Overused Quotes & Sayings

Men, crumpled like bed-sheets in hospitals,
And women, battered like overused proverbs. — Vladimir Mayakovsky

He wanted to laugh. Only, the sound wouldn't come out. He couldn't summon even a wry humor, not anymore. Light! I can't keep this up. My eyes see as if in a fog, my hand is burned away, and the old wounds in my side rip open if I do anything more strenuous than breathe. I'm dry, like an overused well. I need to finish my work here and get to Shayol Ghul.
Otherwise, there won't be anything left of me for the Dark One to kill.
That wasn't a thought to cause laughter; it was one to cause despair. But Rand did not weep, for tears could not come from steel.
For the moment, Lews Therin's cries seemed enough for both of them. — Robert Jordan

I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me underpriviledged was overused, I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime, but I have a great vocabulary. — Jules Feiffer

When you look through a window you gasp at the beautiful tree in the backyard or the magical sunrise coming over the horizon, No one looks at a window and is taken away by the complexity of the transparency of millions of atoms joined together to form, from our perception of a crystal clear yet structural opening to the exterior, the same is with life, if you spend your whole life being a medium to enable others then you will be nothing but a sheet of glass, overused, underappreciated, and fragile to opportunity — Addison Killebrew

Worldwide is an overused word. But it's true that being known has given me new ideas and a chance to get to know new people who think in different ways. I want to hear myself referred to as Elie Saab, without labels or titles. — Elie Saab

When you know what you like and what you want and you're able to nudge things in the right direction, that's more profitable than ever, because there's so much information out there. Everything's saturated. Tastemaker is probably the most overused word, but I still think it's important. — A-Trak

In England "The Day After," though unpopular with viewers, seems to have confirmed the average Englishman's mindless prejudice against Kansas. Shortly after the film portrayed that state being turned into an overused barbecue pit by nuclear weapons, support for British nuclear weapons rose a full percentage point. — Emmett Tyrrell

Melodies are just honest. They can only be what they are. Words have the capacity for deception. They're all full of subtext, and some of them are cliche and overused and vernacular. They're tricky. All I can say is, words are tricky. — Andrew Bird

I think that Lethal Weapon-style dialogue is overused, it's a necessary aspect of high action films where you have to have the smart retort. You have to say "I'll be back baby" and stuff. It's not my style. — George Lucas

It's a timeline!' Elysia exclaimed.
'Thanks, Captain Obvious,' said Ferbus.
Elysia glared at him. 'Thank you, Captain Overused Expression.'
'No, thank you, Captain Shut Your Facehole. — Gina Damico

NEED is an overused word. A swirling human figure erupted from the sand - Leo's least favorite goddess, the Mistress of Mud, the Princess of Potty Sludge, Gaea herself. — Rick Riordan

The weapons a writer has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example.I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers. What is the point of trying to put down on paper emotions that are too complex, too huge, too overwhelming to be confined by an alphabet? Love isn't the only word that fails. Hate does, too. — Jodi Picoult

Love is a word that is overused these days, due to other lesser feelings often being mistaken for it. Infatuation, admiration, and attraction can pose as love, and can sometimes overwhelm us and fool us into thinking that we have found the real thing when we haven't. Those other feelings may be pleasant for a time, but they are not real love. Real love is rare. It's something that, quite honestly, I believe very few people ever truly experience. — Marian Vere

One of the least meaningful and most overused words in the English language is 'sustainability.' For most Americans, it means something like 'pretty much the way I live right now, though maybe with a different car.' A good test of any activity or product described as sustainable is to multiply it by 300 million (the approximate current population of the United States) and then by 9 or 10 billion (the expected population of the world by midcentury) and see if it still seems green. This is not an easy test to pass — David Owen

I like animal sidekicks. They seem to be a pretty cool trope of post-apocalyptic fiction - just because if you're going to have this lone protagonist, they're going to need someone to talk to. Dogs are overused, and cats are dumb. So that leaves monkeys. — Brian K. Vaughan

