Quotes About Subtlety

Subtlety chases the obvious up a never-ending spiral and never quite catches it.

Patting a shoulder can be anything from an apology to a promise, and only the patter can say which.

God has worked anonymously since the very beginning—it has always been an inside and secret sort of job. The Spirit seems to work best underground. When aboveground, humans start fighting about it.

Seduction is nothing more than knowing that you want someone and then showing them, very gradually, very deliberately, that you do. It's the way you do it – reveal, tease, ignore, take it back – that makes it seduction.

Not that Alan was being particularly subtle. Mallory was somewhat bemused to find herself, for the first time in her adult life, on the traditionally male side of things in their relationship: she was the one who was perfectly happy with casual sex a couple of times a week, no strings or promises. Alan wanted more.

What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.

And yet what precisely is "greatness"? […] I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is though the land knows of its own beuty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.

is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it. In

And yet what precisely is this 'greatness'? Just where, or in what, does it lie? I am quite aware it would take a far wiser head than mine to answer such a question, but if I were forced to hazard a guess, I would say that it· is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it

What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.

it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart.

As I started along the path, I noticed a young, dark-haired woman. But not Mina Lee. This one was taller than me, with long black hair that curled over her faded denim jacket. Native or Latina. She was watching me and making no effort to hide it. Mina Lee's partner? If so, she needed lessons in subtlety even more than Mina did.

He had seen - clever, clever boy that he was - that she could not be won by wooing; and he had approached her sidelong, as a friend rather than a lover, meeting her in the woods and telling her stories and making her love him without her noticing.

First rule to be a photographer, you have to be invisible.

the great is beyond ten feet square, the small enters the tiniest atom.

This is a way to kill a wife with kindness.

Here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling.

The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice.

The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this...

The Flower that smells the sweetest is Shy and Lowly.

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.

Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

That's the best way to feed the human mind. That's how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove, you were just singing the hooks, because you thought it was cool.

Diplomacy: The art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock.