Quotes About Refinement

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.

It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential. The closer to the source, the less wastage there is.

Develop the tools, refine the tools, then dissolve the tools.

It's not daily increase but daily decrease—hack away the unessentials!

Let the spiritual grow up through the common. — Live content with small means; seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. Be worthy, not respectable, wealthy, not rich; study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

Simplicity is eloquence

Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness.

It is only a dying cause which can attain to perfect taste.

Manners are of more importance than laws. The law can touch us here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in.

every one knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly.

America's a civilized country. More or less.

the) adjunct to a civilised existence.

Being a 'Lady' used to be something to which all young women aspired.

I've always been battling against my sense of dignity and refinement. I was embarrassed by any bodily functions when I was younger. I could never even blow my nose.

Be well dressed, behave like a gentleman, and keep your shoes shined.

You go through a process of refinement and getting rid of the excesses of your early youth in terms of your excitement about what theatre can do.

For each detail I include, I throw dozens away. So I guess the first trick is to pick the right details, the most revealing details. Then I think one must simply write quick, clean, bright prose. For me, this means rewriting and rewriting: almost never adding, almost always cutting.

The trouble with the public is that there is too much of it; what we need in public is less quantity and more quality.

You don't always have to start over to create an emotional reaction to your product. It's always powerful to deliver a breakthrough, but there's also a true art to making something great even better.

The notion of 'reduce and refine' is one I've pursued. I truly believe that by making things less complex, by finding innovative ways to make sustainability affordable, we can advance the notion that it is possible.

At Yale we don't just want to make new things, we want to make things better.

Actors tend to get better with age. You start cutting away the useless stuff and achieving a point of effortlessness and simplicity, which is all you want to do, with any art at all.

I think as any artist you always want to grow; you always want to get better.