I've read way too much on the overused/misunderstood buzzwords "Show, don't tell!" that I'm convinced all novels should now be picture books — Michael Kroft

The word love is so overused that is has become saturated and now it tastes like nothing. — Nakia R. Laushaul

I'm human. The single most overused excuse on the planet for doing the absolute wrong thing. — Debra Webb

Paradise" is a suffering word, grossly overused and ineptly devalued in everyday hype and blurb. Yet, tired as it is, it will have to do. Nothing else conveys that sense of place that can inspire a blissful contentment. — Andrew Rayner

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey. — Alan Rickman

I'm often asked how I define "success." It's an overused term, but I fundamentally view this elusive beast as a combination of two things - achievement and appreciation. One isn't enough:
Achievement without appreciation makes you ambitious but miserable.
Appreciation without achievement makes you unambitious but happy. — Timothy Ferriss

I think the term 'friend' itself has lost almost all of its exclusivity. Even the term 'good friend' is overused. Adding the word 'vital' provides a clear definition of what we mean. — Tom Rath

I find the mantle of, she works hard for the money, or, she's overcome so many obstacles a bit overused. — Marlee Matlin

I don't like to use 'gourmet' because it has become so overused and abused. — Arthur Schwartz

The practice does lose its charm if overused - — Meg Cabot

Sometimes a sound gets overused. There is such a thing as a good saxophone, but it's like those fields in agriculture - they need to rest for a year or so. You need time to burn all the saxophones and start from scratch. — Thomas Mars

Big actions, in our system of checks and balances, require approval by Congress and have to pass constitutional muster by the Supreme Court, and some powers are reserved to the states. So this overused "czar" word is a little misleading. But the things America ought to do should include the following: — Denis Hayes

If these Mount Everests of the financial world are going to labor and bring forth still more pictures with people being blown to bits with bazookas and automatic assault rifles with no gory detail left unexploited, if they are going to encourage anxious, ambitious actors, directors, writers and producers to continue their assault on the English language by reducing the vocabularies of their characters to half a dozen words, with one colorful but overused Anglo-Saxon verb and one unbeautiful Anglo-Saxon noun covering just about every situation, then I would like to suggest that they stop and think about this: making millions is not the whole ball game, fellows. Pride of workmanship is worth more. Artistry is worth more. — Gregory Peck

I just feel like sometimes I'm a force to be dealt with. My talents are sometimes overused and also sometimes underused. It's not easy being me. — Ben Affleck

Anyone who truly cares about children must be repelled by the insistence on ranking them, rating them, and labeling them. Whatever the tests measure is not the sum and substance of any child. The tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, potential. When overused and misused, when attached to high stakes, the tests stifle the very creativity and ingenuity that our society needs most. Creativity and ingenuity stubbornly resist standardization. Tests should be used sparingly to help students and teachers, not to allocate rewards and punishments and not to label children and adults by their scores. — Diane Ravitch

snow is overused. — N.D. Wilson

Fear was like heat applied to steal: Applied correctly it might forge a blade; overused, it turned metal to slag. — Alexander Freed

Mere faith is the path of the lazy. It is the overused excuse of the deluded. Get off your ass and make something happen yourself. — Dave Matthes

seven tips for gaining the response rate you want with direct mail. 1. The headline of your brochure should ask for the order. 2. The copy should always tell the person what to do next. 3. Blue is a dandy second color, but red with black is generally the best-pulling direct-mail combination. 4. Red can be overused; use it primarily for highlights. 5. Experts say that the four most important elements in direct mail are the list, the offer, the copy, and the graphics. Guerrillas pay close attention to each. 6. The fastest-growing segment of the direct-mail industry is nontraditional mailers - those who haven't used direct mail in the past. 7. Direct-mail success comes with the cumulative effect of repeat mailings. Make them repetitive yet different from one another. — Jay Conrad Levinson

