Homely Quotes - Page 4

• Let thy maid servant be faithful, strong, and homely.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Strong, Faithful, Maids

  Benjamin Franklin (2012). “Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.19, Courier Corporation

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• To us, to the everyday teachers of everyday students, neither of whom is writing the book of the universe but who both have their fullest life only when they align themselves with its truths, working out our own commitment to and our own vision of agape, in however homely or personal a form, is a life long task that both guides us in our teaching endeavors and honors those endeavors at the same time.

  Marshall Gregory

  Teacher, Book, Teaching

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• I'm gregarious with writers and never with manuscripts . . . I [like to] create the illusion of seamless perfection, so I alone know the flawed homely process along the way.

  Jonathan Lethem

  Perfection, Way, Illusion

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• He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!

  Julian of Norwich

  Blessed, May, Gracious

  Julian of Norwich (2013). “The Showings of Divine Love”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

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• Management is a far more homely business than its would be scientists suggest, more closely allied to cookery than any other human activity. Like cooking, it rests on a degree of organisation and on adequate resources. But just as no two chefs run their kitchens the same way, so no two managements are the same.

  Robert Heller

  Running, Two, Cooking

  "The Naked Manager". Book by Robert Heller, p. 12, 1972.

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• Marriage, from love, like vinegar from wine-- A sad, sour sober beverage--by time Is sharpened from its high celestial flavor Down to a very homely household savor.

  Lord Byron

  Wine, Flavor, Vinegar

  'Don Juan' (1819-24) canto 3, st. 5

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• The man who could withstand, with his fellow-men in single line, a charge of cavalry may lose all command of himself on the occurrence of a fire in his own house, because of some homely reminiscence unknown to the observing bystander.

  Arthur Helps

  Men, Fire, Bystanders

  Sir Arthur Helps (1871). “Brevia: Short Essays and Aphorisms”, p.23

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• There is a sort of homely truth and naturalness in some books which is very rare to find, and yet looks cheap enough. There may benothing lofty in the sentiment, or fine in the expression, but it is careless country talk. Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art. Some have this merit only.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Art, Book

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.518, Simon and Schuster

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• There is a homely old adage which runs: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Running, Patriotic, Training

  Speech at Chicago, 3 April 1903, in 'New York Times' 4 April 1903

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• The mind of man has no defense To equal plain, old common sense. This homely virtue don't despise, If you would be happy as well as wise.

  Don Herold

  Wise, Men, Common Sense

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• With little here to do or see Of things that in the great world be, Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee For thou art worthy, Thou unassuming commonplace Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace Which love makes for thee!

  William Wordsworth

  Sweet, Art, Grace

  1802 'To the Daisy', stanza 1 (published 1807).

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• Robert Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even - "at least not systematic"; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.

  Randall Jarrell

  Reading, Air, Faithful

  "No Other Book: Selected Essays". Book by Randall Jarrell. Chapter: "To the Laodiceans", p. 21, 1999.

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• Metaphor is, as a common feature of linguistic practice, an incidental expediency, a homely administering of first-aid by mother-wit to jams or halts in expression suddenly confronting speakers, with no respectable linguistic solution immediately in sight.

  Laura Riding

  Mother, Sight, Expression

  "The Matter of Metaphor". "Rational Meaning and Supplementary Essays". Book by Laura Riding and Schuyler B. Jackson, edited by William Harmon, 1997.

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• The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished. He uses the simplest phrases without triviality, and the grandest without a suggestion of grandiloquence.

  George Henry Lewes

  Artist, Phrases, Use

  George Henry Lewes (1891). “The Principles of Success in Literature”

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• Only sound common sense, respectable fellow that he is, in the homely realm of his own four walls, has very wonderful adventures directly he ventures out into the wide world of research.

  Friedrich Engels

  Wall, Adventure, Common Sense

  Friedrich Engels (2008). “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”, p.47, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Alas! What boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless muse; Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.

  John Milton

  Sports, Thinking, Hair

  'Lycidas' (1638) l. 64

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• My new city [Seattle] and its hinterland felt deceptively homely. Their similar latitude gave them the angular light and lingering evenings I was used to. Their damp marine weather, blowing in from the southwest, came in the right direction. When the mountains are hidden under a low sky, one might almost imagine oneself to be in Britain.

  Jonathan Raban

  Marine, Sky, Cities

  Jonathan Raban (2017). “Driving Home: An American Scrapbook”, p.12, Pan Macmillan

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• For as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin and the bones in the flesh and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad in the goodness of God and enclosed. Yea and more homely; for all these may wear and waste away, but the Goodness of God is ever whole.

  Juliana Berners

  Heart, Soul And Body, Skins

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• The homely beauty of the good old cause
  Is gone

  William Wordsworth

  Loss, Purpose, Gone

  "Written in London. September, 1802" l. 11 (1807)

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• It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.

  Plutarch

  Women, Character, Distinction

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