Subtlety Quotes

• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beauty, Beautiful, Nature

  Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

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• It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

  Isaac Asimov

  Foundation, Pay, Reputation

  Isaac Asimov (1951). “The foundation trilogy: three classics of science fiction”

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• Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Inspirational, Integrity, Hype

  Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Carlyle (1845). “Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations”, p.129, New York, Wiley & Putnam

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• Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety; it is the goal, not the starting point.

  Maurice Saatchi

  Goal, Simplicity, Outcomes

  "Maurice Saatchi on his 'brutal simplicity of thought'" by Steve Armstrong, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2010.

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• We live in a world that pays attention to speed, volume, and flash. Subtlety has its own power in relation to that.

  Peter Erskine

  Attention, World, Pay

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• The difference between stupid and intelligent people - and this is true whether or not they are well-educated - is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.

  Neal Stephenson

  Stupid, Intelligent, Differences

  Neal Stephenson (2003). “The Diamond Age”, p.283, Spectra

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• Make subtlety obvious.

  Billy Wilder

  Obvious

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• The subtlest of subtleties, this is the gateway to all mysteries.

  Laozi

  Spiritual, Mystery, Gateways

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• O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, Fate, Hands

  The Art of War (6th century b.c.).

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• The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

  Francis Bacon

  Nature, Understanding, Senses

  1620 Novum Organum, bk.1, aphorism10.

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• O divine art of subtlety and secrecy!

  Sun Tzu

  Art, War, Divine

  The Art of War (6th century b.c.).

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• Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Animal, Safety, Giving

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• It is said that Windham, when he came to the end of a speech, often found himself so perplexed by his own subtlety that he hardly knew which way he was going to give his vote. This is a good illustration of the fallaciousness of reasoning, and of the uncertainties which attend its practical application.

  Augustus William Hare

  Illustration, Giving, Speech

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• Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

  Billy Wilder

  Clever, Obvious, Audience

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• Questions show the mind's range, and answers its subtlety.

  Joseph Joubert

  Political, Curiosity, Mind

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• Spirit of place! It is for this we travel, to surprise its subtlety; and where it is a strong and dominant angel, that place, seen once, abides entire in the memory with all its own accidents, its habits, its breath, its name.

  Alice Meynell

  Strong, Travel, Memories

  Alice Meynell (2013). “The Essential Alice Meynell Collection”, p.226, eBookIt.com

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• When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.

  Julian Barnes

  Country, Pain, Book

  "Julian Barnes: my life as a bibliophile". www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2012.

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• That girl had the subtlety of a Spencer’s Gifts shop.

  Rainbow Rowell

  Girl, That Girl, Shops

  Rainbow Rowell (2013). “Fangirl”, p.93, Pan Macmillan

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• Symbolism perhaps is a bit in your face, and I've tried my best to control that as best I can as I've grown older and thought that one could approach something with a little more subtlety.

  John Schlesinger

  Symbolism, Littles, Faces

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• Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

  Alan Cumming

  Country, Calendars, Bigs

  "Cumming out on top". Interview with Adam Higginbotham, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2003.

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• Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets.

  Constantin Stanislavski

  Success, Real, Lying

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• One of the biggest problems in literature is the lack of subtlety.

  Mo Yan

  Literature, Problem

  "Prolific Nobel winner's pen name? 'Not talking'" by Joe Sterling and Steven Jiang, www.cnn.com. October 11, 2012.

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• Have you ever heard the earth breath?

  Kate Chopin

  Clever, Earth, Branches

  Kate Chopin (1974). “The Storm And Other Stories with THE AWAKENING”

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• To pull off successful attacks in debates, you have to execute with nuance and subtlety. It has to be artful.

  Mark McKinnon

  Successful, Nuance, Debate

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• There's a depth of meaning all on its own in awareness being gentled. From within the subtlety of being gentled, the level of perception changes. Instead of perceiving the obviousness of experience, you're able as awareness to perceive most subtle meaning.

  John de Ruiter

  Perception, Depth, Obviousness

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