There is no such thing as magic. It is a word. A silly, foolish, overused word. There is only your aura ... or the Chinese have a better word for it: qi. A life force. An energy. This is the energy that flows within you. It can be shaped, molded, directed. — Michael Scott

I've probably overused this analogy of a flock of birds moving around an object in flight, but, in reality, it's so simple, real time communication of individuals that allow for this super organism type of organism to happen. — Biz Stone

I think success might be one of the most overused words in the western world, and maybe if we changed success for happiness we would be better off, because when you get this 'success' will it make you happier? Are we chasing money, fame, power, ego, success, or are we chasing happiness, freedom and the feeling of being content? — Evan Sutter

Well, I think likability is an overused word. I don't watch people 'cause I like them; I watch them because they're compelling. Sympathetic is a little different. Likable just thins you out. Working to make a character likable is what kills most TV shows. — Louis C.K.

The truth is that people who live for the future are, as we say of the insane, "not quite all there" - or here: by overeagerness they are perpetually missing the point. Foresight is bought at the price of anxiety, and, when overused, it destroys all its own advantages. The — Alan W. Watts

I think the most overused words in our vocabulary in the South are black and white. — Artur Davis

It had to be that Americans were taught, from elementary school, to always "say something" in class, no matter what. [...] They never said "I don't know". They said, instead, "I'm not sure," which did not give any information but still suggested the possibility of knowledge. And they ambled, these Americans, they walked without rhythm. They avoided giving direct instructions: they did not say "Ask somebody upstairs"; they said "You might want to ask somebody upstairs". When you tripped and fell, when you choked, when misfortune befell you, they did not say "Sorry". They said "Are you OK?" when it was obvious that you were not. And when you said "Sorry" to them when they choked or tripped or encountered misfortune, they replied, eyes wide with surprise, "Oh, it's not your fault". And they overused the world "excited", a professor excited about a new book, a student excited about a class, a politician on TV excited about a law; it was altogether too much excitement. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Outside the box is an overused cliche which goes nowhere near far enough. In fact, there are so many politicians and salesmen thinking outside the box these days that I am convinced that all of their boxes are completely empty! — Lance Greenfield

The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong - that's when adventure starts — Yvon Chouinard

do you want to know how to seduce the night?
this is not a poem about the stars or the moon
because we all know i have overused those terms and i
believe with the abundance of anything brings
with it a deadly exhaustion we all cannot afford.
if you truly want to fuck the night and i mean
fuck it hard and with purpose so that fucking
becomes making love and making love becomes
forever then i suggest you get off your lazy ass and
create art. create it with your soul and your soul
alone and do not be afraid of what
spills out of it. no matter the absurdness or the
darkness or the sadness just let yourself be free. — Christopher Poindexter

Soulmate is an overused term, but a true soul connection is very rare, and very real. — Hilary Duff

Because we are not powerless biochemical machines, popping a pill every time we are mentally or physically out of tune is not the answer. Drugs and surgery are powerful tools when they are not overused, but the notion of simple drug fixes is fundamentally flawed. Every time a drug is introduced into the body to correct function A, it inevitably throws off function B, C, or D. It is not gene-directed hormones and neurotransmitters that control our bodies and our minds; our beliefs control our bodies, our minds, and thus our lives ... Oh ye of little belief! — Bruce H. Lipton

I definitely subscribe to the idea that 9/11, to use an overused phrase, was a wake-up call. There was a year-long national teach-in on Islam - everyone read books and suddenly talked about Islam, and that was very productive. But there's no doubt that moment has passed. — Bruce Feiler

Reason has survival value, but when overused at the expense of our intuition, feeling, and spirit, reason cuts us off from discovering our full potential. — Dan Millman

The weapons an author has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example. I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers. — Jodi Picoult

There is something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that's unbearably sad. Like most unbearably sad things, it seems incredibly elusive and complex in its causes and simple in its effect: on board the Nadir - especially at night - I felt despair. The wor's overused and banalified now, despair, but it's a serious word, and I'm using it seriously. — David Foster Wallace

