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Subtlety Quotes

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Subtlety Quotes

“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,- - This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be otherwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see thus, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!”

WorldShouldHumansHeartLongSoulDreamEyeLyingChristPayFeetCryTearsMouthsDebtMilesAriseTheeMaskShadeCheeksTornSighClayCountingBleedingSubtletyGuileBleeding HeartWearing A MaskTortured Souls
Book:Selected poems
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“If he thinks he would harm Mirabelle, he would back away. But he does not yet understand when and how people are hurt. He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.”

PeopleIfsThinkingHeartDoeEndsBigsPainHurtEventsHarmToneSmallestSubtletySpoken WordQuestionableBig Events
Author:Steve Martin
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“The deceitfulness of the heart of man appears in no one thing so much as this of spiritual pride and self-righteousness. The subtlety of Satan appears in its height, in his managing persons with respect to this sin. And perhaps one reason may be that here he has most experience; he knows the way of its coming in; he is acquainted with the secret springs of it: it was his own sin. Experience gives vast advantage in leading souls, either in good or evil.”

KnowsMenWayGivingHeartMayPersonsSoulSelfReasonSpiritualEvilSinSecretOne ThingPrideSpringAdvantageHeightSatanRighteousnessSubtletySelf RighteousnessSpiritual Pride
Book:A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections: In Three Parts ...
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“When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.”

MayBookDifferentCountryPainJoyReadingUnderstandingSpeechPatternsDeeperParadoxSuperficialPlungeSubtletyGreat BookDifferent Countries
Author:Julian Barnes
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“Surely education has no meaning unless it helps you understand the vast experience of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may earn degrees, you may have a series of letters after your name and land a good job, but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid?”

IfsMindMayHelpingJobsJoyNamesProcessLandStupidSorrowDegreesLettersSeriesExtraordinaryDullWearyGood JobSubtletyExtraordinary Beauty
Author:Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old.”

MenHeartHas BeensStillsAbleChristianJesusGivenChristChristianityVirtueHigherJesus ChristIdealsSubtletyBrothers Karamazov
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe?”

IfsEarthLiteratureWonderHeardTreeWindMajorsEarsBreatheStrikesBranchesSpheresMinorsChordsSubtletyTree Branches
Book:The Storm And Other Stories with THE AWAKENING
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“For many parts of Nature can neither be invented with sufficient subtlety, nor demonstrated with sufficient perspicuity, nor accommodated unto use with sufficient dexterity, without the aid and intervening of the mathematics, of which sort are perspective, music, astronomy, cosmography, architecture, engineery, and divers others.”

UseScienceNatureHistoryPerspectiveDiversityMathematicsArchitectureAidsAstronomySufficientSubtletyInterveningDexterity
Book:Bacon's Advancement of Learning and the New Atlantis
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“Accordingly, France Had Voltaire, and his school of negative thinkers, and England (or rather Scotland) had the profoundest negative thinker on record, David Hume: a man, the peculiarities of whose mind qualified him to detect failure of proof, and want of logical consistency, at a depth which French skeptics, with their comparatively feeble powers of analysis and abstractions stop far short of, and which German subtlety alone could thoroughly appreciate, or hope to rival.”

MenWantMindSchoolReligiousRecordsNegativeAppreciateEnglandDepthProofFranceAnalysisLogicalThinkerConsistencyScotlandAbstractionRivalsQualifiedSkepticSubtletyHume
Book:Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin
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“When a teacher of the future comes to point out to the youth of America how the highest rewards of intellect and devotion can be gained, he may say to them, not by subtlety and intrigue; not by wire pulling and demagoguery; not by the arts of popularity; not by skill and shiftiness in following expediency; but by being firm in devotion to the principles of manhood and the application of morals and the courage of righteousness in the public life of our country; by being a man without guile and without fear, without selfishness, and with devotion to duty, devotion to his country.”

