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Sublime Quotes

Browse 587 quotes about Sublime.

Sublime Quotes

“Without taste genius is only a sublime kind of folly. That sure touch which the lyre gives back the right note and nothing more, is even a rarer gift than the creative faculty itself.”

Giving Kind Creative Style Genius Taste Notes Folly Faculty Sublime Giving Back

Author:Bill Vaughan

“Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. A man who leaves home to mend himself and others, is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is only a vagabond.”

Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 2: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning; The citizen of the world

“The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it.”

Charm Sublime Enchanting

Author:Carl Friedrich Gauss

“I always had the deepest affection for people who carried sublime tears in their silences.”

People Silence Tears Affection Sublime

Author:Virginia Woolf

“Love is sublime, truly, a precious gift. But also, alas, one of God's little pranks. It's naive of you to confuse love with happiness, as if they were somehow the samae thing. In fact love, once found, is more akin to gravity: too strong, too close, and it will crush you. Unless you're careful, always.”

Ifs Littles Facts Found Strong Love Is Careful Crush Gravity Sublime Alas Naive Precious Gifts Pranks

Book:The Collapsium

Source: The Collapsium

“Man is not to be comprehended as a starting-point, or progress as a goal, without those two great forces , Faith and Love . Prayer is sublime.”

Men Two Force Goal Prayer Progress And Love Starting Sublime Starting Point Faith And Love Love Prayer

Book:Morals and Dogma

Source: Morals and Dogma

“But you must love with a sublime , genuine , profound sympathy , with devotion, with intelligence , and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. That will lead to God , that will lead to an unshakeable faith .”

Trying Profound Genuine Devotion Sublime

Book:Vincent van Gogh

Source: Vincent van Gogh

“When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.”

Should Sublime Mediocre Sonnet

Book:History of My Life

Source: History of My Life

“At the mention of the name and offence of this degraded being a great sound went up from the entire multitude - a universal cry of execration, not greatly dissimilar from that which may be frequently heard in the crowded Temple of Impartiality when the one whose duty it is to take up, at a venture, the folded papers, announces that the sublime Emperor, or some mandarin of exalted rank, has been so fortunate as to hold the winning number in the Annual State Lottery.”

Source: ERNEST BRAMAH Ultimate Collection: 20+ Novels & Short Stories (Including Max Carrados Mysteries and Kai Lung Fantasy Stories): The Secret of the League, The Coin of Dionysius, The Game Played In the Dark, The Tilling Shaw Mystery, Kai Lung's Golden Hours, The Confession of Kai Lung, The Mirror of Kong Ho and many more

“In the cross of Christ I glory,Towering o'er the wrecks of time;All the light of sacred storyGathers round its head sublime.”

Light Christ Glory Crosses Sacred Rounds Sublime Wrecks

Author:John Bowring

“The sublime delight of truthful speech to one who has the great gift of uttering it, will make itself felt even through the pangs of sorrow.”

Felt Sorrow Speech Delight Truthful Sublime Great Gifts

Book:Felix Holt: The Radical

Source: Felix Holt: The Radical

“What believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text, whether of prophet or of poet, expands for whatever we can put into it, and even his bad grammar is sublime.”

Poet Believer Prophet Sublime Grammar Disturbing Credulity Omission Bad Grammar

Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Source: Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

“Only when the true ends of society have nothing to do with the sublime does "culture" become necessary as a veneer to cover over the void. Culture can at best appreciate the monuments of earlier faith; it cannot produce them.”

Doe Ends Culture Produce Appreciate Void Sublime Monument Veneer

Author:Allan Bloom

“The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid, of Plato & Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible”

Men Writing Ought Sublime Plato Stolen Artifice

Book:Blake: The Complete Poems

Source: Blake: The Complete Poems

“If you will observe, it doesn't take A man of giant mould to make A giant shadow on the wall; And he who in our daily sight Seems but a figure mean and small, Outlined in Fame's illusive light, May stalk, a silhouette sublime, Across the canvas of his time.”

Ifs Men May Mean Light Seems Figures Wall Fame Shadow Sight Giants Canvas Sublime Stalking Mould Silhouettes

Author:John Townsend Trowbridge

“When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.”

Believe Running Sin Vision Creatures Goodness Devil Angel Filled Fallen Sublime Majesty Transcendent Fallen Angels Catalogues

Book:Frankenstein

Source: Frankenstein

“Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.”

Mind Sometimes Silence Noble Significant Occasions Sublime Silence Is Eloquence Indication Expressive Great Minds

Book:Tatler and Guardian

Source: Tatler and Guardian

“The human mind may know God, and learn of God, though it has no terms by which to explain Him; it may think of Him as Absolute, as Infinite, as Personal, while it may never in this life be able to fathom the full meaning of these sublime ideas.”

