Embellishment Quotes

• And, moreover, it is art in its most general and comprehensive form that is here discussed, for the dialogue embraces everything connected with it, from its greatest object, the state, to its least, the embellishment of sensuous existence.

  Friedrich Schleiermacher

  Art, Sensual, Embrace

  Friedrich Schleiermacher (1836). “Introductions to the Dialogues of Plato”, p.173

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• The truth is not wonderful enough to suit the newspapers; so they enlarge upon it, and invent ridiculous embellishments.

  Anne Sullivan Macy

  Women, Memorable, Reality

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• The intricate engraving, fine lines, beading and milgrain accents echo an era defined by elaborate embellishments.

  Vera Wang

  Echoes, Lines, Eras

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• Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is work of enlightenment. Art, in other words, is a technique for acquiring liberty.

  Bruce Lee

  Art, Enlightenment, Liberty

  Bruce Lee (1975). “Tao of Jeet Kune Do”, Black Belt Communications Incorporated

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• Embellishment is an irresistible and consuming impulse, going back to the beginnings of human history. ... Probably the strongest motivating force is the simplest: the inability of almost everyone to ever leave well enough alone.

  Ada Louise Huxtable

  Inability, Enough, Force

  Ada Louise Huxtable (1986). “ARCHITECTURE, ANYONE?”, Random House

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• We don't wear sequins because we think we're great. We wear them because we think sequins are great.

  Gram Parsons

  Thinking, Style, Singer-songwriters

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• Old stories have a habit of being told and retold and changed. Each subsequent storyteller puts his or her mark upon it. Whatever truth the story once had is buried in bias and embellishment. The reasons do not matter as much as the story itself.

  Erin Morgenstern

  Stories, Matter, Reason

  Erin Morgenstern (2016). “The Night Circus”, p.352, Random House

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• But if there was embellishment, it only had to do with the facts.

  Louise Erdrich

  Facts, Ifs

  Louise Erdrich (2009). “The Plague of Doves: Deluxe Modern Classic”, p.19, Harper Collins

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• Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral tradition, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life.

  Will Durant

  Art, Men, Order

  Will Durant (2011). “Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

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• You don't need candlelight and fireside glow to make Christmas happen. Trees, ornaments, gifts, and all of it are splendid embellishments. Not necessary, but so very nice. It's Him...It's priceless to discover the pleasure of His company...May your home know something of all this glory during these days.

  Jack W. Hayford

  Christmas, Nice, Home

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• When you're just singing a beautiful melody with a story that's true to the heart, you don't need a lot of embellishment.

  Emmylou Harris

  Beautiful, Heart, Singing

  Interview with Stacey D'Erasmo, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 10, 2014.

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• When we sit down to meditate, we connect with something unconditional - a state of mind, a basic environment that does not grasp or reject anything. Meditation is probably the only activity that doesn't add anything to the picture. Everything is allowed to come and go without further embellishment. Meditation is a totally nonviolent, non aggressive occupation. Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness - this provides the basis for real change.

  Pema Chodron

  Real, Space, Meditation

  Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.79, Shambhala Publications

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• If you come up with the original idea on your laptop, anything else is an embellishment of that idea. It's nice to have the option to mix inside a big studio, but at the end of the day, it comes from an original spark, which often happens while sitting on the couch.

  Hudson Mohawke

  Nice, Ideas, The End Of The Day

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Book, Beer, Light

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)”, p.1831, Delphi Classics

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• On the whole, lying is a cheerful affair. Embellishments are intended to give pleasure. People long to tell you what they imagine you want to hear. They want to amuse you; they want to amuse themselves; they want to show you a good time. This is beyond hospitality. This is art.

  Isabel Fonseca

  Art, Lying, Long

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• Uncommon expressions are a disfigurement rather than an embellishment of discourse.

  David Hume

  Expression, Style, Disfigurement

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• Beauty has so many charms, one knows not how to speak against it; and when it happens that a graceful figure is the habitation of a virtuous soul, when the beauty of the face speaks out the modesty and humility of the mind, and the justness of the proportion raises our thoughts up to the heart and wisdom of the great Creator, something may be allowed it,--and something to the embellishments which set it off; and yet, when the whole apology is read, it will be found at last that beauty, like truth, never is so glorious as when it goes the plainest.

  Laurence Sterne

  Beauty, Humility, Heart

  Laurence Sterne (1823). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: With a Life of the Author”, p.241

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• The eloquence of a scientist is clarity; scientific truth is always more luminous when its beauty is unadorned than when it is tricked out in the embellishments with which our imagination would seek to clothe it.

  Claude Bernard

  Imagination, Clarity, Truth Is

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• Few have abilities so much needed by the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms; and he that will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments must submit to the fate of just sentiment meanly expressed, and be ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fate, Arrogance, World

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.49

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• If, when we compare two versions of a story, the second known to be a retelling of the first, and find that the second has more of a miraculous element, we may reasonably conclude we have legendary (or midrashic or whatever) embellishment. The tale has grown in the telling. This sort of comparison is common in extrabiblical research and no one holds that it cannot properly indicate legend formation there.

  Robert M. Price

  Two, Religion, Atheism

  Robert M. Price (2008). “Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity”, p.117, Wildside Press LLC

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• I'm happy with embellishment in a chunky Prada-esque way, but I'm not into sequins!

  Ashley Madekwe

  Way, Prada, Sequins

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I'm an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. I grow my art. I use the garden soil like it's a piece of cloth, and the plants and the trees, that's my embellishment for that cloth. You'd be surprised what the soil can do if you let it be your canvas.

  Ron Finley

  Inspiring, Art, Garden

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• Among the numerous requisites that must concur to complete an author, few are of more importance than an early entrance into the living world. The seed of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public. Argumentation may be taught in colleges, and theories formed in retirement; but the artifice of embellishment and the powers of attraction can be gained only by a general converse.

  Samuel Johnson

  Retirement, Writing, College

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.215, Univ of California Press

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• We have much to hope from the flowers.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Flower, Plant

  "The Naval Treaty" (1893)

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• I loved fairy tales as a kid. I've always been drawn to fantasy. They're always exciting. There's never a dull moment. I just love the embellishments and the magical stuff. It's such fun to work with and to re-imagine your own way.

  Gail Carson Levine

  Fun, Kids, Dull

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