Elegance Quotes - Page 16

• Much as I admired the elegance of physical theories, which at that time geology wholly lacked, I preferred a life in the woods to one in the laboratory.

  John Tuzo Wilson

  Science, Woods, Theory

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• Nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop.

  Chen-Ning Yang

  Beautiful, Nature, Science

  Chen Ning Yang (2013). “Selected Papers of Chen Ning Yang II: With Commentaries”, p.260, World Scientific

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• Every writer must reconcile, as best he may, the conflicting claims of consistency and variety, of rigour in detail and elegance in the whole. The present author humbly confesses that, to him, geometry is nothing at all, if not a branch of art.

  Julian Coolidge

  Art, Science, Consistency

  Julian Lowell Coolidge (2004). “A Treatise on Algebraic Plane Curves”, p.10, Courier Corporation

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• Imagine for a moment that each one of us takes only a little more care for each hour of his days, that he demands in it a little more of elegance and intensity; then, multiplying all these minute pressures toward the perfecting and deepening of each life by all the others, calculate for yourselves the gigantic enrichment, the fabulous ennobling which this process would create for human society.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Perfection, Littles, Fabulous

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• My idea of elegance – and this refers to women as well as men – is that someone is elegant when he or she shows a good knowledge of what fits them, where you can find naturalness and self-esteem. Not showing off. Elegance is the idea of showing an optimistic depiction of oneself, and to lose oneself in the frivolity of style and fashion.

  Stefano Pilati

  Fashion, Self Esteem, Optimistic

  "The End of Elegance". Interview with Costantino Della Gherardesca, www.vice.com. February 15, 2012.

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• There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brillance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.

  Carl Sagan

  Religious, Views, Political

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• Though I like the various forms of football in the world, I don't think they begin to compare with these two great Anglo-Saxon ball games for sophisticated elegance and symbolism. Baseball and cricket are beautiful and highly stylized medieval war substitutes, chess made flesh, a mixture of proud chivalry and base - in both senses - greed. With football we are back to the monotonous clashing armor of the brontosaurus.

  John Fowles

  Beautiful, Football, Baseball

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• He endearing elegance of female friendship.

  Samuel Johnson

  Friendship, Female, Endearing

  Samuel Johnson (1821). “The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works”, p.50

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• What the scientists have always found by physical experiment was an a priori orderliness of nature, or Universe always operating at an elegance level that made the discovering scientist's working hypotheses seem crude by comparison. The discovered reality made the scientists exploratory work seem relatively disorderly.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Nature, Science, Reality

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• With another shock of excitement, Harry saw Sirius give James the thumbs-up. Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs. He was very good-looking, his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed.

  J. K. Rowling

  Girl, Eye, Dark

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• Mathematics is much more than a language for dealing with the physical world. It is a source of models and abstractions which will enable us to obtain amazing new insights into the way in which nature operates. Indeed, the beauty and elegance of the physical laws themselves are only apparent when expressed in the appropriate mathematical framework.

  Melvin Schwartz

  Nature, Science, Law

  Melvin Schwartz (2012). “Principles of Electrodynamics”, p.1, Courier Corporation

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• One thing that makes the adventure of working in our field particularly rewarding, especially in attempting to improve the theory, is that... a chief criterion for the selection of a correct hypothesis... seems to be the criterion of beauty, simplicity, or elegance.

  Murray Gell-Mann

  Adventure, Science, Simplicity

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• What is a fine person or a beauteous face,
  Unless deportment give them decent grace;
  Blessed with all other requisites to please,
  To want the striking elegance of ease;
  Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
  Of moving gracefully, or standing still.

  Winston Churchill

  Dance, Moving, Blessed

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• Jazz is improvisation and syncopation, with resilience and flow, with earthy elegance, nuance and subtlety, with the integrity of individual expression within (usually) a group context, with true democracy in action.

  Greg Thomas

  Music, Integrity, Expression

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• Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance

  Samuel Johnson

  Rome, Culture, Fountain

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1807). “Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson”, p.199

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• Strength may wield the ponderous spade, May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home; But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, And most attractive, is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.

  William Cowper

  Strength, Home, Garden

  William Cowper (1854). “Poetical Works”, p.255

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• Rhythm, symmetry, and a happy combination of elegance and utility - a blend often desired in later days of hope and struggle - these have been fully attained, and with them a delight in quiet communion with Nature, expressing as she does the sense of beauty in orderliness.

  Marie-Luise Gothein

  Beauty, Struggle, Design

  Marie-Luise Gothein, Walter P Wright (1979). “History of Garden Art: Originally published in two volumes”, p.18, Gardenvisit.com

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• Gardening is a luxury occupation: an ornament, not a necessity, of life.... Fortunate gardener, who may preoccupy himself solely with beauty in these difficult and ugly days! He is one of the few people left in this distressful world to carry on the tradition of elegance and charm. A useless member of society, considered in terms of economics, he must not be denied his rightful place. He deserves to share it, however humbly, with the painter and poet.

  Vita Sackville-West

  Beauty, Luxury, People

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• Art should be appreciated with passion and violence, not with a tepid, depreciating elegance that fears the censoriousness of a common room.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Passion, Rooms

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• When putting words together is good to do it with nicety and caution, your elegance and talent will be evident if by putting ordinary words together you create a new voice.

  Horace

  Latin, Voice, Together

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• Physical elegance comes from the body. This is no superficial matter but rather the way that man found to honour the way he places his two feet on the ground.

  Paulo Coelho

  Men, Two, Feet

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• It's the nasty and the accident that form the foundation for elegance that comes later.

  Nick Bantock

  Foundation, Nasty, Absence

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• Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Men, Childhood

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.653

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• You have no sensitivity that your soul shall leave in the subtle body and that your subtle body is as sophisticated as anything in the universe can be. So unless you produce in yourself elegance, grace, sophisticatedness in your mind, manners and attitude, and unless you come from the infinite altitude, and ascend to that altitude, you cannot descend in love. The higher is your being, the deeper is the love.

  Harbhajan Singh Yogi

  Love, Family, Attitude

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• Throughout this book, we've been evangelizing simplicity, but ironically, the practice of simplicity is not simple. It is easy to build a bulky design by adding layer upon layer of navigation and features; it's much more difficult to create simple, graceful designs. Paring designs to essential elements while maintaining elegance and functionality requires courage and discipline.

  Jakob Nielsen

  Book, Simple, Practice

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