Refined Quotes

• It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.

  Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

  Friendship, Best Friend, Wise

  "The Pure and the Impure". Book by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, 1932.

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• Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls.

  Gaston Bachelard

  Simple, Ideas, Simplicity

  "The Poetics of Reverie". Book by Gaston Bachelard, 1960.

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• The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

  Anton Chekhov

  Happiness, Knowledge, Inner Peace

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• She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.

  Mark Twain

  Kindness, Bird, Parrots

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.398, Courier Corporation

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• The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.

  James Joyce

  Art, Invisible, Creation

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ch. 5 (1916).

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• A man who has never been hungry may possess a more refined palate, but he has no idea what it means to eat.

  Harry Mulisch

  Mean, Men, Ideas

  Harry Mulisch (2011). “The Assault”, p.43, Pantheon

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• There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.

  Mark Twain

  Vulgarity Is, People, Vulgar

  Mark Twain (2012). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations”, p.4, Courier Corporation

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• The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.

  George Saunders

  Jobs, Artist, Thinking

  "This Week in Fiction: George Saunders" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. October 4, 2012.

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• Good taste has everything to do with being cultured and being refined, and if art has to do with anything, it has to do with being human.

  Rich Mullins

  Art, Taste, Being Human

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• Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don't change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

  John C. Maxwell

  Leadership, Vision, Stubborn

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• Each part of the mind sees only a little of what happens in some others, and that little is swiftly refined, reformulated and "represented." We like to believe that these fragments have meanings in themselves - apart from the great webs of structure from which they emerge - and indeed this illusion is valuable to us qua thinkers - but not to us as psychologists - because it leads us to think that expressible knowledge is the first thing to study.

  Marvin Minsky

  Believe, Knowledge, Thinking

  "K-Linesː A Theory of Memory". Cognitive Science 4, 1980.

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• Nine times out of ten it is the coarse word that condemns an evil, and the refined word that excuses it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Evil, Nine, Excuse

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• The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.

  Henry Petroski

  Book, Home, Mean

  Henry Petroski (2010). “The Book on the Bookshelf”, p.11, Vintage

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• What I do know is that drones are a modern weapon. When used effectively, when taking out ISIS or terrorist leaders, that's pretty impressive. When bombing wedding parties of innocent people and killing dozens of them, that is, needless to say, not effective and enormously counterproductive. So whatever the mechanism, whoever is in control of that policy, it has to be refined so that we are killing the people we want to kill and not innocent collateral damage.

  Bernie Sanders

  Party, Isis, People

  Interview with the Daily News Editorial Board, www.nydailynews.com. April 1, 2016.

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• There is nothing more difficult than simplicity, and therefore, nothing more refined.

  Kathleen Tessaro

  Simplicity, Difficult

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• In general, the more food we eat in its natural state - without additives - and the less it is refined, the healthier it will be for us. Food can affect the mind, and deficiencies of certain elements in the body can promote mental depression.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Mind, Elements, Body

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• My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Sweet, Nice

  Oscar Wilde (1994). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.21, Heinemann

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• The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.

  Andrew Weil

  Weight, Carbohydrates, Well Being

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• Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.

  Morihei Ueshiba

  Sports, Enlightenment, Body

  "Inspire! What Great Leaders Do" by Lance Secretan, (p. 45), 2004.

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• The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.

  Paul Tournier

  Mind, Vulnerable, Subtle

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• How much savage coarseness is concealed in refined, cultivated manners.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Savages, Manners, Concealed

  Nikolai Gogol (2011). “The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol”, p.397, Vintage

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• People are complex. You can be smart and still look hot. You can be a punk rocker yet have a refined vocabulary. It's all about this mashup that makes us who we are and I think that's a beautiful thing.

  Nadia Giosia

  Beautiful, Smart, Thinking

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• The thing about playing percussion is that you can create all these emotions that can be sometimes beautiful, sometimes really ugly, or sometimes sweet, sometimes as big as King Kong and so on. And so there can be a real riot out there, or it can be so refined.

  Evelyn Glennie

  Beautiful, Sweet, Kings

  "Beat of a Different Drummer". Interview with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. June 14, 1999.

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• Contentment is, after all, simply refined indolence.

  Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  Contentment, Indolence

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• The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Spiritual, Punishment, Dangerous

  D. H. Lawrence (2016). “Fantasia of the Unconscious: Top Novelist Focus”, p.29, 谷月社

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