Quotes About Subtlety

His body was as insensitive to pain as was his mind to subtleties.

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. What

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.

This got him to the door. There, ridiculously, he turned. It was only at the door, he decided in retrospect, that her conduct was quite in excusable: not only did she stand unncessarily close, but, by shifting the weight of her body to one leg and leaning her head sidewise, she lowered her height several inches, placing him in a dominating position exactly suited to the broad, passive shadows she must have known were on her face. ("Snowing in Greenwich Village)

Why use a sledgehammer when a butterfly net will suffice?

Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest thing in the nicest way.

Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted.

Tact: getting your point across without stabbing someone with it.

For, as far as these important diplomats are concerned, to look at you in a certain way is intended to convey to you not that they have seen you but that they have not, and that they have some serious matter

For just as some women are said to be handsome though without adornment, so this subtle manner of speech, though lacking in artificial graces, delights us.

Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

Being powerfull is like being a lady. If you have to tell people that you are, you aren't

Los hilos que hacen nacer los sentimientos son muy sutiles. Nadie podrá darte razón de ellos. Las cosas pasan, simplemente, y no hagas esfuerzos inútiles por racionalizarlas.

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint.

There was something else,--something quite undefinable, that gave a singular glow and radiance to the whole countenance, and suggested the burning of a light through alabaster,--a creeping of some subtle fire through the veins which made the fair body seem the mere reflection of some greater fairness within.

innuendos—and sometimes they weren't even

Laying tracks gives you freedom without being too obvious.

I like repressed characters. That gives me a lot of freedom to make a lot of different choices through subtleties.

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they're no good.

You never want to be the absolute leader in the game of life, the man out front, the one everyone sees and looks to," Leyers said. "That's where my poor Willy made his mistake. He got out front, right there in the light. You see, Vorarbeiter, in the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of the shadows, and even the darkness, if necessary. In this way, you run things, but you are never, ever seen. You are like a . . . phantom of the opera. You are like . .

You never want to be the absolute leader in the game of life, the man out front, the one everyone sees and looks to," Leyers said. "That's where my poor Willy made his mistake. He got out front, right there in the light. You see, Vorarbeiter, in the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of the shadows, and even the darkness, if necessary. In this way, you run things, but you are never, ever seen. You are like a . . . phantom of the opera.

You never want to be the absolute leader in the game of life, the man out front, the one everyone sees and looks to," Leyers said. "That's where my poor Willy made his mistake. He got out front, right there in the light. You see, Vorarbeiter, in the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of the shadows, and even the darkness, if necessary. In this way, you run things, but you are never, ever seen. You are like a . . . phantom of the opera. You are

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

Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety; it is the goal, not the starting point.