Contrast Quotes

• Put light against light - you have nothing. Put dark against dark - you have nothing. It's the contrast of light and dark that each give the other one meaning.

  Bob Ross

  Dark, Light, Opposites

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• The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.

  Carl Jung

  Opposites, Innovation, Energy

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• There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

  Charles Dickens

  Strength, Encouraging, Dark

  Charles Dickens (2016). “The Pickwick Papers: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, p.648, Pan Macmillan

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• It is in the contrast of light and dark that design happens.

  Helen Van Wyk

  Dark, Light, Design

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• Life really is a series of contrasts.

  George W. Bush

  Series

  Source: www.texasmonthly.com

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• Contrast is what makes photography interesting.

  Conrad Hall

  Photography, Interesting, Photographer

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• All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Sleep, Aristocracy, Noble

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.230, Ravenio Books

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• Contrast is the intangible ingredient, the catalyst that makes life exciting. The human mind rejects monotony even to the point of destroying itself in madness, when monotony is forced upon it for too long. ... Contrast gives variety and interest, whether it be in the universe as a whole with its light and darkness, its ceaseless motion and constant change, its creation of worlds and destruction of others.

  Maren Elwood

  Light, Long, Giving

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• There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.

  Herman Melville

  Reality, Quality, World

  Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.55

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• Beautiful light is born of a contrast to darkness.

  Ross Turnbull

  Beautiful, Gratitude, Light

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• We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast.

  Sigmund Freud

  Intense, Made, Enjoyment

  Sigmund Freud (2014). “Freud Verbatim”, p.14, The Overlook Press

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• From dawn to dusk, winter to spring, summer & autumn; the contrasts of nature refresh the mind & renew our sense of balance

  Phil Harding

  Summer, Nature, Spring

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• The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.

  Saadi

  Rose, Sorrow, Together

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• Beauty lies in harmony, not in contrast; and harmony is refinement; therefore, there must be a fineness of the senses if we are to appreciate harmony.

  Maria Montessori

  Lying, Appreciate, Harmony

  Maria Montessori, Gerald Lee Gutek (2004). “The Montessori Method: The Origins of an Educational Innovation : Including an Abridged and Annotated Edition of Maria Montessori's The Montessori Method”, p.179, Rowman & Littlefield

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• What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.

  Sigmund Freud

  Missing You, Wisdom, Children

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• Sometimes it's good to contrast what you like with something else. It makes you appreciate it even more.

  Darby Conley

  Appreciate, Sometimes

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• Suffice it to say that black and white are also colors... for their simultaneous contrast is as striking as that of green and red, for instance.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Black And White, Color, Green

  Vincent van Gogh, Colta Feller Ives (2005). “Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings”, p.173, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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• If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.

  Anne Bradstreet

  Spring, Adversity, Winter

  Anne Bradstreet (1867). “The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse”, p.51

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• Emotional Literacy means being able to recognise what you are feeling, so that it doesn't interfere with thinking. It becomes another dimension to draw upon when making decisions or encountering situations. Emotional expression by contrast can mean being driven by emotions, so that it isn't possible to think. These two things are often confused, because we are still uncomfortable with the idea of the validity of feelings.

  Susie Orbach

  Confused, Mean, Emotional

  "Bite by bite to success" by Susie Steiner, www.theguardian.com. January 4, 2002.

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• One evening, when we were already resting on the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, a fellow prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out to the assembly grounds and see the wonderful sunset. Standing outside we saw sinister clouds glowing in the west and the whole sky alive with clouds of ever-changing shapes and colors, from steel blue to blood red. The desolate grey mud huts provided a sharp contrast, while the puddles on the muddy ground reflected the glowing sky. Then, after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another, "How beautiful the world could be.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Beautiful, Running, Moving

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.37, Beacon Press

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• History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

  Edna O'Brien

  Bystanders, Fiction, Said

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• I always love it whenever Rose delivers one of her witty one-liners—particularly when it’s a completely serious situation. The contrast always amuses me, but then, I’m biased.

  Richelle Mead

  Witty, Rose, Serious

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• Happiness ain't a thing in itself - it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant.

  Mark Twain

  Happiness, Pleasant

  Mark Twain (2003). “Tales of Wonder”, p.32, U of Nebraska Press

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• Joy and grief are never far apart. In the same street the shutters of one house are closed, while the curtains of the next are brushed by shadow of the dance. A wedding-party returns from church, and a funeral winds to its door. The smiles and the sadness of life are the tragi-comedy of Shakespeare. Gladness and sighs brighten and dim the mirror he beholds.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Party, Grief, Sadness

  Robert Aris Willmott (1907). “Pleasures of Literature”

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• When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact...that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Wisdom, Brother, Anger

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