Ornaments Quotes - Page 9

• She had a bracelet on one taper arm, which would fall down over her round wrist. Mr. Thornton watched the replacing of this troublesome ornament with far more attention than he listened to her father. It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh; and then to mark the loosening—the fall. He could almost have exclaimed—'There it goes, again!

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  Father, Fall, Attention

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (Illustrated)”, p.966, Delphi Classics

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• A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Jewels, Use, Language

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Delphi Classics)”, p.7963, Delphi Classics

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• I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Running, Skulls, Museums

  Arthur Conan DOYLE (2009). “Les Aventures de Sherlock Holmes”, p.310, Omnibus

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• If the next car passed is blue, Violet will be okay, she thought. If it's red, A will do something horrible to her. She heard a growl of an engine and shut her eyes, afraid to see what the future might hold. She'd never cared so much about anything in her life. Just as the car was passing, she opened her eyes and saw a Mercedes hood ornament. She let out a long sigh, tears coming to her eyes once more. The car was blue.

  Sara Shepard

  Eye, Blue, Long

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• I am a pretty, useless ornament who always believed she'd have a man to take care of her.

  Virginia C. Andrews

  Men, Useless, Care

  Virginia C. Andrews (2004). “Flowers in the Attic”

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• I look for myself but find no one. I belong to the chrysanthemum hour of bright flowers placed in tall vases. I should make an ornament of my soul.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Flower, Soul, Looks

  Fernando Pessoa (2010). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.134, Profile Books

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• Presently he rose and approached the case before which she stood. Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects —hardly recognisable domestic utensils, ornaments and personal trifles — made of glass, of clay, of discoloured bronze and other time-blurred substances.
  'It seems cruel,' she said, 'that after a while nothing matters... any more than these little things, that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labeled: "Use unknown".'

  Edith Wharton

  Time, Glasses, People

  "The Age of Innocence".

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• Mannerism is not character, and affectation is the avowed enemy of grace. Every dancer ought to regard his laborious art as a link in the chain of beauty, as a useful ornament for the stage, and this, in turn, as an important element in the spiritual development of nations.

  August Bournonville

  Dance, Spiritual, Art

  August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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• God help us! it is a foolish little thing, this human life, at the best; and it is half ridiculous and half pitiful to see what importance we ascribe to it, and to its little ornaments and distinctions.

  Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey

  Life, Half, Littles

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• Rhime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter...the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.

  John Milton

  Poetry, Age, Lame

  "Paradise Lost". The Verse, 1668.

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• In violence there is often the quality of yearning - the yearning for completion. For closure. For that which is absent and would if present bring to fulfillment. For the body without which the wing is a useless frozen ornament. ("A Short Guide To The City")

  Peter Straub

  Cities, Wings, Quality

  FaceBook post by Peter Straub from Nov 19, 2015

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• Humility is an ornament which attracts Krishna's heart. Beginning of all knowledge comes from humility.

  Radhanath Swami

  Heart, Humility, Krishna

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• Fierce Determination and Gentle Humility are the ornaments which make one attractive in the eyes of the Lord.

  Radhanath Swami

  Determination, Humility, Eye

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• The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man shrinks to his natural dimensions, and throws aside the ornaments or disguises which he feels in privacy to be useless incumbrances, and to lose all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Ambition, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1787). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with His Life, and Notes on His Lives of the Poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In Eleven Volumes ...”, p.431

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• A political action committee trying to raise money for a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign is selling “Ready for Hillary” champagne glasses and Christmas ornaments. Because if one thing improves the holidays, it's drinking mixed with politics.

  Jimmy Fallon

  Drinking, Holiday, Glasses

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• The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is in courtesy. A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Names, Titles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.147, Harvard University Press

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• Opinions: men's thoughts about great subjects. Taste: their thoughts about small ones: dress, behavior, amusements, ornaments.

  George Eliot

  Men, Dresses, Taste

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• I try to teach my students style, but always as a part of life, not as ornament. Style has to come out of communicating coherent thought, not in sticking little flowers on speeches. Style and substance and a sense of life are the things literature is composed of. One must use one's own personality in relationship to life and language, of course, and everyone has such a relationship. Some people find it, some don't find it, but it's there.

  Marguerite Young

  Flower, People, Personality

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• One of the first principles of decorative art is that in all manufactures ornament must hold a place subordinate to that of utility; and when, by its exuberance, ornament interferes with utility, it is misplaced and vulgar.

  George Mason

  Art, Principles, Firsts

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• The art of decoration requires the most sophisticated and self-indulgent skills. Its aim has always been to sate the senses as gloriously as possible. ... ornament is not only a source of sensuous pleasure; it supplies a necessary kind of magic to people and places that lack it. More than just a dread of empty spaces has led to the urge to decorate; it is the fear of empty selves.

  Ada Louise Huxtable

  Art, Self, Skills

  Ada Louise Huxtable (1986). “ARCHITECTURE, ANYONE?”, Random House

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• Manners are the ornament of action.

  Samuel Smiles

  Action, Manners

  Samuel Smiles (1859). “Self-help; with illustrations of character and conduct”, p.323

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• Plutarch has a fine expression, with regard to some woman of learning, humility, and virtue;--that her ornaments were such as might be purchased without money, and would render any woman's life both glorious and happy.

  Laurence Sterne

  Humility, Expression, Might

  Laurence Sterne (1814). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: With a Life of the Author”, p.394

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• We know much of a writer by his style. An open and imperious disposition is shown in short sentences, direct and energetic. A secretive and proud mind is cold and obscure in style. An affectionate and imaginative nature pours out luxuriantly, and blossoms all over with ornament.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Style, Mind, Proud

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• O vanity, how little is thy force acknowledged or thy operations discerned! How wantonly dost thou deceive mankind under different disguises! Sometimes thou dost wear the face of pity; sometimes of generosity; nay, thou hast the assurance to put on those glorious ornaments which belong only to heroic virtue.

  Henry Fielding

  Vanity, Generosity, Different

  Henry Fielding (1832). “The Adventures of Joseph Andrews”, p.52

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• Nor do we accept, as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness, this youthfulness of heart, this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect. Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. None are truly great without this ornament.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Heart, Self, Mind

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1868). “Tablets”, p.72

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