Thinking Knows Mind Humans May Ideas Able Life Is Term Absolutes Infinite This Life Human Mind Sublime Knowing God Fathom

Author:George C. Lorimer

“Curiously enough, the Sublime is generally achieved through want of proportion.”

Want Enough Proportion Sublime

Author:Eugene Delacroix

“Weaknesses in men of genius are usually an exaggeration of their personal feeling; in the hands of feeble imitators they become the most flagrant blunders. Entire schools have been founded on misinterpretations of certain aspects of the masters. Lamentable mistakes have resulted from the thoughtless enthusiasm with which men have sought inspiration from the worst qualities of remarkable artists because they are unable to reproduce the sublime elements in their work.”

“Christ, in the parable of the vine dressers, has taught us a sublime lesson of justice, by showing that to the things which are not our own, we can have no just claim.”

Christ Justice Taught Lessons Claims Sublime Vines Taught Us Parables Dressers

Author:James F. Cooper

“Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the sovereign arbiter of all human events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy. Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.”

Source: Messages and Papers of the Presidents: James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, and Franklin Pierce

“I went from everyone saying, "She-can't-act-she-can't-act-she-can't-act," to an Oscar nomination. So there was something quite sublime about that!”

Oscars Sublime Nominations

Author:Keira Knightley

“Perfect moments, especially when they verge on the sublime have the grave disadvantage of being very short lived, which in fact, being obvious, we would not need to mention were it not that they have a still greater disadvantage, which is that we do not know what to do once they are over.”

Knows Needs Stills Moments Facts Perfect Greater Obvious Graves Sublime Disadvantages Verge Short Lived Perfect Moments

Author:Jose Saramago

“Art is a spiritual function of man, which aims at freeing him from life's chaos. Art is free in the use of its means in any way it likes, but is bound to its laws and to its laws alone. The minute it becomes art, it becomes much more sublime than a class distinction between proletariat and bourgeoisie.”

Men Way Mean Art Use Spiritual Law Class Minutes Art Is Function Aim Chaos Bounds Likes Distinction Sublime Proletariat Bourgeoisie Class Distinction

Author:Kurt Schwitters

“Sublime Philosophy! Thou art the patriarch's ladder, reaching heaven; And bright with beckoning angelsbut alas! We see thee, like the patriarch, but in dreams, By the first step, dull slumbering on the earth.”

Firsts Art Philosophy Dream Earth Heaven Steps Angel Thee Dull Reaching First Steps Sublime Alas Ladders Beckoning Patriarch

Author:Alan Judd

“They left no books , Memorial to their lonely thought In grey parishes: rather they wrote On men's hearts and in the minds Of young children sublime words Too soon forgotten. God in his time Or out of time will correct this.”

Men Mind Heart Children Book Young Left Lonely Forgotten Sublime Grey Memorial Young Children Parish

Book:Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas

Source: Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas

“I feel sublime Then I lose ground Tripping on words That have no sound of love”

Feels Sound Loses Sublime Tripping

Author:Traci Lords

“Either the conscious intellect is impotent, or is not sufficiently strong, or is not the factor positively connected with altruistic phenomenon generally or their sublime form particularly.”

Form Strong Conscious Connected Intellect Factors Phenomenon Sublime Positively

Author:Pitirim Sorokin

“Republic of the West, Enlightened, free, sublime, Unquestionably best Production of our time.”

West Productions Our Time Enlightened Republic Sublime

Book:Lapsus Calami and Other Verses

Source: Lapsus Calami and Other Verses

“Boredom is the most sublime of all human emotions because it expresses the fact that the human spirit, in a certain sense, is greater than the entire universe. Boredom is an expression of a profound despair at not finding anything that can satisfy the soul's boundless needs.”

Needs Humans Soul Facts Spirit Certain Universe Emotion Greater Expression Despair Findings Profound Boredom Sublime Human Spirit Boundless Human Emotions

Author:Giacomo Leopardi

“Tottenham ice their sublime cake with the ridiculous.”

Football Ridiculous Ice Cake Sublime Commentators Tottenham

Author:Peter Drury

“Jerusalem is ... the fabled city which for the Western mind is as much dream as stone ... a compressed symbol of our most sublime aspirations along with our most disgusting, hatefully brainless excursions into religious bigotry and fratricide.”

