Quotes About Subtlety

We fill in blanks and make guesses, but the truth about us is far more complex and subtle than that which can be understood as the straightforward calculation of conscious and rational minds.

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

And so it began, not with thunderous noise, or drama, or a cataclysmic collapse, but with . . . silence.

Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death

Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most.

Angels don't shout, they whisper.

The smaller the detail the greater the value.

Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the descernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.

Fanno delle cose, le donne, alle volte, che c'è da rimanerci secchi. Potresti passare una vita a provarci: ma non saresti capace di avere quella leggerezza che hanno loro, alle volte. Sono leggere dentro. Dentro.

Tutti lo consideravano intelligentissimo, cosa che nella sensibilità comune equivaleva a considerarlo anemico, o daltonico: una malattia inoffensiva ed elegante.

He was as fragile as wood smoke, barely a memory against the landscape.

Sometimes I think what I write is funny in its quiet way.

and wished with all her heart that she wasn't so tired, wished that a broken wrist would radiate violent pain instead of this strange numbing ache that was exhausting her by its subtlety and consistency.

Money doesn't have to talk. It shouts with a whisper.

Not for me, I'd always assumed they were dirty," Professor Pendleton said. "But that comes part and parcel with working in Subtlety. You don't see that much work in the shadows and assume there aren't a few things done in true darkness.

The devil is in the detail.

The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.

The subtlest beauties in our life are unseen and unheard.

Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.

Never explain anything. "The more you have to explain," Whitaker said, "the more difficult it is to win support." Say the same thing over and over again. "We assume we have to get a voter's attention seven times to make a sale," Whitaker said. Subtlety is your enemy. "Words that lean on the mind are no good," according to Baxter.

Is that why the top three buttons of your riding jacket are unfastened?" Miranda asked with an innocent look. "Because you were showing him your bulbs?

Leadership is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you're not.

Understate—or as Valentina said, 'diminish.' Let your face be more important than your costume. If you think you may be wearing too much jewelry, you are. Ask your husband how he thinks you look. If he says, 'That's a lovely dress,' try again. What he should say is, 'You look lovely!

The best steel doesn't always shine the brightest.