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Good Taste Quotes

Browse 222 quotes about Good Taste.

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Good Taste Quotes

“True power is invisible and impeccable, like good taste. It is never clumsy or artless. Powerful people whisper, suggest, seduce, in order to coerce. They only use volume for effect. This is how you can tell a blowhard from a mogul. ... Most powerful people don't need to coerce; their mere presence is coercive.”

PeopleNeedsUseOrderPowerfulPowerEffectsTasteMereInvisibleMost PowerfulVolumeGood TasteSeducingClumsyImpeccableTrue PowerCoerceMogulsBlowhards
Author:Lynda Obst
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“There is something indefinably keen and wan about her anatomy, and she has a watchful way of looking out of the corners of her eyes without turning her head which could be pleasantly dispensed with, especially when she is in an ill humour and near knives. Through all the good taste of her dress and little adornments, these objections so express themselves that she seems to go about like a very neat she-wolf imperfectly tamed.”

WayLittlesCharacterSeemsEyeInterestingHumourTasteDressesIllCornersKnivesHer EyesNeatObjectionsAnatomyGood TasteInteresting CharactersTamedAdornment
Book:Bleak house. [20 numbers in 19 monthly pts., orig. wrappers.].
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“The Secretary, working in the Dismal Swamp betimes next morning, was informed that a youth waited in the hall who gave the name of Sloppy. The footman who communicated this intelligence made a decent pause before uttering the name, to express that it was forced on his reluctance by the youth in question, and that if the youth had had the good sense and good taste to inherit some other name it would have spared the feelings of him the bearer.”

IfsMadeFeelingsFunnyNextNamesMorningYouthTasteHumorousDecentHallsSecretaryPausesGood SenseGood TasteSwampsSloppyReluctance
Book:Our Mutual Friend
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“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us. Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, room, dress, and so on. Whatever is not made according to this standard displeases those who have good taste.”

MadeCertainSongHouseStrongRoomsBeautyGraceTreePleaseTasteStandardsBirdRiversWeakRelationDressesProseVersesDiscourseGood Taste
Book:Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works
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“In San Francisco, vulgarity, "bad taste," ostentation are regarded as a kind of alien blight, an invasion or encroachment from outside. In Los Angeles, there is so much money and power connected with ostentation that is no longer ludicrous: it commands a kind of respect. For if the mighty behave like this, then quiet good taste means that you can't afford the conspicuous expenditures, and you become a little ashamed of your modesty and propriety.”

IfsKindMeanLittlesTasteQuietConnectedCommandAliensBehaveAshamedLos AngelesModestySan FranciscoInvasionGood TasteVulgarityProprietyExpendituresBad TasteEncroachmentMoney And PowerBlightOstentation
Book:i lost it at the movies
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“What is the use of aesthetics if they can neither teach how to produce beauty nor how to appreciate it in good taste? It exists because it behooves rational human beings to provide reasons for their actions and assessments. Even if aesthetics are not the mathematics of beauty, they are the proof of the calculation.”

IfsHumansReasonUseActionHuman BeingsBeautyTeachProduceTasteAppreciateMathematicsProofRationalAestheticsCalculationsAssessmentGood Taste
Author:Franz Grillparzer
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“Ah, the truth, what a thing it is! I sacrifice so much for it, with people: I forego, for truth's sake, discretion, loyalty, diplomacy, tact, polite manners, elegance, grace, poise, balance, good taste, conformity, image-role, fashionableness, polish, confidences, promises, ambition, consistency, identity, clarity, comprehensibleness, good will, hypocrisy, and lots of other things--amass sacrifice, at truth's altar. God! is truth worth it? I hope it is. It better be, in fact.”

PeopleFactsTruthRolesGraceSacrificeIdentityBalancePromiseTasteAmbitionSakeLoyaltyClarityMannersHypocrisyConformityWorth ItConsistencyPoliteDiplomacyEleganceGood WillAltarsPolishDiscretionGood TasteTactPoise
Author:Marvin L. Cohen
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“A good taste in art feels the presence or the absence of merit; a just taste discriminates the degree--the poco piu and the poco meno. A good taste rejects faults; a just taste selects excellences. A good taste is often unconscious; a just taste is always conscious. A good taste may be lowered or spoilt; a just taste can only go on refining more and more.”

FeelsMayArtGoes OnTasteDegreesConsciousFaultsExcellenceAbsenceMeritUnconsciousRejectsGood TasteRefiningSpoilt
Author:Anna Brownell Jameson
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“Once I had a shrink who said, "Your parents are the fuel you run on," because I was raised in the tyranny of good taste. If my parents hadn't taught me all that, I couldn't have made fun of it. So I thank them, and they were loving. It takes a long time to realize that they made me feel safe when I lived a life which was very not safe.”

IfsFeelsLongMadeSaidRunningFunParentRealizingTaughtTasteSafeLong TimeRaisedTyrannyFuelShrinksGood Taste
Author:John Waters
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“H. L. Mencken once said that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. That is not true. I have come to believe that it pays to make all your layouts project a feeling of good taste, provided that you do it unobtrusively. An ugly layout suggests an ugly product. There are very few products which do not benefit from being given a first class ticket through life.”

FirstsBelieveSaidFeelingsGivenPayClassProductsTasteBenefitsProjectsUglyBrokeTicketsUnderestimateGood TasteFirst ClassLayout
Book:Confessions of an advertising man
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“During the days of my youth, critics and art-lovers resorted freely to this term of abuse. Even some of the most renowned Old Masters were also pilloried as having manufactured insipid and sugary paintings that were offensive to good taste.”

ArtTermYouthPaintingMastersLoversTasteAbuseCriticsOffensiveGood TasteInsipidRenownedArt Lovers
Book:The preference for the primitive: episodes in the history of Western taste and art
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