Countenance Quotes

• Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science

  William Wordsworth

  Expression, Spirit, Poetry Is

  'Lyrical Ballads' (2nd ed., 1802) preface

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• The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Eye, Soul, Portraits

  "On the Orator". Book by Marcus Tullius Cicero, III. 59, 55 BCE.

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• His neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. He is indeed a horse.

  William Shakespeare

  Horse, Bidding, Monarchs

  William Shakespeare (2013). “The Wars of the Roses In Plain and Simple English: Includes Henry VI Parts 1 - 3 & Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V”, p.1739, BookCaps Study Guides

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• The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the physical presence.

  Honore de Balzac

  Soul, Literature, Habit

  "The Vicar of Tours". Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1832.

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• It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.

  Charles Dickens

  Eye, Exercise, Cry

  Charles Dickens (1839). “Oliver Twist”, p.142

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• A gift, with a kind countenance, is a double present.

  Thomas Fuller

  Birthday, Christmas, Double Standard

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• I trow that countenance cannot lie,Whose thoughts are legible in the eie.

  Edmund Spenser

  Lying

  Edmund Spenser (1882). “The Complete Works in Verse and Prose: Essays. Daphnaida. Colin Clouts come home again. Amoretti and Epithalamion. Fowre hymnes. Prothalamion. Astrophel, etc., and Sonnets”

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• A troubled countenance oft discloses much.

  Seneca the Younger

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• Where the countenance is fair, there need no colors.

  John Lyly

  Color, Needs, Fairs

  John Lyly, Leah Scragg (2003). “John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit' and 'Euphues and His England': An Annotated, Modern-Spelling Edition”, p.29, Manchester University Press

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• A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

  William Shakespeare

  Sorrow, Faces, Horatio

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 2, l. 231

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• You don't carry in your countenance a letter of recommendation.

  Charles Dickens

  Integrity, Letters, Ethics

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.2441, Delphi Classics

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• Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others are plain, honest and upright, like the broad faced sunflower and the hollyhock.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Flower, Animal, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.100, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

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• The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Rights, Long, Political

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• There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.

  Arthur Helps

  Beauty, Humility, Grace

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• I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Character, Evil, Shining

  Giacomo Casanova (2013). “The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: Complete”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

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• Perpetual pushing and assurance put a difficulty out of countenance and make a seeming difficulty gives way.

  Jeremy Collier

  Giving, Way, Pushing

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• It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.

  Sallust

  Friendship, Cheating, Liars

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• I feel there's a power in theatre, but it's an indirect power. It's like the relationship of the sleeper to the unconscious. You discover things you can't afford to countenance in waking life. You can forget them, remember them a day later or not have any idea what they are about.

  Tony Kushner

  Ideas, Theatre, Waking Life

  "Tony Kushner: 'At first I was horrified'" by Michael Billington, www.theguardian.com. August 15, 2011.

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• First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions. A man's look is the work of years, it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Hands, Years

  "Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners". Book by William Hazlitt, 1821-1822.

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• He was a horse of goodly countenance, rather expressive of vigilance than fire; though an unnatural appearance of fierceness was thrown into it by the loss of his ears, which had been cropped pretty close to his head.

  Augustus Baldwin Longstreet

  Horse, Loss, Fire

  Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1840). “Georgia scenes: characters, incidents, in the first half century of the republic”, p.24

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• Smiling always with a never fading serenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth.

  Isaac Barrow

  Smile, Serenity, Fading

  Isaac Barrow (1859). “The theological works of Isaac Barrow, ed. by A. Napier”, p.345

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• American people simply will not countenance being lied to by their own President.

  Pierre Salinger

  People, President, Being Lied

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• The inability to listen and to depict in the countenance what others have said has spoiled many a good actress.

  Julia Marlowe

  Inability, Actresses, Spoiled

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• The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.

  W. H. Auden

  Children, Animal, Faces

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• Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.

  Joseph Addison

  Attitude, Air, Giving

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.67

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