Quotes About Subtlety

Nothing he wore was designed to attract attention, but he made every other man in the room look either a trifle overdressed or a trifle shabby.

Still, it can be more effective to accomplish what you need to accomplish with the minimum effort. Watch Anthony Hopkins. He doesn't appear to be doing anything. He is so still that you can't see him working, but you are drawn into his character through his very stillness.

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.

My idol was Jack Benny and he was the master of subtlety and timing.

Interesting people aren't interested in appearing interesting

He couldn't just come right out with it, could he? No, that would scare her off. He had to be subtle, build up to it. Explain himself. "I love you." Of course, straight to the point was also an effective strategy.

And that was all it took. They smiled at each other across the table, and some sort of shift occurred between them. There was a quickening, a livening- Frances could think of nothing to compare it to save some culinary process. It was like the white of an egg growing pearly in hot water, a milk sauce thickening in the pan. It was as subtle yet as tangible as that.

she had seemed to be quivering, to be ringing, like a wine glass that had just been struck.

Sugar and the man in the Hawaiian shirt stepped forward and pulled him up. But as they stepped away again, the backs of their hands brushed- it was just the lightest touch, for the briefest of moments, almost nothing more than hair upon hair, yet Sugar felt it like a blowtorch on creme brûlée.

whisper of a smile

There is more going on beneath the surface than we think, and more going on in little, finite moments of time than we would guess.

Sometimes sexuality was more compelling when it was not overt.

Recuerda usted lo que afirma Darwin sobre la música? Sostiene que la capacidad de producirla y de apreciarla existió en la raza humana mucho antes de que esta alcanzase la facultad de la palabra. Quizá sea esta la razón de que influya en nosotros de una manera tan sutil. Existen en nuestras almas confusos recuerdos de aquellos siglos nebulosos en que el mundo se hallaba en su niñez.

Mere subtlety may qualify you as a sceptic but not as a philosopher. On the other hand, scepticism is in philosophy what the Opposition is in Parliament; it is just as beneficial, and indeed necessary. It rests everywhere on the fact that philosophy is not capable of producing the kind of evidence mathematics produces.

Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most.

When you most succeed, you do so by seeming not to act at all.

very very pretty green eyes. The kind of green that doesn't make a big deal about itself.

Learn subtlety, James," he said. "It is perfectly possible to destroy something innocent, yet leave no public mark.

Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.

Sometimes the embers are better than the campfire.

Love is lost in immensities; it comes in simple, gentle ways.

wasn't sure men would ever understand the infinitely subtle weaponry women used against each other.

I wasn't sure men would ever understand the infinitely subtle weaponry women used against each other.

She didn't actually criticize me—she was too genteel even to raise her voice—but the way she blinked slowly at my responses, her little hmm-hmm, as I spoke, told me everything I needed to know.