Veneer Quotes

• We veneer civilization by doing unkind things in a kind way.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Civilization, Way, Kind

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• It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.

  George Santayana

  Football, Art, Kindness

  George Santayana (1968). “Santayana on America: Essays, Notes, and Letters on American Life, Literature, and Philosophy”

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• The destruction that barbarians leave behind has a grim fascination, doesn't it? We're reminded how thin is the veneer of civilization.

  Dean Koontz

  Civilization, Fascination, Barbarians

  Dean Koontz (2016). “The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd”, p.101, Bantam

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• The Peloponnesian War turns out to be no dry chronicle of abstract cause and effect. No, it is above all an intense, riveting, and timeless story of strong and weak men, of heroes and scoundrels and innocents too, all caught in the fateful circumstances of rebellion, plague, and war that always strip away the veneer of culture and show us for what we really are.

  Thucydides

  Strong, War, Hero

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

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• Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Selfishness, Courtesy

  Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.58, The Floating Press

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• This is where we are at right now, as a whole. No one is left out of the loop. We are experiencing a reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. A world where greed is our God and wisdom is sin, where division is key and unity is fantasy, where the ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the intelligence of the heart.

  Bill Hicks

  Lying, Heart, Reality

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• I worry about younger generations who were born to view their country trampling on humanity of everyone that comes in its way, as the 'normal state of affairs" - because they knew no other. We know how easy it is to shed, under such circumstances, the thin and frail veneer of civilization, not to mention the moral standards of which the Jews were presumed to be the world's teachers.

  Zygmunt Bauman

  Country, Teacher, Civilization

  Interview with Marcelo Dimentstein, Alberto Senderey, Andy Spokoiny and Shira Shnitzer, leatid.org. February 2009.

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• The purpose of satire has been rightly stated as to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half truth, and our job, as I see it, is to put it back again!

  Michael Flanders

  Jobs, Comforting, Purpose

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• To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  War, Struggle, Fighting

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• There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation - veneer isn't worth anything.

  George Washington Carver

  Life, Cutting, Thorough Understanding

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• The gentleman is solid mahogany; the fashionable man is only veneer.

  J. G. Holland

  Men, Gentleman, Mahogany

  J. G. HOLLAND (1866). “PLAIN TALKS ON FAMILIAR SUBJECTS”, p.55

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• Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspiring, Business, Work

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.37, Prabhat Prakashan

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• Racism has always been able to come up with a scientific veneer.

  Andrew Hacker

  Racism, Able, Civil Rights

  Andrew Hacker (2010). “Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

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• Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.

  Evan Esar

  Disappointment, Today, Tomorrow

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• Wearing a veneer of perfection never did me any good.

  Liz Phair

  Perfection

  "Return to Guyville". Interview with Carlene Bauer, www.elle.com. June 10, 2008.

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• It has long been my belief that in times of great stress, such as a 4-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears off almost at once, and we are revealed in our true personalities.

  Shirley Jackson

  Stress, Vacation, Long

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• Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it's this veneer - that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

  Steve Jobs

  Mistake, Thinking, People

  "The Guts of a New Machine" by Rob Walker, www.nytimes.com. November 30, 2003.

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• I belong to the middle class that grew up very influenced by the Catholic church. The people of the novel are from a more pagan and practical world in which the Christianity is just a veneer.

  John McGahern

  Class, People, Catholic

  "The whole world in a community" by Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. January 5, 2002.

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• Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence.

  John Lahr

  Music, Science, Silence

  John Lahr (1970). “Up against the fourth wall: essays on modern theater”

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• What happened with Hurricane Katrina was the American electorate was forced to look at what lay behind the veneer of chest-beating. We all saw the consequences of having terrible government leadership.

  Susan Faludi

  Government, Looks, Saws

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• After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.

  Edward Hopper

  Character, Trying, Inheritance

  "Oral history interview with Edward Hopper". Interview with John Morse, www.aaa.si.edu. June 17, 1959.

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• Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation

  Steve Jobs

  Men, Design, Soul

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.37, Prabhat Prakashan

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• I was convinced that worship at its best is a social experience with people of all levels of life coming together to realize their oneness and unity under God. Whenever the church, consciously or unconsciously, caters to one class it loses the spiritual force of the "whosoever will, let him come, doctrine and is in danger of becoming a little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity."

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Spiritual, Class, Oneness

  "A Martin Luther King Treasury".

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• If we are at all sensitive to the life around us, to one another's pains and joys,
  to the beauty and fragility of the Earth, it is all about being broken open, allowing ourselves to
  step out from out hardened veneers and expose our core, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in our emotional response to the world. And how can we not respond? This is what I mean by being 'broken open.' To engage. To love. Any one of these actions of the heart will lead to a personal transformation that bears collective gifts.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Pain, Mean, Heart

  Penguin Random House interview, www.penguinrandomhouse.com.

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• I don't love Photoshop; I like imperfection. It doesn't mean ugly. I love a girl with a gap between her teeth, versus perfect white veneers. Perfection is just... boring. Perfect is what's natural or real; that is beauty.

  Marc Jacobs

  Girl, Real, Mean

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