The phrase 'perception is reality' is overused generally. But perception can be reality in monetary policy. The bond market doesn't act merely on what it sees. It acts on what it expects of the Fed or the government. — Amity Shlaes

I have had periods when I've overused a word, 'candent' being one example, but I'm trying not to do that any more. — Neal Asher

I think it tends to be overused and can be a little bit gimmicky. A lot of people are using 3-D now because they feel have they have to ... that will come and go and the pictures that deserve to be in 3-D will continue to be. When it's done bad, it can make you carsick. — Joe Johnston

I don't buy that overused line about a woman's job making her a better mother. The children need more time. Everything in our home needs more time. — Holly Peterson

Even if I had $200 million, I'm very wary of overusing CGI. I think it's a great tool and it can be used really effectively, but I feel like it does tend to be overused and especially in sci-fi stuff. — Rian Johnson

A trite word is an overused word which has lost its identity like an old coat in a second-hand shop. The familiar grows dull and we no longer see, hear, or taste it. — Anais Nin

The argument could be made that the word 'hero' is overused. I do not think, however, that this is the case when referring to teachers. — Steve Maraboli

I think what some people are doing with effects is starting to get silly. It's overused. — Richard Donner

I felt despair. The word's overused and banalified now, despair, but it's a serious word, and I'm using it seriously. For me it denotes a simple admixture - a weird yearning for death combined with a crushing sense of my own smallness and futility that presents as a fear of death. It's maybe close to what people call dread or angst. But it's not these things, quite. It's more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable feeling of becoming aware that I'm small and weak and selfish and going without any doubt at all to die. It's wanting to jump overboard. — David Foster Wallace

Use lots of exclamation points. They love to be overused. — SARK

What's happening on the Colorado River is happening all over the world. The water is overused, overdammed, and it's polluted in some places. — Greg MacGillivray

Joe switched off. Was apocalyptic the most overused word of the new century? Every fucking chunk of ice that broke off and fell into the fucking foamy deep was a fucking apocalypse. — Gerard Stembridge

They had known that it would happen. Yet they had not prevented it. Their world had been overused, abused, their forests logged, their precious fossil fuels wasted, their rich obscenely wealthy, their poor reduced to beggary. They had been powerful enough to put up the satellites, they had plated the landscape with their roads, crisscrossed it with their machines. And now where were they? — Kerry Greenwood

I'd like to change the depictions of life, love, and adventure under what's known as the typical, overused backdrop of Hollywood. — Romany Malco

I always considered "love" to be such an ambiguous term, often both overused and underused, but I knew that I was feeling something that I'd never felt before. — Matt Abrams

I've always said that the word 'genius,' especially in Hollywood, is way overused. — Ted McGinley

I've learned that 'love' is used a lot in the States for everything: 'I love that burger,' 'I love my shoes,' 'I love a friend.' To me, if it's overused, it loses meaning. — Juan Pablo Galavis

Steve McQueen is a genius. And I think that word is overused, but I think with Steve it's rightly used. He's a genius. — Lupita Nyong'o

It's tough to have an authentic relationship with awe in the age of awesome, a word that has become so overused as to be drained of its meaning. — Sharon Salzberg

It's too bad the word miracle has been overused, because I swear it's the only word that fit the feeling of holding my daughter in my arms. My heart swelled to the size of the world. — James Patterson

Genius is an overused word. The world has known only about a half dozen geniuses. I got only fairly near. — Fritz Kreisler

Epic is a word we often hear overused these days.
Epic is Echoes or the guitar solo in Comfortably Numb.
THAT is Epic. — Sienna McQuillen

Beautiful. Jules once thought he'd understood what the word meant. He now believed it overused. Some word needed to be kept in reserve for the rare, the arresting, the surprising ... the magical. Or a new one invented. — Julie Anne Long