"A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away."

Joseph Joubert Literature See all quotes by Joseph Joubert →

React to this quote

More by Joseph Joubert

See all

“All these philosophers are no more than surgeons.”

“Fortunately, when he lacks reason he also lacks words.”

“In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.”

“Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.”

“The punishment of those who have loved women too much is to love them forever.”

“Of what must be said and what must not be said. The importance of knowing.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The manufacturing worker almost always lives in the countryside and in a more or less patriarchal relation to his landlord or employer; the proletarian lives, for the most part, in the city and his re…"

— Friedrich Engels

Philosophy1796–1860

#work

"Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die."

— Thomas Carlyle

Philosophy1795–1881

#life

"Almost nothing in Perl serves a single purpose."

— Larry Wall

Technology1954

#music

"I've always had to do things my way; I've gotten high my way, I've gotten clean my way, I've been in and out of relationships my way. I've taken myself to the edges of life my way. And I'm still here.…"

— Slash (musician)

Music1965

#life