MenMayArtCountryAmericaMoralPrinciplesCourageTeacherYouthDutySkillsHighestRewardsFollowingIntellectSelfishDevotionOur CountrySelfishnessFirmRighteousnessApplicationPopularityPullingManhoodIntrigueWirePublic LifeSubtletyExpediencyDemagogueryGuileDevotion To Duty
Author:Elihu Root
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“But nature - that is, biological evolution - has not fitted man to any specific environment. On the contrary, ... he has a rather crude survival kit; and yet -this is the paradox of the human condition - one that fits him to all environments. Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.”

MenHumansReasonImaginationAnimalAcceptingEnvironmentConditionsEmotionalEvolutionFitSurvivalContraryParadoxSwimHuman ConditionLockedMultitudesCrudeSubtletyToughnessBiological Evolution
Author:Jacob Bronowski
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“And when with excellent Microscopes I discern in otherwise invisible Objects the Inimitable Subtlety of Nature's Curious Workmanship; And when, in a word, by the help of Anatomicall Knives, and the light of Chymicall Furnaces, I study the Book of Nature, and consult the Glosses of Aristotle, Epicurus, Paracelsus, Harvey, Helmont, and other learn'd Expositors of that instructive Volumne; I find my self oftentimes reduc'd to exclaim with the Psalmist, How manifold are thy works, O Lord? In wisdom hast thou made them all.”

MadeBookSelfGodHelpingLightScienceNatureLordStudyObjectsInvisibleCuriousExcellentKnivesSubtletyMicroscopesHarveyFurnacesManifoldGlossWorkmanship
Author:Robert Boyle
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“Synchronicities, epiphanies, peak, and mystical experiences are all cases in which creativity breaks through the barriers of the self and allows awareness to flood through the whole domain of consciousness. It is the human mind operating, for a moment, in its true order and moving through orders of increasing subtlety, reaching past the source of mind and matter into creativity itself.”

MindHumansSelfMatterWholeMomentsPastMovingOrderGrowthConsciousnessBreakCreativityCasesAwarenessSourceDisciplineReachingBarriersHuman MindFloodSelf DisciplineMysticalDomainSubtletyEpiphanyBreak ThroughSynchronicityMystical ExperiencesMind And Matter
Author:F. David Peat
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“Constitutions are not designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or judicial research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for common use, and fitted for common understandings.”

WantHumansUseUnderstandingCommonExpressionExerciseResearchConstitutionPhilosophicalInstrumentsCriticalPracticalsHuman LifeLogicalShadeMetaphysicalAdaptedJudicialSubtletyProprietyNiceties
Book:Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution
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“Can't stand it. Too many amps, too much volume, it's just flat-out ear assault. Speedy guitars leave me not feeling detached but physically upset. When you think of all the subtleties that were built into the guitar and amps for you to discover they completely cover the whole lot with a rack of effects. The guitar doesn't need that.”

ThinkingNeedsWholeFeelingsToo MuchEffectsBuiltEarsGuitarUpsetFlatsVolumeAssaultLeaving MeDetachedSubtletyRacks
Author:Jeff Beck
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“The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads. Laughter, praise, honors, money, and the love of beautiful girls will be your only reward.”

BelieveBeautifulFormGirlSpeakHonorLaughterPraiseFellowsCriticsRewardsShakesSubtletyBeautiful GirlCorrupt Society
Book:A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
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“Some people demand a five-line capsule summary. Something you'd read in a magazine. They want you to say, 'This is the story of the duality of man and the duplicity of governments.' I hear people try to do it -- give the five-line summary -- but if a film has any substance or subtlety, whatever you say is never complete, it's usually wrong, and it's necessarily simplistic: truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five-line summary. If the work is good, what you say about it is usually irrelevant.”

PeopleIfsMenWantGivingTryingStoriesGovernmentFilmLinesFiveTruth IsDemandMagazinesSubstanceIrrelevantDualitySubtletySummaryDuplicityWhatever You Say
Author:Stanley Kubrick
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