Mind Dream Religious Cities Atheism Stones Western Symbols Aspiration Bigotry Disgusting Sublime Jerusalem Excursions Brainless Religious Bigotry

Author:Arthur Miller

“Men are not on such intimate terms with the sublime that they really can believe in it”

Men Believe Term Intimate Sublime

Author:Soren Kierkegaard

“Melancholy characterizes those with a superb sense of the sublime.”

Melancholy Sublime Superb

Author:Immanuel Kant

“Nothing can be more sublime this side of heaven than the singing of this noble Psalm by a vast congregation. It is all ablaze with grateful adoration.”

Heaven Sides Singing Grateful Noble Sublime Adoration Congregation Psalms

Book:Treasury of David

Source: Treasury of David

“In contrast we let go of existence, meaning, and the sublime as categories to describe the object “God.” Instead these become ways in which we engage with the world. Yet, as we affirm the world in love, we indirectly sense that in letting go of God we have, in fact, found ourselves at the very threshold of God.”

World Way Facts Found Existence Objects Letting Go Categories Contrast Sublime Threshold

Book:The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction

Source: The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction

“All systems of morality are fine. The gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality, divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few common-place sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.”

Wish Prayer Lord Principles Like You Fine Morality Bible Sentences Repeats Creeds Verses Absurdity Sublime Commonplace Assemblage

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“The stage is a supplement to the pulpit, where virtue, according to Plato's sublime idea, moves our love and affection when made visible to the eye.”

Made Ideas Eye Moving Acting Virtue Stage Affection Visible Sublime Plato Our Love Supplements Pulpit Love And Affection Plato S

Author:Benjamin Disraeli

“What wonderful things are events! The least are of greater importance than the most sublime and comprehensive speculations.”

Greater Wonderful Events Importance Sublime Wonderful Things Speculation Comprehensive

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)

“If I have read religious history aright, faith, hope, and charity have not always been found in a direct ratio with a sensibility to the three concords; and it is possible, thank heaven! to have very erroneous theories and very sublime feelings.”

Ifs Feelings Religion Three Found Heaven Religious Theory Direct Charity Sensibility Sublime Ratios Faith Hope Religious History Faith Hope And Charity

Book:Complete Works Of George Eliot

Source: Complete Works Of George Eliot

“Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.”

Kind Music Genius Music Is Instinct All Kinds Poetry Is Sublime

Book:Wisdom, Wit and Pathos of Ouida

Source: Wisdom, Wit and Pathos of Ouida

“The great characteristic of men of active genius is a sublime self-confidence, springing not from self-conceit, but from an intense identification of the man with his object, which lifts him altogether above the fear of danger and death, which gives to his enterprise a character of insanity to the common eye, and which communicates an almost superhuman audacity to his will.”

Source: Literature and life, lects

“It is for us to discharge the high duties that devolve on us, and carry our race onward. To be no better, no wiser, no greater than the past is to be little and foolish and bad; it is to misapply noble means, to sacrifice glorious opportunities for the performance of sublime deeds, to become cumberers of the ground.”

Mean Littles Past Opportunity Race Greater Progress Sacrifice Duty Performances Deeds Noble Foolish Glorious Wiser Sublime Discharge

Book:Selections from the writings and speeches of William Lloyd Garrison: With an appendix ...

Source: Selections from the writings and speeches of William Lloyd Garrison: With an appendix ...

“We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.”

Stills Two Soul Support Mankind Stupid Genius Ordinary Filled Extremes Dull Mediocrity Fewer Multitudes Sublime Transcendent Ornaments Intervals Commonwealth Generalities Two Extremes

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height.”

“The sublime only paints the true, and that too in noble objects; it paints it in all its phases, its cause and its effect; it is the most worthy expression or image of this truth. Ordinary minds cannot find out the exact expression, and use synonymes.”

Mind Use Causes Effects Objects Expression Ordinary Paint Worthy Noble Phases Sublime

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“The press is like a woman: sublime when it lies, it will not let go until it has forced you to believe it. The public, like a foolish husband, always succumbs.”

Believe Lying Husband Letting Go Presses Foolish Sublime

Author:Honore de Balzac

“Love is not only a feeling, it is also an art. A simple word, a sensitive precaution, a mere nothing reveal to a woman the sublime artist who can touch her heart without withering it.”

Love Heart Art Feelings Artist Simple Love Is Mere Sensitive Sublime Precaution Withering Simple Words

Author:Honore de Balzac

“Once she has committed sin, there is nothing left for the Protestant woman, whereas the Catholic Church, hope of forgiveness makes a woman sublime.”

Left Church Sin Catholic Committed Sublime Catholic Church Protestants

Author:Honore de Balzac