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Sophistication Quotes

Browse 202 quotes about Sophistication.

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Sophistication Quotes

“Industry without art is brutality. Art is specifically human. None of those primitive peoples, past or present, whose culture we affect to despise and propose to amend, has dispensed with art; from the stone age onwards, everything made by man, under whatever conditions of hardship or poverty, has been made by art to serve a double purpose, at once utilitarian and ideological. It is we who, collectively speaking at least, command amply sufficient resources, and who do not shrink from wasting these resources, who have first proposed to make a division of art, one sort to be barely utilitarian, the other luxurious, and altogether omitting what was once the highest function of art, to express and to communicate ideas.”

ArtCultureWealthBeautyPovertyFunctionLuxuryUtilitySophistication
Book:Christian & Oriental Philosophy of Art Formerly: "Why Exhibit Works of Art?"
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“There were glamorous young men with dyed hair who rustled like old cellophane. Older men had airs of sophistication and cold grace, giving the impression that if they were not so terribly tired they would go to places (known only to a select few) where the conversation was more scintillating and the congregation more interesting. There were young women who had the exotic sheen of recently fed forest animals. Although they moved their fine heads languorously this way and that, nothing in the room excited their appetites. Unfashionable red lips cut across their white faces, and the crimson fingernails, as pointed as surgical instruments, heightened the predatory effect. Older, sadder women were more interesting to me. Voluminous skirts and imported shawls did not hide their heavy bodies, nor was their unattractiveness shielded by the clanks of chains and ribbons of beads, or by pale pink lips and heavily drawn doe eyes. Their presence among the pretty people enchanted me. It was like seeing frogs buzzed by iridescent dragonflies.”

MenAgeWomenBeautyYouthGlamourSophisticationExoticism
Book:Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
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“When it turns out that the greatest enemy of truth is not falsehood, but gibberish, it turns out that the greatest intellectual virtue is not deductive brilliance or factual erudition, but common sense. When it turns out that the greatest enemy of decency is not hatred, but arbitrariness, it turns out that the greatest moral virtue is not kindness or mercy, but perseverance. When it turns out that the greatest enemy of good taste is not vulgarity, but ostentation, it turns out that the greatest aesthetic virtue is not elegance or refinement, but moderation. And when it turns out that the greatest enemy of civilization is not barbarity, but infantilism, it turns out that the greatest cultural virtue is not sophistication, but integrity.”

VirtueIntegrityCivilizationPerseveranceCommon SenseSophisticationEruditionGibberishArbitrarinessInfantilism
Author:Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski
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“There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking through the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens; he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name. Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure. If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he looks out upon the world, seeing, as though they marched in procession before him, the countless figures of men who before his time have come out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The sadness of sophistication has come to the boy. With a little gasp he sees himself as merely a leaf blown by the wind through the streets of his village. He knows that in spite of all the stout talk of his fellows he must live and die in uncertainty, a thing blown by the winds, a thing destined like corn to wilt in the sun.”

LifeTimeRegretFutureAmbitionUncertaintyNothingnessGhostsManhoodSophistication
Book:Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life
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“I suspect that 'Kindness and Cruelty' and 'Mercy and Justice' all have secret affairs, as though they rendezvous only within certain sophisticated souls: those who hate being offensive, but love telling the truth.”

LoveMindMeanTruthHateJusticeBrainCompassionKindnessNiceTheoryBalanceEmpathyMercyAffairSimplicityCaringPityCrueltyCombinationComplexitySympathyOffensiveSuspiciousLove AffairCaring For OthersSophisticationApologeticsDuplicityRendezvous
Book:Healology
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“Sooner or later there will be a nuclear 9/11 [by Islamic terrorists] in an American city or that of a US ally... A terrorist nuclear attack against an American city could take many forms. A worst case scenario would be the detonation of a nuclear device within a city. Depending upon the size and sophistication of the weapon, it could kill hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.”

PeopleWould BeFormCitiesMillionsCasesWorstWeaponsSizeTerrorismNuclearTerroristIslamicDevicesAlliesSooner Or LaterScenariosSophisticationAmerican CitiesWorst Case Scenario
Author:David Krieger
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“Amazingly, much of the best cartoon work was done early on in the medium's history. The early cartoonists, with no path before them, produced work of such sophistication, wit, and beauty that it increasingly seems to me that cartoon evolution is working backward. Comic strips are moving toward a primordial goo rather than away from it . . . Not only can comics be more than we're getting today. but the comics already have been more than we're getting today.”

Has BeensDoneSeemsTodayMovingPathEvolutionWitMediumsComicCartoonSophisticationCartoonistComic Strips
Author:Bill Watterson
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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions. [...] It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. [...] You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.”

HardAbleOrderChallengesSimpleConsciousnessProductsHard WorkEssentialsSolutionsEssenceUltimateDepthSimplicityCome UpAbsenceComplexityElegantDiggingMinimalismClutterSophisticationReally DeepElegant Solutions
Author:Steve Jobs
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“If sophistication is a matter of being in control of our primary reactions, we may now be sophisticated. At least we shall be fairly confident of ourselves and may, with any luck, be confident of others. Our object will be to enjoy our selves. But to make sure that our names are permanently on the cast list, it will be advisable to be of interest to others. This aim must never be confused with the desire to be popular.”

