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 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.

  Ellen G. White

  Appreciation, Heart, Character

  Ellen G. White (2015). “The Complete Conflict of the Ages”, p.2240, Simon and Schuster

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• Certainly I was relatively a refined person. No way a tramp.

  Beatrice Wood

  Way, Tramps, Persons

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• Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character.

  Joseph B. Wirthlin

  Gratitude, Character, Soul

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• I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling

  Fanny Burney

  Character, Wish, Behaviour

  "The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney", vol. 1, p. 8, 1768.

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• A refined simplicity is the characteristic of all high bred deportment, in every country, and a considerate humanity should be the aim of all beneath it.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, Simplicity, Humanity

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.

  Lytton Strachey

  War, Taken, Passion

  Lytton Strachey (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Lytton Strachey (Illustrated)”, p.48, Delphi Classics

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• When a plan or strategy fails, people are tempted to assume it was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies can always be changed and improved. But vision doesn't change. Visions are simply refined with time.

  Andy Stanley

  People, Vision, Assuming

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• If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is {only} a refined religious lifestyle . . . we must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

  Oswald Chambers

  Religious, Jesus, Redemption

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• Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Light, Ice

  'King John' (1591-8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 9

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• A genial hearth, a hospitable board, and a refined rusticity.

  William Wordsworth

  Food, Cooking, Boards

  'A genial hearth' (1822)

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• Is climbing, as a passion and as a sport, better off now than it was in the past? We can do harder climbs now in faster times - techniques are more refined and equipement more sophisticated - but are we really any better off?

  Yvon Chouinard

  Sports, Passion, Past

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