Dullness Quotes - Page 3

• There is no room for the impurities of literature in an essay.... the essay must be pure--pure like water or pure like wine, but pure from dullness, deadness, and deposits of extraneous matter.

  Virginia Woolf

  Wine, Water, Literature

  Virginia Woolf, David Bradshaw (2009). “Selected Essays”, p.14, Oxford University Press

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• The great fact in life, the always possible escape from dullness, was the lake. The sun rose out of it, the day began there; it was like an open door that nobody could shut. The land and all its dreariness could never close in on you. You had only to look at the lake, and you knew you would soon be free.

  Willa Cather

  Lakes, Doors, Land

  Willa Cather (2002). “The Professor's House”, p.31, U of Nebraska Press

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• Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!

  Boris Pasternak

  Sleep, Long, Understanding

  Roger Martin du Gard, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, Gabriela Mistral (1971). “Roger Martin du Gard: Gabriela Mistral ; Boris Pasternak”

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• The things that we preceive as beautiful may be different, but the actual characteristics we ascribe to beautiful objects are similar. Think about it. When something strikes us as beautiful, it displays more presence and sharpness of shape and vividness of color, doesn't it? It stands out. It shines. It seems almost iridescent compared to the dullness of other objects less attractive.

  James Redfield

  Beautiful, Thinking, Color

  James Redfield (2009). “Celestine Insights - Limited Edition of Celestine Prophecy and Tenth Insight”, p.31, Hachette UK

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• The head of dullness, unlike the tail of the torpedo, loses nothing of the benumbing and lethargizing influence by reiterated discharges.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Tails, Influence, Torpedoes

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• The commonplace needs no defence,Dullness is in the critic's eyes,Without a licence life evolvesFrom some dim phase its own surprise;Under these yellow-twinkling elms,Behind these hedges trimly shorn,As in a stable once, so hereIt may be born, it may be born.

  William Plomer

  Eye, Yellow, Needs

  William Plomer (1973). “Collected poems”

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• Either over neither, both over either/or, live-and-let-live over stand-or die, high spirits over low, energy over apathy, wit over dullness, jokes over homilies, good humor over jokes, good nature over bad, feeling over sentiment, truth over poetry, consciousness over explanations, tragedy over pathos, comedy over tragedy, entertainment over art, private over public, generosity over meanness, charity over murder, love over charity, irreplaceable over interchangeable, divergence over concurrence, principle over interest, people over principle.

  Marvin Mudrick

  Art, People, Generosity

  Marvin Mudrick (1981). “Nobody Here But Us Chickens”

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• Although the primitive in art may be both interesting and impressive, as portrayed in American fiction it is conspicuous for dullness alone. Drab persons living drab lives, observed by drab minds and reported in drab writing.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Art, Writing, Interesting

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• And some cease feeling
  Even themselves or for themselves.
  Dullness best solves
  The tease and doubt of shelling

  Wilfred Owen

  War, Feelings, Doubt

  Wilfred Owen (1965). “The Collected poems of Wilfred Owen”, p.37, New Directions Publishing

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• Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence.

  John of Kronstadt

  Forgiveness, Christian, Mercy Of God

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• What have I gained by health? Intolerable dullness. What by mode meals? A total blank.

  Charles Lamb

  Health, Meals, Blank

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• Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Loss, Self Improvement, Drink

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, p.126, Applewood Books

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• Art is not some inessential frippery - it is the nation's means of intelligently regarding itself. To cripple or stigmatize the arts is to doom one's nation to a life of incuriosity, dullness, literalness and the worst kind of rank materialism.

  George Saunders

  Art, Mean, Kind

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• Dullness is the only crime for which an editor ought to be hung.

  Josephus Daniels

  Editors, Crime, Ought

  Josephus Daniels (1941). “Editor in Politics”

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• Nothing can shock a brave man but dullness.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Bravery, Shock

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.121, Penguin

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• The devil's name is dullness.

  Robert E. Lee

  Names, Boredom, Devil

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• Certainly I do not wish that instead of these masters I had read baby books, written down to children, and with such ignorant dullness that they blunt the sense and corrupt the tastes of the still plastic human being. But I do wish that I had read no books at all till later - that I had lived with toys, and played in the open air. Children should not cull the fruits of reflection and observation early, but expand in the sun, and let thoughts come to them. They should not through books antedate their actual experiences.

  Margaret Fuller

  Baby, Children, Book

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• Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.

  Edith Sitwell

  God, Reality, Vulgarity Is

  "Taken Care Of" by Edith Sitwell, (Ch. 19), 1965.

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• Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are on our side! I mean those poets and painters, singers and musicians, novelists and playwrights who speak to the world in a way that is impervious to assault because they wage the battle for justice in a sphere which is unreachable by the dullness of ordinary political discourse.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Artist, Justice

  Howard Zinn (2012). “The Historic Unfulfilled Promise”, p.65, City Lights Publishers

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• In life courtesy and self-possession, and in the arts style, are the sensible impressions of the free mind, for both arise out of a deliberate shaping of all things and from never being swept away, whatever the emotion into confusion or dullness.

  William Butler Yeats

  Life, Art, Self

  William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

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• I think what we call the dullness of things is a disease in ourselves. Else how could anyone find an intense interest in life? And many do.

  George Eliot

  Blessing, Thinking, Bored

  George Eliot (2015). “Daniel Deronda”, p.444, Booklassic

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• But by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses; in that things which strike the sense outweigh things which do not immediately strike it, though they be more important. Hence it is that speculation commonly ceases where sight ceases; insomuch that of things invisible there is little or no observation.

  Francis Bacon

  Science, Sight, Understanding

  Francis Bacon (2012). “The Great Instauration”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

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• Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection rests on circumstantial evidence.

  George Santayana

  Real, Believe, Sadness

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• Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter.

  Philip Yancey

  Prayer, Believe, Irritation

  Philip Yancey (1995). “The Jesus I Never Knew”, p.298, Harper Collins

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• The difference between an interesting and a tedious teacher consists in little more than the inventiveness by which the one is able to mediate these associations and connections, and in the dullness in discovering such transitions which the other shows.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Educational

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