50 Superficiality Quotes to Transform Judgement

By Clifton Sankofa | Published September 17, 2023

Take a moment to read our Superficiality quotes and learn the science behind why you should never judge a book by its cover.

You have undoubtedly heard the adage, don’t judge a book by its cover, but have you ever stopped to consider what it means truly?

Can having a perceived flaw, unique attribute, or significant difference be an advantage?

Check out our superficiality quotes to learn more.

What is superficiality?

By definition, superficiality is a lack of thoroughness, depth of character, or serious thought.

Superficiality is synonymous with a lack of intelligence.

Superficial individuals disapprove of people and things for reasons that are not thought out deeply; their disapproval may come from a result of not fully understanding.

Here are some traits of a superficial person:

Their worldview is shaped by criticizing others.
They put a lot of energy into appearance and status.
They engage in gossip because they cannot engage in meaningful conversation.

Why you should never judge a book by its cover

At face value, Fyodor Dosteovesky and Alexander Solzhenitsyn do not seem like people I would have much in common with: they are Russian writers born before my time.

Many differences separate us: race, location, culture, era, and age.

Yet, when I looked past my initial reservations and superficiality, I discovered writers who captured the spirit of my own vision!

Solzhenitsyn said, “Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century.”

Their works taught me how much my culture had in common with people from across the planet in very different yet similar conditions.

It is easier to find connections when you open yourself up to what is possible.

How does superficiality benefit you?

The other side of superficiality is appreciation.

When people know who they are, they are unafraid to express themselves as they wish.

Being unique or different has a considerable advantage: it becomes an automatic filter for superficial people.

Being different improves the chances that you will spend your time with people who love you for who you are rather than for superficial qualities.

It might sound strange initially, but when someone behaves superficially, consider it a blessing.

Who would want to be friends with superficial people?

How would you benefit from spending time with people who judge you for physical or personal attributes?

Keep being you, and it will naturally weed out individuals who do not have your best interest at heart.

To learn more, check out our superficiality quotes below.

Short superficiality quotes about authenticity

We start our list with these short quotes about superficiality.

1. “What I do know is superficial.” — Franz Kafka

2. “Deep down, I’m pretty superficial.” — Ava Gardner

3. “I don’t have time for superficial friends.” — Courteney Cox+

4. “My everyday job is about superficial beauty.” — Bar Refaeli

5. “I am not superficial, and I am not ungrateful.” — Brigitte Bardot

6. “Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.” — Ross Perot

7. “The difference between people and ideas is only superficial.” — Richard Rorty

8. “I want, by understanding myself, to understand others.” — Katherine Mansfield

9. “Art cannot result from sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects.” — Hans Hofmann

10. “The great danger of the new media is that it seems to relish the superficial.” — Robert Barron

The top superficiality quotes getting to the truth

What is real? What is authentic? These quotes help us see the difference between the two.

11. “This is a very superficial job.”— Selena Gomez

12. “Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative.” — William S. Burroughs

13. “Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

14. “Superficial similarities exist between Christianity and some ancient pagan religions.” — Carl E. Olson

15. “When you come right down to it, opinions are the most superficial things about anyone” — Jorge Luis Borges

16. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” — Thomas Paine

17. “The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.” — Ansel Adams

18. “It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.” — Edgar Allan Poe

19. “Freud said that we are born as a tabula rasa. This is a model that simply is too superficial and inadequate.” — Stanislav Grof

20. “Too many young folk have addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth, and love.” — Cornel West

The best superficiality quotes for seeing through the fake

Check out these interesting superficiality quotes.

21. “I am a deeply superficial person.” — Andy Warhol

22. “Superficial religion is rampant in the world today.” — David Platt

23. “If we get our self-esteem from superficial places, we will be disappointed.” — Kathy Ireland

24. “To be interested solely in technique would be a very superficial thing to me.” — Andrew Wyeth

25. “Superficial religion consists of merely believing certain truths and doing certain things.” — David Platt

26. “You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.” — Nelson Mandela

27. “The feeling is often the deeper truth, the opinion the more superficial one.” — Augustus William Hare

28. “In analyzing history, do not be too profound, for often the causes are quite superficial.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

29. “We pamper the present like a spoiled child, obeying its superficial demands but ignoring its real needs.” — Robert Grudin

30. “It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree but also to those who have expressed more superficial views.” — Aristotle

Superficiality quotes and sayings to live by

These superficiality quotes remind us that paradise is a mindset.

31. “Photography concentrates one’s eye on the superficial.” — Franz Kafka

32. “Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

33. “I suppose if you’re really lonely, you can call a superficial friend, but otherwise, what’s the point?” — Courteney Cox

34. “The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.” — Will Durant

35. “Paradise is just paradise. Mournful, monotonous, and superficial though it may be, it is paradise. There is no other.” — Jean Baudrillard

36. “As we get past our superficial material wants and instant gratification, we connect to a deeper part of ourselves, as well as to others and the universe.” — Judith Wright

37. “The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one’s soul shine through.” — Fran Lebowitz

38. “That which you or I think is most unique about ourselves we hide. In ordinary discourse, in the normal state, we share our common self, our superficial self.” — Robert E. Quinn

39. “This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

40. “To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become, the more earnest we grow.” — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Famous superficial quotes from bright minds

We close our list with these wise quotes about superficiality

41. “Superficial people stay away from me.” — Method Man

42. “How we look though it is superficial and immutable has a huge impact on our lives.” — Cameron Russell

43. “Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings.” — Emma Goldman

44. “The adornment of the body is a human need. I don’t see anything superficial about it unless your life becomes very materialistic.” — David LaChapelle

45. “Although for some people, cinema means something superficial and glamorous, it is something else. I think it is the mirror of the world.” — Jeanne Moreau

46. “The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly, not that it engages in gestures of superficial equality.” — William Rehnquist

47. “Photography does deal with ‘truth’ or a kind of superficial reality better than any of the other arts, but it never questions the nature of reality.” — Duane Michals

48. “I wish, naturally, to prevent the possibility that someone may write an accidental, superficial, incomplete, and perhaps untrue picture of me.” — Conrad Veidt

49. “A man’s character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.” — Hesketh Pearson

50. “There is no sphere of human thought in which it is easier to show superficial cleverness and the appearance of superior wisdom than in discussing questions of currency and exchange” — Winston Churchill