Quotessence
Home / Topics / Caprice Quotes

Caprice Quotes

Browse 103 quotes about Caprice.

Related topics

MenIfsKnowsHumans

Caprice Quotes

“In learning a language, when from mere words we reach the laws of words, we have gained a great deal. But if we stop at that point and concern ourselves only with the marvels of the formation of a language, seeking the hidden reason of all its apparent caprices, we do not reach that end, for grammar is not literature… When we come to literature, we find that, though it conforms to the rules of grammar, it is yet a thing of joy; it is freedom itself. The beauty of a poem is bound by strict laws, yet it transcends them. The laws are its wings. They do not keep it weighed down. They carry it to freedom. Its form is in law, but its spirit is in beauty. Law is the first step toward freedom, and beauty is the complete liberation which stands on the pedestal of law. Beauty harmonizes in itself the limit and the beyond – the law and the liberty.”

LawJoySpiritLiteratureLanguageFreedomLibertyBeautyLearningPoemWingsWordsLiberationGrammarPedestalMarvelLimitCapriceFirst StepHidden ReasonRules Of Grammar
Book:Sadhana
Create image

“I saw exactly one picture of Marx and one of Lenin in my whole stay, but it's been a long time since ideology had anything to do with it. Not without cunning, Fat Man and Little Boy gradually mutated the whole state belief system into a debased form of Confucianism, in which traditional ancestor worship and respect for order become blended with extreme nationalism and xenophobia. Near the southernmost city of Kaesong, captured by the North in 1951, I was taken to see the beautifully preserved tombs of King and Queen Kongmin. Their significance in F.M.-L.B. cosmology is that they reigned over a then unified Korea in the 14th century, and that they were Confucian and dynastic and left many lavish memorials to themselves. The tombs are built on one hillside, and legend has it that the king sent one of his courtiers to pick the site. Second-guessing his underling, he then climbed the opposite hill. He gave instructions that if the chosen site did not please him he would wave his white handkerchief. On this signal, the courtier was to be slain. The king actually found that the site was ideal. But it was a warm day and he forgetfully mopped his brow with the white handkerchief. On coming downhill he was confronted with the courtier's fresh cadaver and exclaimed, 'Oh dear.' And ever since, my escorts told me, the opposite peak has been known as 'Oh Dear Hill.' I thought this was a perfect illustration of the caprice and cruelty of absolute leadership, and began to phrase a little pun about Kim Jong Il being the 'Oh Dear Leader,' but it died on my lips.”

ReligionCrueltyIdeologyCommunismNationalismKoreaTotalitarianismNorth KoreaXenophobiaFarceConfucianismCapriceAbsolutismKarl MarxKim Jong IlKim Il SungVladimir Lenin14th CenturyQueen NogukTomb Of King KongminVeneration Of The Dead
Book:Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
Create image

“Destiny ... a word which means more than we can find any definitions for. It is a word which can have no meaning in a mechanical universe: if that which is wound up must run down, what destiny is there in that? Destiny is not necessitarianism, and it is not caprice: it is something essentially meaningful. Each man has his destiny, though some men are undoubtedly "men of destiny" in a sense in which most men are not.”

IfsMenMeanRunningUniverseDestinyDefinitionsWoundsMeaningfulCaprice
Author:T. S. Eliot
Create image

“Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn and laughter. There is no opportunity in such cases for self-delusion, no idling time away, no being off your guard (or you must take the consequences) - neither is there any room for humour or caprice or prejudice.”

SelfOpportunityRoomsCasesTeacherDangerHumourLaughterConsequencePrejudiceDefeatDelusionScholarExposureScornDisgraceGood TeacherCapriceSelf DelusionTime Away
Book:On the Pleasure of Hating
Create image

“It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition. This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good, and to plague and disappoint as many people, as possible.”

PeopleThinkingLittlesMatterSeemsLastsOpportunityNaturalOur LivesExerciseAccountsStupidityManageFormerSettlingSpiteDispositionPlagueDisappointTenorsCapricePerversity
Author:William Hazlitt
Create image

“What we take to be our strongest tower of delight, only stands at the caprice of the minutest event the falling of a leaf, the hearing of a voice, or the receipt of one little bit of paper scratched over with a few small characters by a sharpened feather.”

LittlesCharacterFallBitsVoiceEventsPaperLittle BitDelightHearingStrongestTowersLeafsFeathersCapriceReceipts
Book:Pierre, Or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition
Create image

“Any church which forsakes the regular and uniform for the periodical and spasmodic service of God, is doomed to decay; any church which relies for its spiritual strength and growth entirely upon seasons of "revival," will very soon have no genuine revivals to rely on. Our holy God will not conform His blessings to man's moods and moral caprice. If a church is declining, it may require a "revival" to restore it; but what need was there of its declining?”

