The university's business is the conservation of useless knowledge; and what the university itself apparently fails to see is that this enterprise is not only noble but indispensable as well, that society can not exist unless it goes on.
Albert J. Nock

The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.
Thomas Hardy

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.
Esther Williams

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
Niccolo Machiavelli

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
Bertrand Russell

There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
Herodotus

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Peter Drucker

There is nothing useless to men of sense.
Jean de La Fontaine

There's really nothing else I'm going to do with my life. I'd be useless if I weren't singing or acting.
Taryn Manning

There's something that happens in that delivery room, when a woman becomes ten times more a woman, and a guy becomes six times less a man. You feel really dopey and useless and like a spectator. I did, anyway.
Paul Reiser

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.
Thomas More

This bloody past suggests to us that enemies cease hostilities only when they are battered enough to acknowledge that there is no hope in victory - and thus that further resistance means only useless sacrifice.
Victor Davis Hanson

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.
George S. Patton

Useless knowledge can be made directly contributory to a force of sound and disinterested public opinion.
Albert J. Nock

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
Charles de Montesquieu

We must not confuse distortion with innovation; distortion is useless change, art is beneficial change.
Chuck Jones

Well, one doesn't try to hold Cass and Denny and Michelle together. It's a useless task to start with. You just sort of stay out of the way and let things roll as they can.
John Phillips

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.
Thomas Merton

When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.
Henry Miller

When you can't do something truly useful, you tend to vent the pent up energy in something useless but available, like snappy dressing.
Lois McMaster Bujold