-alonso/in-life-it-s-winning-when-i-go-to-the-supermarket-and-i-go-with-a/) [Fernando Alonso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-alonso/) > [“Life is not a competition. No one has to lose for someone else to win. A true blessing blesses everyone. A fragmented love which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-goddard/life-is-not-a-competition-no-one-has-to-lose-for-someone-else-to-win/) [Donna Goddard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-goddard/) > [Life is a competition not with others, but with ourselves. We should seek each day to live stronger, better, truer lives; each day to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-b-haight/life-is-a-competition-not-with-others-but-with-ourselves-we-should/) [David B. Haight](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-b-haight/) > [Life is not about competition it's about making your dreams come true and becoming independent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sfiso-maaphula-ngema/life-is-not-about-competition-it-s-about-making-your-dreams-come-true/) [Sfiso MaAphula Ngema](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sfiso-maaphula-ngema/) > [“The life is a game play it. The life is a competition chase it The Life a challenge face it The Life is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dr-t-v-rao-md/the-life-is-a-game-play-it-the-life-is-a-competition-chase-it-the/) [Dr.T.V.Rao MD](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dr-t-v-rao-md/) > [Life is a competition. Survival of the fittest, fight for what you want or someone else will take it. People don't hold doors anymore.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/life-is-a-competition-survival-of-the-fittest-fight-for-what-you-want/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by Lyman Abbott > [No man can be patient who has not strong passions, for patience is passion tamed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/no-man-can-be-patient-who-has-not-strong-passions-for-patience-is/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [We Gentiles owe our life to Israel. It is Israel who has brought us the message that God is one, and that God is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/we-gentiles-owe-our-life-to-israel-it-is-israel-who-has-brought-us/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [If the impure and the unjust, the drunkard and the licentious, are loathsome to us, what must be the infinite loathing of an infinitely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/if-the-impure-and-the-unjust-the-drunkard-and-the-licentious-are/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [I abhor a hoe. I am fond of flowers but not of dirt, and had rather buy them than cultivate them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/i-abhor-a-hoe-i-am-fond-of-flowers-but-not-of-dirt-and-had-rather-buy/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [If I am to tell you how to grow old gracefully, I must tell you at the beginning of life; for no man can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/if-i-am-to-tell-you-how-to-grow-old-gracefully-i-must-tell-you-at-the/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [Courage is caution overcome.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/courage-is-caution-overcome/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [It is easy to condemn, it is better to pity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/it-is-easy-to-condemn-it-is-better-to-pity/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [Every life is march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/every-life-is-march-from-innocence-through-temptation-to-virtue-or/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [A graceful and blessed old age must have three elements in it: a happy retrospect, a peaceful present, and an inspiring future. And old…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/a-graceful-and-blessed-old-age-must-have-three-elements-in-it-a-happy/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [A child is a beam of sunlight from the Infinite and Eternal, with possibilities of virtue and vice - but as yet unstained.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/a-child-is-a-beam-of-sunlight-from-the-infinite-and-eternal-with/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [I think of death as a glad awakening from this troubled sleep which we call life; as an emancipation from a world, which, beautiful…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/i-think-of-death-as-a-glad-awakening-from-this-troubled-sleep-which/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [A miracle constantly repeated becomes a process of nature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/a-miracle-constantly-repeated-becomes-a-process-of-nature/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [Evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life. It is simply a history of the process of life. With the secret cause…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/evolution-does-not-attempt-to-explain-the-origin-of-life-it-is-simply/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [A miracle no longer seems to me a manifestation of extraordinary power, but an extraordinary manifestation of ordinary power. God is always showing himself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/a-miracle-no-longer-seems-to-me-a-manifestation-of-extraordinary/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [Postmodernism represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/postmodernism-represents-a-moment-of-suspension-before-the-batteries/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) [Explore all 54 Lyman Abbott quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) ## More Civilized quotes > [ That country \[Carthage\] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-gibbon/that-country-carthage-was-rapidly-sinking-into-the-state-of-barbarism/) [Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-gibbon/) > [Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it; what custom hath civilized is become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-quarles/be-neither-too-early-in-the-fashion-nor-too-long-out-of-it-nor-too/) [Francis Quarles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-quarles/) > [Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-hemingway/wine-is-one-of-the-most-civilized-things-in-the-world-and-one-of-the/) [Ernest Hemingway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-hemingway/) > [Civilized nations are ones that simply can't endure wrongs or injustice except at home](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-anderson/civilized-nations-are-ones-that-simply-can-t-endure-wrongs-or/) [Joseph Anderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-anderson/) > [Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-gropius/our-guiding-principle-was-that-design-is-neither-an-intellectual-nor/) [Walter Gropius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-gropius/) > [War is not civilized.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/talib-kweli/war-is-not-civilized/) [Talib Kweli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/talib-kweli/) > [For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-an-absurdity-to-call-a-country-civilized-in-which-a-decent/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-roosevelt/no-people-is-wholly-civilized-where-a-distinction-is-drawn-between/) [Theodore Roosevelt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-roosevelt/) > [Mine was, as it were, the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields; as some states are civilized, and others half-civilized, and others savage…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/mine-was-as-it-were-the-connecting-link-between-wild-and-cultivated/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sean-o-casey/the-military-mind-is-indeed-a-menace-old-fashioned-futurity-that-sees/) [Sean O'Casey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sean-o-casey/) > [As long as there are prisons, police, armies, navies; we are not civilized. When the Earth joins together and uses the Earth intelligently, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacque-fresco/as-long-as-there-are-prisons-police-armies-navies-we-are-not/) [Jacque Fresco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacque-fresco/) > [We're all intrigued, in our civilized world that we live in, and curious about how we would get on, on an undiscovered island that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-hiddleston/we-re-all-intrigued-in-our-civilized-world-that-we-live-in-and/) [Tom Hiddleston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-hiddleston/) > [When passions and appetites are stronger than the intellect, men are savages; when the intellect governs the passions, when the passions are servants, men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/when-passions-and-appetites-are-stronger-than-the-intellect-men-are/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gore-vidal/the-malady-of-civilized-man-is-his-knowledge-of-death-the-good-artist/) [Gore Vidal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gore-vidal/) > [Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-von-clausewitz/savage-peoples-are-ruled-by-passion-civilized-peoples-by-the-mind/) [Carl von Clausewitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-von-clausewitz/) [Browse all 1,043 Civilized quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civilized/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is the condition of life.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lyman Abbott" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-by-which-competition-can-be/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Civilized" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-by-which-competition-can-be/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0a0/lyman-abbott-12542_civilized_it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-b_2818974.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is…” — Lyman Abbott", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Lyman Abbott", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It is in vain for us...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-by-which-competition-can-be/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/it-is-in-vain-for-us-to-devise-schemes-by-which-competition-can-be/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```