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Gothic Quotes

Browse 398 quotes about Gothic.

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Gothic Quotes

“Gargoyles were the complement to saints; Leonardo's caricatures were complementary to his untiring search for ideal beauty. And gargoyles were the expression of all the passions, the animal forces, the Caliban gruntings and groanings which are left in human nature when the divine has been poured away. Leonardo was less concerned than his Gothic predecessors with the ethereal parts of our nature, and so his caricatures, in their expression of passionate energy, merge imperceptibly into the heroic.”

HumansHas BeensPassionEnergyLeftForceAnimalHuman NatureDivineExpressionConcernedIdealsSaintPassionateHeroicGothicPredecessorsCaricaturesComplementEtherealLeonardoComplementaryGroaningGargoylesCaliban
Author:Kenneth Clark
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“We simply thought that we would be considerably poorer in Europe if we didn't have the sacred buildings of earlier epochs. It's still possible to experience the Gothic period, not to mention the Romantic. Only nothing remains of the industrial age. So we thought that our photos would give the viewer the chance to go back to a time that is gone forever.”

IfsGivingStillsWould BeAgeChanceGoneForeverBuildingPeriodsEuropeRemainsSacredViewersGothic
Author:Bernd Becher
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“These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic calligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply.”

KnowsHandsAgeFormPurposeBlackAttitudeMiddleStonesGreekMelancholyPeculiarRevealingMiddle AgesGothicCalligraphy
Author:Victor Hugo
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“The word Gothic, in the sense in which it is generally employed, is wholly unsuitable, but wholly consecrated. Hence we accept it and we adopt it, like all the rest of the world, to characterize the architecture of the second half of the Middle Ages, where the ogive is the principle which succeeds the architecture of the first period, of which the semi-circle is the father.”

WorldFirstsAgeFatherHalfAcceptingPrinciplesMiddlePeriodsSucceedArchitectureCirclesEmployedMiddle AgesGothic
Book:The Works of Victor Hugo
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“In one point of view, Gothic is not only the best, but the only rational architecture, as being that which can fit itself most easily to all services, vulgar or noble.”

ViewsFitPoint Of ViewNobleArchitectureRationalVulgarGothic
Book:On the nature of Gothic architecture: and herein of the true functions of the workman in art. Being the greater part of the 6th chapter of the 2nd vol. of 'Stones of Venice'. [48 p.].
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“The same architect who designed the Seattle fair's futuristic Science Center, with its lacy Gothic arches and spires, Minoru Yamasaki, was hired to design the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Seattle had promised fairgoers a glimpse of the world that would exist in 2001. That year eventually unfolded as something less than the dream we'd imagined.”

WorldYearsDreamDesignFairsTradeArchitectTwinsTowersGlimpseGothicSeattleArchesFuturisticWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterSpiresTwin Towers
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
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“When I first came on the scene, I don't think people knew what to make of the way I dress, my aesthetic and how that ties into my music. It took a lot of explaining. You don't really see females in country music dressed in all black wearing funeral garb with netting on their face. I have a bit of a gothic sense to me in a lot of ways, with a bit of outlaw country, rockabilly and blues. My subject matter is off the cuff a little bit.”

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Author:Lindi Ortega
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“Architecture traditionally has been the slowest of art forms. It was not unusual for great cathedrals to take centuries to complete, with stylistic changes from Romanesque to Gothic or Renaissance to Baroque as common as the addition of chapels or spires. But because the function remained the same, the form could be flexible and its growth organic.”

Has BeensArtFormGrowthCommonCenturyFunctionArchitectureUnusualFlexibleGothicRenaissanceCathedralsChapelBaroqueSpires
Author:Martin Filler
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“There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make one almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.”

MindHas BeensArtSometimesRealityMightJoyNightBrainTerribleHorrorInstinctEndureDawnFancyVitalityVividChamberGothicPhantomsReverieMalady
Book:The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
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“Every time the phone rang, my heart jumped. Was it Alexander? And when it wasn't him my heart would break into a million pieces. It had been two longs days since I had seen my Gothic mate. I was so preoccupied with Alexander, dreaming of the next time we'd be together, nothing else mattered. I didn't wash the spot where his tender love lips had pressed against my flesh. I was acting like I was straight out of a Gidget movie! What had happened to me? I was losing my edge! For the first time in my life I was really afraid. Afraid of never seeing him again and afraid of being rejected.”

FirstsHeartTwoDreamTogetherNextActingBreakMillionsPiecesSeeingHappenedMy HeartLosingFirst TimeLipsPhonesEdgesFleshSpotsMatesRejectedNext TimeGothicTender Love
Author:Ellen Schreiber
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“Each thing I do, I rush through so I can do something else. In such a way do the days pass - -a blend of stock car racing and the never ending building of a gothic cathedral. Through the windows of my speeding car I see all that I love falling away: books unread, jokes untold, landscapes unvisited.”

WayI CanBookFallCan DoCarBuildingJokesWindowLandscapeRacingGothicNever EndingCathedralsCan Do SomethingSpeedingCar RacingSpeeding CarsStock Car Racing
Author:Stephen Dobyns
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“Non- Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension. (Dreams In The Witch-House)”

TryingEnoughDreamRealityHouseBehindsBrainStrangeCornersPhysicsBackgroundsTalesTensionWitchQuantumGothicHintsQuantum PhysicsFolkloreCalculusChimneys
Book:Dreams in the Witch House
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“I was a beautiful vampire princess loved, worshiped and admired by all. I lived in a luxurious gothic castle and I have no idea how I ended up at this fiberglass table with you losers.”

IdeasBeautifulTablesVampireNo IdeaLoserPrincessCastlesGothicLuxurious
Book:The Immortals Bundle 1-3: The Immortals: Evermore, The Immortals: Blue Moon and The Immortals: Shadowland
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“I had become so quiet and so small in the grass by the pond that I was barely noticeable, hardly there... I sat there watching their living room shining out of the dark beside the pond. It looked like a fairy tale functioning happily in the post-World War II gothic of America before television crippled the imagination of America and turned people indoors and away from living out their own fantasies with dignity... Anyway, I just kept getting smaller and smaller beside the pond, more and more unnoticed in the darkening summer grass until I disappeared into the 32 years that have passed since then.”

PeopleWorldYearsWarAmericaImaginationDarkRoomsFantasyTelevisionQuietSummerDignityShiningTalesPostsGrassWar Of The WorldsSatFairyWorld War IiFairy TaleGothicLiving RoomPondsUnnoticedCrippledDarkeningShining Out
Author:Richard Brautigan
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“He loved a book because it was a book; he loved its odor, its form, its title. What he loved in a manuscript was its old illegible date, the bizarre and strange Gothic characters, the heavy gilding which loaded its drawings. It was its pages covered with dust — dust of which he breathed the sweet and tender perfume with delight.”

BookCharacterFormStrangeSweetPagesDelightHeavyDrawingDustTitlesCoveredBizarrePerfumeGothicLoadedManuscriptsOdor
Author:Gustave Flaubert
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“Maybe we were being a bit unrealistic, but we had this hope that if we could just get into the Ivy League, everything would be set. We dreamed of Gothic libraries and leafy green quads and romantic dorms with fireplaces and guys who were not only cute but also smart and charming, and, quite possibly, British. In college, we believed, we’d finally find our people.”

PeopleIfsWould BeGuyBitsCollegeSmartGreenLibraryBritishCuteLeagueCharmingGothicIvyFireplacesDormsIvy LeagueQuads
Book:Smart Girls Get What They Want
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