Gestures Quotes

• Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

  Henri Matisse

  Funny, Art, Expression

  "The Christian Science Monitor", quoted in the review of "The Drawings of Henri Matisse" exhibit at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art by Theodore F. Wolff, March 25, 1985.

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• Gestures and facial expressions do indeed communicate, as anyone can prove by turning off the sound on a television set and asking watchers to characterize the speakers from the picture alone.

  Peter Farb

  Communication, Expression, Sound

  Peter Farb (2015). “Word Play: What Happens When People Talk”, p.236, Vintage

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• I'm still primarily interested in observing as closely as possible the shifting weather between people. I think the master of this sort of thing, and a writer who has meant a great deal to me, is Henry James: there's a magical way that he has of turning the slightest gesture into a whole world of drama and feeling.

  Garth Greenwell

  Drama, Thinking, Weather

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• My method is to find a word with a gesture.

  Christian Morgenstern

  Method

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• Sometimes, one gesture comprises an entire drama, the accent of one word ruins an entire existence, and the indifference of one glance kills the happiest passion.

  Honore de Balzac

  Drama, Passion, Ruins

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• people's emotions are rarely put into words , far more often they are expressed through other cues. the key to intuiting another's feelings is in the ability to read nonverbal channels , tone of voice , gesture , facial expression and the like

  Daniel Goleman

  Keys, Expression, Voice

  Daniel Goleman (2012). “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”, p.160, Bantam

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• The smallest gestures you do can sometimes carry the most weight.

  Joe Vitale

  Inspirational, Weight, Sometimes

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• A chimpanzee who is really gearing up for a fight doesn't waste time with gestures but just goes ahead and attacks.

  Frans de Waal

  Fighting, Waste, Wasting Time

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• Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in bathing suits fling themselves into the water, it is joy itself that shows in the gesture, notwithstanding any sadness the divers may actually feel. When someone jumps into the water fully clothed, it is another thing entirely: the only person who jumps into the water fully clothed is a person trying to drown; and a person trying to drown does not dive headfirst; he lets himself fall: thus speaks the immemorial language of gestures.

  Milan Kundera

  Fall, Sadness, Water

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• I am the most spontaneous speaker in the world because every word, every gesture, and every retort has been carefully rehearsed.

  George Bernard Shaw

  World, Spontaneous, Retorts

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• But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.

  John Updike

  Seems

  john updike (1962). “pigeon feathers”

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• You know a relationship has deteriorated past the point of salvage when one person detests another's gestures.

  Josephine Humphreys

  Past, Persons, Salvage

  Josephine Humphreys (2000). “Rich in Love”, p.97, Penguin

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• Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.

  Coco Chanel

  Voice, Arrogance, Faces

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• I walk along a street and see in the faces of the passersby not the expression they really have but the expression they would have for me if they knew about my life and how I am, if I carried, transparent in my gestures and my face, the ridiculous, timid abnormality of my soul.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Expression, Soul, Faces

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• Paint records the most delicate gesture and the most tense. It tells whether the painter sat or stood or crouched in front of the canvas. Paint is a cast made of the painter's movements, a portrait of the painter's body and thoughts.

  James Elkins

  Portraits, Records, Movement

  James Elkins (2004). “What Painting Is”, p.5, Routledge

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• Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Successful, Personality, Unbroken

  The Great Gatsby ch. 1 (1925)

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• I can't do the same thing every night, the same gestures... it's like putting on dirty panties every day.

  Brigitte Bardot

  Dirty, Night, Naughty

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• What could be more convincing, moreover, than the gesture of laying one's cards face up on the table?

  Jacques Lacan

  Cards, Tables, Faces

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• Our cautious ancestors, when yawning, blocked the way to the entrance of evil spirits by putting their hands before their mouths. We find a reason for the gesture in the delicacy of manner which forbids an indecent exposure.

  George H. Mead

  Yawning, Hands, Evil

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• Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Love, Inspirational, Relationship

  Leo Tolstoy (2016). “The Complete Novels of Leo Tolstoy in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, The Cossacks, The Death of Ivan Ilyich... (Including Biographies of the Author)”, p.1092, e-artnow

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• Small gestures can have a big impact.

  Julianna Margulies

  Funny, Impact, Small Gestures

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

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• It has taken me years of struggle, hard work and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence.

  Isadora Duncan

  Beautiful, Dance, Art

  Isadora Duncan (2013). “My Life (Revised and Updated)”, p.31, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure.

  Ben Okri

  Artist, Imagination, Secret

  Ben Okri (2014). “A Way of Being Free”, p.69, Head of Zeus

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• When men attempt bold gestures, generally it's considered romantic. When women do it, it's often considered desperate or psycho.

  Sarah Jessica Parker

  Romantic, Men, Psycho

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• Everybody in Hollywood loves symbolic gestures.

  Drew Carey

  Hollywood, Symbolic

  "Stand-Up Guy". Interview with Nick Gillespie and Steven Kurtz, reason.com. November 1997.

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