# Importance

Importance is a word denoting "special significance". It is an indication of a quality or condition of being especially worthy of note, useful, vital, essential, or even necessary, relative to various aims or values.
    CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

## Quotes

    Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

### A - F

* Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
** Bible in: John R. Kohlenberger The Evangelical Parallel New Testament, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 40
* I honor my importance and the importance of others. None of us is dispensable, none of us is replacable. In the chorus of life each of us brings a True Note, a perfect pitch that adds to the harmony of the whole. I act creatively and consciously to actively endorse and encourage the expansion of those whose lives I touch. Believing in the goodness of each, I add to the goodness of all. We bless each other even in passing.
** Julia Cameron, in Blessings : Prayers and Declarations for a Heartful Life (1998)
* In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes.
** Julius Caesar in: Quote Junkie: War and Patriotism, Hagopian Institute, 12 March 2008, p. 3
* Doctor: Adelaide, I've done this sort of thing before. In small ways, saved some little people, but never someone as important as you. Oh, I'm good.
    Adelaide: Little people? What, like Mia and Yuri? Who decides they're so unimportant? You?
   * Russell T. Davies and Phil Ford, Doctor Who speaking in The Waters of Mars.
* It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
** Arthur Conan Doyle in: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Harper & brothers, 1892, p. 63
* Whoever is careless with truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.
** Albert Einstein, posthumously published, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives by Gerald James Holton, Yehuda Elkana p. 388
* From the time we're born until we die, we're kept busy with artificial stuff that isn't important.
** Tom Ford in: Excellence: Inspiration for achieving your personal best, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd, 15 January 2010, p.144

### G- L

* There are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. these worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters.
** Neil Gaiman in: Drew Davidson Stories in Between: Narratives and Mediums @ Play, Lulu.com, 2008, p. 7
* Those who served, and those who continue to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and we can never forget the importance of their commitment to our Nation.
** Robin Hayes in: Congressional Record, V. 150, PT. 8, May 18, 2004 to June 1, 2004, Government Printing Office, 2009, p. 10718
* Every event is alike important. The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
** David Hume in: Timothy Dwight Theology, explained and defended, in a series of sermons: With a memoir of the life of the author, Harper, 1818, p. 193
* No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
** Martin Luther King, Jr. in: Heavenly Wisdom: Talent, Imagination, Creativity and Wisdom, Author House, 8 July 2013, p. 304
* I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.
** Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
* Your life is a collection of body parts that could be used to save many people. And you’re not doing anything. What are you doing with your life that’s so important? Come on, let’s dissemble and discombobulate you for the greatest good for the greatest number.
** Jarod Kintz in: Benson Bruno A Story that Talks about Talking Is Like Chatter to Chattering Teeth, and Every Set of Dentures Can Attest to the Fact that No., iUniverse, 20 July 2011, p. 342
* I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.
** Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.

### M - R

* None of us got to where we are alone. Whether the assistance we received was obvious or subtle, acknowledging someone's help is a big part of understanding the importance of saying thank you.
** Harvey Mackay in: A Note from Your President, Wivla Voices
* There's something you better understand about me 'cause it's important and one day your life may depend on it. … I am definitely a mad man with a box.
** Steven Moffat, in lines for the Eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, in "The Eleventh Hour" of the Doctor Who television programme (3 April 2010)
* Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift that made you cry.
** Marlene Van Niekerk in: Agaat, Tin House Books, 27 April 2010, p. 74
* You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.
** Michelle Obama in: Wit and Wisdom of America's First Ladies: A Book of Quotations, Courier Dover Publications, 19 November 2014, p. 49
* I'm important. If you only get to know me, you will see how important I am. Look into my eyes. Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.
** Sylvia Plath in: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 18 December 2007, p. 197
* ...at this season, the blossom is out in full now, there in the west early. It's a plum tree, it looks like apple blossom but it's white, and looking at it, instead of saying "Oh that's nice blossom ... last week looking at it through the window when I'm writing, I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it. Things are both more trivial than they ever were, and more important than they ever were, and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn't seem to matter. But the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous, and if people could see that, you know. There's no way of telling you; you have to experience it, but the glory of it, if you like, the comfort of it, the reassurance ... not that I'm interested in reassuring people - bugger that. The fact is, if you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it.
** Dennis Potter in: Melvyn Bragg We tend to forget that life can only be defined in the present tense, The Guardian, 12 September 2007
* I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession and one of unequaled importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people.
** Joseph Pulitzer in: Elizabeth A. Brennan, Elizabeth C. Clarage Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, p. 9
* Why is it so important - what others have done? Why does it become sacred by the mere fact of not being your own? Why is anyone and everyone right - so long as it's not yourself? Why does the number of those others take the place of truth? Why is truth made a mere matter of arithmetic - and only of addition at that? Why is everything twisted out of all sense to fit everything else?
** Ayn Rand in: The Fountainhead, Time Apt. Group, 8 September 2014, p. 6
* One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.
** Bertrand Russell in: The Conquest of Happiness, Routledge, 12 October 2012, p. 48

### S - Z

* Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.
** Elsa Schiaparelli in: Words For The Journey: Commonly used words with definitions and quotes to remind us to enjoy the journey otherwise known as life, Trafford Publishing, 29 June 2012, p. 19
* We know we cannot underestimate the importance of emergency planning in our region, nor can we assume we'll have ample warning time. If an earthquake or terrorist attack hits, we won't necessarily have advance alerts or opportunities to double- and triple-check our plans.
** Ellen Tauscher in: Terry Reese Downing Martyrs in Paradise, AuthorHouse, 2009, p. 273
* What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
** A.W. Tozer in: James Bryan Smith The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows, InterVarsity Press, 14 December 2009, p. 88
* Shadow is the obstruction of light. Shadows appear to me to be of supreme importance in perspective, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be ill defined; that which is contained within their outlines and their boundaries themselves will be ill-understood unless they are shown against a background of a different tone from themselves.
** Leonardo da Vinci in: Sean Cubitt The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technologies from Prints to Pixels, MIT Press, 5 September 2014, p. 171
* Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
** George Washington in: Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Knowles & Vose, 1844, p. 40
* If woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance (...); as great as a man, some think even greater. But this is woman in fiction. In fact, as Professor Trevelyan points out [in his History of England], she was locked up, beaten and flung about the room.
** Virginia Woolf in: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf, Wordsworth Editions, 2007, p. 590