Quotes About Subtlety

All experienced writers know the key to great writing isn't in what they say; it's in what they don't say. The more we cut out, the better the screenplay or book.

That's what I like about you," Michael remarked. "Your finely honed sense of deviousness.

All her grace was in her vagueness. Her voice was soft, her manner languid, her features blurred and dreamy.

nineteenth-century French economist Frédéric Bastiat pointed out that just because something is less noticed doesn't mean it's less important than things that are obvious: In the department of economy, an act,

Spock smiled without smiling—something McCoy had seen him do once or twice before, and damned if

A ta place, je tournerais la langue sept fois avant de parler, répliqua-t-il, une pointe d'espièglerie dans les yeux. - Dans ta bouche ou la mienne? Il se redressa et haussa un sourcil, l'air surpris. - Isabella, serais-tu en train de me faire du charme? Celle-ci poussa un long soupire théâtral. - Pas très subtil, hein?

I am a connoisseur of fine irony. 'Tis a bit like fine wine, but it has a better bite.

Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word "punctilious" ("attentive to formality or etiquette") comes from the same original root as punctuation.

Subtlety is one of the few forms of entertainment allowed me," the Divine said, grinning.

ESTAÇÃO Esperar ou vir esperar querer ou vir querer-te vou perdendo a noção desta subtileza. Aqui chegado até eu venho ver se me apareço e o fato com que virei preocupa-me, pois chove miudinho Muita vez vim esperar-te e não houve chegada De outras, esperei-me eu e não apareci embora bem procurado entre os mais que passavam. Se algum de nós vier hoje é já bastante como comboio e como subtileza Que dê o nome e espere. Talvez apareça

MUSSOLINI OBSERVED THAT IN SEEKING TO ACCUMULATE POWER, it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken—feather by feather—so each squawk is heard apart from every other and the whole process is kept as muted as possible.

The evening of this perfect May Day was of a loveliness comparable with the hours that had preceded it. In certain subtle respects it was even more beautiful, just as in certain ways sleep is more beautiful than waking and death than life.

It is the little thing, the unrehearsed gesture, the catch in the breath, the droop of the lip, the start of surprise, which really reveals. We may analyze ourselves in volumes and remain undiscovered; and then – by a yawn, a tilt of the head, a sob of exhaustion, a flash of hate - we are betrayed and unmasked forever.

I am a little world made cunningly.

We hardly said anything, we seemed to communicate through the chessmen, there was something very symbolic about my winning. That he wished me to feel. I don't know what it was. I don't know whether it was that he wanted me to see my "virtue" triumphed over his "vice" or something subtler, that sometimes losing is winning.

We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us—and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket. Poetry should be great & unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself but with its subject.

I tend to go against the grain because when I start to see that everybody's trying to shock, I try not to. I just do stuff that's subtler, more emotional, and I think that shocks people.

Ancient masters of excellence had a subtle essence, and a depth too profound to comprehend.

A subtle-witted man is like an arrow, which, rending little surface, enters deeply, but they whose minds are dull resemble stones dashing with clumsy force, but never piercing.

I felt that I was not penetrating to the full depth of my impression, that something more lay behind that mobility, that luminosity, something which they seemed at once to contain and to conceal.

breakthroughs in the evolution of human consciousness will be the recognition of the subtle complexity and the hidden inner world that animals carry around with them. The innocence and silence of the animal world has a huge subtlety to it that is anything but dumb, but rather notices everything and is present in everything. Animals carry a huge ministry of witness to the silence of time and to the depth of nature. They are like the landscape in a sense: they live too in the mode of silence.

The anonymous1 author wrote, "Wherefore play the game of life warily, for your opponent is full of subtlety, and take abundant thought over your moves, for the stake is your soul.

I was just talking about you," Cardenia said, coming up to him. "To your imaginary friends, I see." "They're not imaginary. They're just not real." "Very subtle distinction.

In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry. So often men trip by being in a rush. If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means. By this method he would not be moved to false action by anxiety or hurry or fear. Very few people learn this.