Quotes About Subtlety

language acquisition is not a step-by-step process of generalization, association, and abstraction, going from linguistic data to the grammar, and that the subtlety of our understanding transcends by far what is presented in experience.

There is no quality of soul more subtle than non-violence and no virtue of spirit greater than reverence for life.

She was so beautiful, you see. Not in any two-dimensional sense: she wasn't young, she wasn't innocent, she didn't have that pristine symmetry so favored by ad-men and photographers. Her face was plainly that of a woman in her early forties: it had been used to laugh and cry, and usage leaves its marks. But she had a power to transform herself, in the subtlest way, making that face as various as the sky.

I am clouded and bruised with the print of minds and faces and things so subtle that they have smell, colour, texture, substance, but no name.

I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.

Caress the detail, the divine detail.

Retake the falling snow: each drifting flake Shapeless and slow, unsteady and opaque, A dull dark white against the day's pale white And abstract larches in the neutral light.

Así aislada, a esa distancia, la visión adquiría un sutilísimo encanto que me hacía precipitar hacia mi solitaria gratificación.

A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves.

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it.

A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.

How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?

Here, she found, everything had nuance; everything had an unrevealed side or unexplored depths.

Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism.

Iron hand in a velvet glove.

Because it is the Midwest, no one really glitters because no one has to, it's more of a dull shine, like frequently used silverware.

Not to put too fine a point upon it.

He was the meekest of his sex, the mildest of little men. He sidled in and out of a room, to take up the less space. He walked as softly as the Ghost in Hamlet, and more slowly.

aun cuando hagamos silencio, sutilmente estamos diciendo algo.

A poet rarely swashes ink but mostly mists at subtleties.

Cada mujer tiene su sonrisa propia y esa suave dilatación de los labios toma formas infinitas, perceptibles apenas, pero que les sirve de sello.

The truer measure of power, Brandin had once said to her, wouldn't be found in having twenty heralds deafen a room by proclaiming one's arrival. Any fool in funds for a day could rivet attention that way. The more testing course, the truer measure, was to enter unobtrusively and observe what happened.

Women have usually been better at this than men, haven't they? Pursuing these subtleties?" "Women have no choice but to be this way if we want any kind of influence, or simply a little control of our own lives.