Subtle Quotes - Page 20

• Be subtle, various, ornamental, clever, And do not listen to those critics ever Whose crude provincial gullets crave in books Plain cooking made still plainer by plain cooks.

  W. H. Auden

  Clever, Book, Cooking

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• I was trying to come round to the idea that there might be an invisible reality capable of interfering in our lives, but the only reason I did so was because of a love I didn't want to believe I felt but which was continuing to grow in a subtle, devastating way. I was content in my universe and didn't want to change it at all, even though I was being propelled in that direction.

  Paulo Coelho

  Believe, Reality, Ideas

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• Author's Notes: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.

  Isaac Asimov

  Mistake, Stories, Notes

  Isaac Asimov (2011). “The Gods Themselves”, p.3, Spectra

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• You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs―the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limbs, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate―the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Children, Artist, Flames

  Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.72, Vintage

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• Of course it’s the apparently tranquil periods that deceive us. Though our instruments or our senses or our wits may not be able to see the processes that are leading toward these clusters of events, they’re happening. The star, the wheel, the butterfly—all are in a subtle state of unrest, waiting for the moment when some invisible mechanism signals that the time has come. Then the star explodes; the wheel makes poor men rich; the butterfly mates and dies.

  Clive Barker

  Stars, Butterfly, Men

  "Galilee". Book by Clive Barker, February 3, 1999.

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• What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright...Haven't you ever happened to come across in a book some vague notion that you've had, some obscure idea that returns from afar and that seems to express completely your most subtle feelings?

  Gustave Flaubert

  Book, Wind, Ideas

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• No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.

  Joseph Conrad

  Life, Dream, Essence

  Heart of Darkness ch. 1 (1902)

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• It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams.

  Joseph Conrad

  Dream, Struggle, Essence

  "Heart of Darkness". Book by Joseph Conrad, 1902.

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• All good work has magic in it, and addresses the mind in a subtle way.

  Duane Michals

  Magic, Mind, Addresses

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• Those with very loud voices in their throats are nearly incapable of thinking subtle thoughts.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Thoughtful, Thinking, Loud Voices

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• Life in the country teaches one that the really stimulating things are the quiet, natural things, and the really wearisome things are the noisy, unnatural things. It is more exciting to stand still than to dance. Silence is more eloquent than speech. Water is more stimulating than wine. Fresh air is more intoxicating than cigarette smoke. Sunlight is more subtle than electric light. The scent of grass is more luxurious than the most expensive perfume. The slow, simple observations of the peasant are more wise than the most sparkling epigrams of the latest wit.

  Beverley Nichols

  Life, Wise, Country

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• There was nothing subtle about our landing. The pilot just pointed the nose at the ground and let her rip.

  Bob Hope

  Funny, Rip, Humorous

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• No one has ever been able to discover how they [cats] make this subtle sound, and what is more, no one ever will. It is a secret that has endured from the very beginning of the time of cats and will never be revealed.

  Paul Gallico

  Cat, Secret, Sound

  Suzanne Szasz, Paul Gallico (1964). “The silent miaow: a manual for kittens, strays, and homeless cats”

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• For woman's chief want is to feel that she is wanted. Therefore it is that with women, cruelty is more easily borne than coldness. Indeed, It is astonishing how much downright cruelty a woman will stand from the man she loves or has loved. What women admire is a subtle combination of forcefulness and gentleness. If a woman has to choose between forcefulness and gentleness, always she will sacrifice the latter.

  Arnold Haultain

  Sacrifice, Men, Want

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• The senses don't just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart into vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern.

  Diane Ackerman

  Meaningful, Reality, Tears

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of the Senses”, p.14, Vintage

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• Subtle, funny and touching, with a striking downbeat authenticity. Director Craig Zobel is the real thing.

  A. O. Scott

  Real, Touching, Directors

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• The Japanese tend to communicate via nuance and euphemism, often leaving important things unsaid; whereas Americans tend to think they're being subtle when they refrain from grabbing the listener by the shirt.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Humorous, Thinking

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Does Japan”, p.35, Ballantine Books

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• Perhaps the earliest memories I have are of being a stubborn, determined child. Through the years my mother has told me that it was fortunate that I chose to do acceptable things, for if I had chosen otherwise no one could have deflected me from my path. ... The Chairman of the Physics Department, looking at this record, could only say 'That A- confirms that women do not do well at laboratory work'. But I was no longer a stubborn, determined child, but rather a stubborn, determined graduate student. The hard work and subtle discrimination were of no moment.

  Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

  Mother, Children, Memories

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• What fetched me instantly (and thousands of other newcomers with me) was the subtle but unmistakable sense of escape from the United States.

  H. L. Mencken

  San Francisco, United States, Newcomers

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• Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

  Jasper Fforde

  Art, Writing, Discovery

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• Faith is the subtle chain Which binds us to the infinite.

  Elizabeth Oakes Smith

  Faith, Infinite, Chains

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• Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will.

  Terry Eagleton

  Art, Years, Ducks

  "A puritan at play" by Terry Eagleton, www.theguardian.com. March 15, 2008.

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• When I was 17 or 18 I wanted to become a wine expert, and my parents wouldn't let me drink. So I was devastated. All I could do was read, and I read and I read. And I'd read something like, you know, 'Subtle hints of cassis.

  Gary Vaynerchuk

  Wine, Parent, Experts

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• Often, the disparities in the ways men and women are treated are subtle; there are not these clear barriers that you have to break down.

  Eleanor Clift

  Men, Way, Breaking Down

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• The way brainwashing works is subtle and takes a long time.

  Sean Durkin

  Long, Way, Brainwashing

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

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