IfsMaySelfMatterDesireNamesEnjoyInterestObjectsAimLuckCastsListsReactionsPrimariesConfusedSophisticatedSophisticationBe ConfidentAdvisable
Author:Quentin Crisp
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“The intricate and different life cycles of both male and female root-heads, and the great behavioral sophistication shown by the female in reconfiguring a host crab as a support system, all underscore the myopia of our conventional wisdom in regarding rhizocephalans as degenerate parasites because the adult anatomy of internal roots and external sac seem so simple.”

DifferentSeemsSimpleSupportAdultsFemaleRootsMalesInternalsCyclesHostConventionalAnatomyIntricateDegeneratesSophisticationParasitesConventional WisdomCrabsSupport SystemsDifferent LifeMyopia
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
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“The way to go to the circus, however, is with someone who has seen perhaps one theatrical performance before in his life and that in the High School hall... The scales of sophistication are struck from your eyes and you see in the circus a gathering of men and women who are able to do things as a matter of course which you couldn't do if your life depended on it.”

IfsMenWayMatterEyeAbleSchoolCoursesHigh SchoolMen And WomenPerformancesScalesHallsGatheringCircusTheatricalSophistication
Author:Robert Benchley
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“Islamist-jihadist terrorism-a plague that has spread to almost every corner of the world-creates painful dilemmas for the peoples and decision makers who confront it. Its rapid, shape-shifting advance has sometimes confounded efforts to comprehend its origins, motives, and aims. Its sophistication in exploiting liberal values poses challenges and difficulties for the Western world, and for liberal democratic states in general, in attaining effective and balanced counter-terrorism policies.”

WorldSometimesStatesValuesChallengesDecisionEffortPolicyShapesDifficultyAimDemocraticWesternPainfulCornersSpreadTerrorismMotiveMakersBalancedPlagueRapidsShiftingDilemmaSophisticationWestern WorldIslamistsDecision MakersCorners Of The WorldCounter Terrorism
Author:Boaz Ganor
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“The number one problem in academia today is not ignorant students but ignorant professors, who have substituted narrow "expertise" and "theoretical sophistication" (a preposterous term) for breadth and depth of learning in the world history of art and thought... Art is a vast, ancient interconnected web-work, a fabricated tradition. Overconcentration on any one point is a distortion. This is one of the primary reasons for the dullness and ineptitude of so much twentieth-criticism, as compared to nineteenth-century belles-lettres.”

WorldArtReasonProblemTodayTermNumbersCenturyStudentsArt IsTraditionCriticismDepthAncientIgnorantPrimariesProfessorsWorld HistoryTheoreticalExpertiseDistortionNineteenth CenturyAcademiaSophisticationBreadthInterconnectedDullnessIneptitude
Author:Camille Paglia
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“Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft... history will determine how successful I have been.”

Has BeensMatterUseLightSoundViewsSuccessfulSubjectsFiguresDesignColorUniqueShadowDeterminePoint Of ViewCommandPainterCraftsVarietyDramaticBeing SuccessfulCompetenceTextureHarmoniousSubject MatterSophisticationLight And ShadowPortrayal
Author:Nelson Shanks
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“It is not surprising that only one medieval state, Venice, long possessed anything clearly identifiavble as a navy in this sense. We shall see that no state in the British Isles attained attained this level of sophistication before the 16th century, and no history of the Royal Navy, in any exact sense of the words, could legitimately begin much before then. This book, which does, is not an institutional history of the Royal Navy, but a history of naval warfare as an aspect of national history. All and any methods of fighting at sea, or using the sea for warlike purposes, are its concern.”

LongDoeBookStatesPurposeFightingLevelsSeaCenturyConcernAspectMethodBritishSurprisingPossessedWarfareRoyalNavyMedievalVeniceSophisticationNavalIsleRoyal NavyNaval Warfare
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“In every age states of varying size and constitution and at every level of development have found naval warfare to be one of their most formidable and expensive tasks. Ships have always been large, costly and complicated, and warships much more complicated and costly than any others. Scholars are nowadays inclined to emphasize the power, wealth and sophistication of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and there is not more striking illustration of this than the advanced and elaborate administrative structures of the early English navy.”

StatesAgeFoundWealthLevelsDevelopmentTasksConstitutionStructureSizeComplicatedKingdomsShipsExpensiveScholarWarfareNavyIllustrationFormidableSophisticationNavalAdministrativeAnglo SaxonWarshipsNaval Warfare
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“The art of flirtation is dying. A man and woman are either in love these days or just friends. In the realm of love, reticence and sophistication should go hand in hand, for one of the joys of life is discovery. Nowadays, instead of progressing from vous to tu, from Mister to Jim, it's 'darling' and 'come to my place' in the first hour.”

MenShouldFirstsArtHandsLife IsJoyHoursProgressDyingMen And WomenDiscoveryDatingThese DaysRealmsDarlingHand In HandJoy Of LifeSophisticationFlirtationJust FriendsReticence
Author:Marya Mannes
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