IfsMenNeedsMaySpiritualGrowthChurchMoralHolyBlessingSeasonsMoodGenuineGods WillRelyDecayUniformsDoomedConformRevivalForsakeCapriceSpiritual StrengthHoly God
Author:Theodore L. Cuyler
Create image

“As every writer has his use, every writer ought to have his patrons; and since no man, however high he may now stand, can be certain that he shall not be soon thrown down from his elevation by criticism or caprice, the common interest of learning requires that her sons should cease from intestine hostilities, and, instead of sacrificing each other to malice and contempt, endeavour to avert persecution from the meanest of their fraternity.”

MenShouldWritingMayUseCertainInterestCommonSacrificeSonOughtCriticismCeaseThrownContemptPersecutionHostilityMaliceEndeavourFraternityElevationPatronCapriceCommon InterestsAvertIntestines
Book:The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with his life, and notes on his Lives of the poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In eleven volumes ...
Create image

“But the conceit of one's self and the conceit of one's hobby are hardly more prolific of eccentricity than the conceit of one's money. Avarice, the most hateful and wolfish of all the hard, cool, callous dispositions of selfishness, has its own peculiar caprices and crotchets. The ingenuities of its meanness defy all the calculations of reason, and reach the miraculous in subtlety.”

SelfHardReasonSelfishnessPeculiarHobbiesDispositionMiraculousHatefulConceitCalculationsAvariceIngenuitySubtletyMeannessEccentricityCapriceCallous
Book:Character and characteristic men
Create image

“Popular glory is a perfect coquette; her lovers must toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at last be jilted into the bargain. True glory, on the other hand, resembles a woman of sense; her admirers must play no tricks. They feel no great anxiety, for they are sure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit.”

FeelsEndsPlayHandsLastsPerfectLoversFameAnxietyGloryTricksMeritProportionToilIndulgeBargainsAdmirerCapriceCoquetteJilted
Book:The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield
Create image

“Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues.”

SometimesSpiritHistoryVirtueStudyPrideHeroReflectionAdvantageFortuneSlaveAncientDareWorthyTyrantsThronesSageDefectsRoman EmpireCensureCapriceNot WorthyInsensible
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)
Create image

“Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it, for all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker succession of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuousness.”

ThinkingGivingShouldLooksWealthRoomsVirtueConditionsIgnoranceQuietFortunePrivilegeVicesRichesCirclesFreakFlatteryModeratesSuccessionHazardsCaprice
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
Create image

“You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.”

MenGivingMindDifficultPleasureObjectsTasteOrdinaryCuriosityLuxuryCrownsCheaperOrdinary ManCapricePascal
Book:La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims
Create image

“Barbarity, caprice; these qualities, however nominally disguised, we may universally observe from the ruling character of the deity in all regular religions.”

MayCharacterEvilReligiousQualityRulingDeitiesCapriceBarbarity
Book:An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion
Create image

“One's own free unfettered choice, one's own caprice-however wild it may be, one's own fancy worked up at times to frenzy-is that very "most advantageous advantage" which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms... [an]will attain his object-that is, convince himself he is a man and not a piano-key!”

MenMayChoicesObjectsTheoryKeysAdvantagePianoFancyConvinceAtomsShatteredOverlookedFrenzyClassificationCapricePiano KeysNotes From The Underground
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
Create image

“Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.”

MenHumansWellsNaturalLibertyConstitutionWell BeingDependentSanctionsCivil LibertiesCivil SocietySecuredPrecariousCapriceHuman Will
Book:The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc
Create image

“When faced with demanding situations, can you keep your heart as light as a feather? Can you laugh your way through challenges and maintain an attitude freer than fear? When confronted with upsets and the poisonous projections of others, can you remember that all is well? Do you know that you are a spiritual being, not subject to the whims and caprices of earthly tides?”

KnowsWayWellsHeartLightRememberSpiritualChallengesAttitudeSituationLaughingSubjectsUpsetDo You KnowTidesFeathersProjectionWhimPoisonousSpiritual BeingsCaprice
Author:Alan Cohen
Create image

“Passion, interest, or caprice, suggested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the mandate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of human connections was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleasure.”

HumansPassionInterestPleasureMessagesLettersConnectionsProfitSeparationMotiveTransientMandatesDissolutionHuman ConnectionCaprice
Book:EDWARD GIBBON Premium Collection: Historiographical Works, Memoirs & Letters: Including
Create image