Gestures Quotes - Page 21

• If language was given to men to conceal their thoughts, then gesture's purpose was to disclose them.

  John Napier

  Men, Empathy, Purpose

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• Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone's gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.

  Italo Calvino

  Distance, Lying, Order

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• Pain is strong, aye - but friends' eyes, more strong." I told him that he knows next to nothing about me & I know nothing about him. He jabbed at his eyes & jabbed at mine, as if that single gesture were ample explanation.

  David Mitchell

  Strong, Pain, Eye

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• The real master is only a presence. He has no intentions of being a master. His presence is his teaching. His love is his message. Every gesture of his hand is pointing to the moon. And this whole thing is not being done, it is a happening. The master is not a doer. He has learned the greatest secret of life: let-go. The master has drowned his ego and the idea of separation from existence itself.

  Rajneesh

  Letting Go, Real, Teaching

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• The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.

  Marcel Proust

  Nature, Nymphs, Tree

  Marcel Proust (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Marcel Proust (Illustrated)”, p.1194, Delphi Classics

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• Millions of couples out there practiced the art of sadomasochism every day, without even realizing it. They went to work, came back, complained about everything, insulted their wife or were insulted by her, felt wretched, but were, nonetheless, tightly bound to their own unhappiness, not realizing that all it would take was a single gesture, a final goodbye, to free them from that oppression.

  Paulo Coelho

  Goodbye, Art, Couple

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• Everybody uses mime and gesture in real life, though we don't realize it. It's very useful as a performance technique, though it can be boring to watch on its own.

  Anthony Daniels

  Real, Technique, Watches

  "A Q&A with Anthony Daniels (C3PO), touring with 'Star Wars: In Concert'". Interview with Tom Keogh, www.seattletimes.com. October 12, 2009.

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• Through the history of our nation, Americans have always extended their hands in gestures of assistance.

  Ronald Reagan

  Hands, Nations, Assistance

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• Magic is a combination of art and science. It's an art because of the traditional parts of things, the graceful gestures, the sonorous invocations, the use of colour, sight, sound, all of these things make it very much an art form. Yet it is also a science as well because we expect something to come of what we do. Using and creating these almost dreamlike inner landscapes in which we can live, move, and have our being.

  Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki

  Art, Moving, Sight

  Interview with Mark Stavish, www.servantsofthelight.org. June 10, 1996.

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• The act of civil disobedience is the act of taking our anger and turning it into sacred rage. It is a personal and collective gesture of resistance and insistance.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Sacred, Resistance, Rage

  "Exclusive: Terry Tempest Williams On Sacred Rage, Abundance, and the Upcoming White House Tar Sands Pipeline Action". Interview with Jerry Cope, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 17, 2011.

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• The voting records of virtually every member of Congress reveal that the oath of office is more a ceremonial gesture than a sacred commitment.

  Tom Coburn

  Commitment, Oath Of Office, Political

  Senator Tom Coburn, John Hart (2013). “Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders”, p.19, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• I like to use research to enlarge the poem. And sometimes a rhetorical or syntactical gesture stitches the poem along.

  Alison Hawthorne Deming

  Use, Stitches, Research

  Interview with Simmons B. Buntin, www.terrain.org. September 22, 2010.

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• ...a nation could change its way of life, its history, its technology, its art, literature, and culture, but it would never have a real chance to change its gestures.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Art, Real, Technology

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• Some people throw a bit of their personality after their bad arguments, as if that might straighten their paths and turn them into right and good arguments-just as a man in a bowling alley, after he has let go of the ball, still tries to direct it with gestures.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Letting Go, Men, People

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.164, Modern Library

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• I can be whatever it takes to be a folksinger. Folk music to me, if we had to have a definition, is portable music. A lot of what I do is flash, gesture, athletics, but what it comes down to is getting across a melody that will help it stick to your ribs, and being able to take it from town to town.

  Vance Gilbert

  Ribs, Definitions, Able

  Source: www.minor7th.com

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• Every important cultural gesture comes down to a morality, a model for human behavior concentrated into a gesture.

  Hermann Hesse

  Important, Morality, Behavior

  Hermann Hesse (2002). “The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel”, p.43, Macmillan

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• For a guy who is always banging on about the masculine virtues, Nixon had this remarkable proclivity for very dainty gestures.

  Harry Shearer

  Guy, Virtue, Dainty

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated.

  George Orwell

  Civilization, Clothes, Torn

  George Orwell (2003). “1984”, Plume Books

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• It is hard for me to imagine that I felt good about behaving like that. I also remember that the smallest gesture of affection would bring a lump to my throat, whether it was directed at me or at someone else. Sometimes all it took was a scene in a movie. This juxtaposition of callousness and extreme sensitivity seemed suspicious even to me.

  Bernhard Schlink

  Juxtaposition, Affection, Remember

  Bernhard Schlink (2001). “The Reader”, p.89, Vintage

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• Human relations tend to be more difficult when you're dealing with someone who weighs 30 kilograms more than you do. That's when you worry about whether a well-meaning gesture could produce complications. We have no problems with countries like Madagascar or Bolivia, for example. But Germany is our neighbor and we have a shared past. Besides, Germany is powerful and ambitious and more than four times as large as we are. It makes complete sense that we would act cautiously. It's simply Realpolitik.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Country, Powerful, Past

  "'The Past Is the Past'". Interview with Christian Neef and Jan Puhl, Renata Hanusova, www.spiegel.de. March 13, 2006.

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• There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

  Joshua Bell

  Hands, Play, Frustrating

  "Classical 'Rock Star' Joshua Bell Takes On Conducting". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. April 24, 2012.

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• I often look ridiculous in Japan. There's really no way to eat in Japan, particularly kaiseki in a traditional ryokan, without offending the Japanese horribly. Every gesture, every movement is just so atrociously wrong, and the more I try, the more hilarious it is.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Japan, Offending, Trying

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• I am reminded of the old court jester who was supposed to entertain his king with interesting stories and antics. He looked at the king who was lolling on his throne, a drunken, filthy rascal, doffed his cap and bells, and said with a mock gesture of obeisance, “O king, be loyal to the royal within you.” And so I say to you young people today, remember your heritage, and be loyal to that royal lineage that you have as members of the church and kingdom of God on the earth.

  Harold B. Lee

  Kings, Children, Interesting

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• I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.

  James Joyce

  Running, Confused, Wire

  James Joyce (2015). “Dubliners”, p.22, Booklassic

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• The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.

  Eric Hoffer

  Play, Ideas, Quality

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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