Subtle Quotes

The way brainwashing works is subtle and takes a long time.

Science advances through tentative answers to a series of more and more subtle questions which reach deeper and deeper into the essence of natural phenomena.

Physics is simple, but subtle.

Even when I begin with a situation that's basically funny or sad, I like to keep poking around in it. I like to get into the middle of a relationship, to explore the subtle places.

Death is the opening of a more subtle life. In the flower, it sets free the perfume; in the chrysalis, the butterfly; in man, the soul.

Etching is a beautiful medium. The result is rich, subtle tones achieved in no other way.

Earnestness is not by any means everything; it is very often a subtle form of pious pride because it is obsessed with the method and not with the Master.

I'm an educated man, the prisons I know are subtle ones.

Yeah, you know, you like it to come on like gangbusters, but you get into passages that are very interesting and subtle, and sometimes your original intent changes quite a bit.

It may be that a more subtle person would find for this thing a reason of greater subtlety: but such is the reason that I find, and that liketh me best.

There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be.

Much like a subtle spider which doth sit In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide; If aught do touch the utmost thread of it, She feels it instantly on every side.

My first two records were more energetic; Phantom Moon is subtle, quiet; so these various reactions are just something I expected

In literature as in ethics, there is danger, as well as glory, in being subtle. Aristocracy isolates us.

Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it.

My suggestion for a fast style upgrade would be to embrace a pop of color or pattern. Try layering a bright, pullover knit on top of a dress shirt with a subtle or bold pattern.

Notoriously insensitive to subtle shifts in mood, children will persist in discussing the color of a recently sighted cement-mixer long after one's own interest in the topic has waned.

The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.

Nature's far too subtle to repeat herself.

My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied.

Europe, in legend, has always been the home of subtle philosophical discussion; America was the land of grubby pragmatism.

Joy's a subtle elf, I think man's happiest when he forgets himself.

Look slowly and hard at something subtle and small.

Such subtle Covenants shall be made,Till Peace it self is War in Masquerade.

The great paintings are the ones with the most subtle value relationships. The closer you could bring your values and still distinguish between them, the stronger you were as a painter.

There is space within sisterhood for likeness and difference, for the subtle differences that challenge and delight; there is space for disappointment-and surprise.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

Before this I tended to paint figures and put them in an environment. Now I paint an environment to put figures in. It's a subtle difference, but it is a difference. It's something I did naturally.

I think in my twenties I tended to think of all people as sort of more or less alike. In now think that people are really different in all these subtle ways that are very important.

Such is hope, heaven's own gift to struggling mortals, pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad.

I sometimes got distracted easily and allowed my mind to wander when I needed to be focused. It's quite subtle, really, and just being aware of it helps.

Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.

Women are complex and subtle. Men are simple and direct.

I can zero in on subtle things because I'm holding the camera.

O subtle love! a thousand wiles thou hast, by humble suit, by service, or by hire, to win a maiden's hold,--a thing soon done, for nature framed all women to be won.

Justice and truth are two such subtle points, that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.

The force of nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the material forces of nature, like electricity.

The power of ads rests more in the repetition of obvious exhortations than in the subtle transmission of values.

Reality has always proved to be much more sophisticated and subtle than any preconceived philosophy.

The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own capacity.

Music is made by individuals. Some artists will be very politically overt in their songs, some will be more subtle. You have to be true to yourself, true to your nature.

The brave, impetuous heart yields everywhere to the subtle, contriving head.

Lay not the plummet to the line; religion hath no landmarks; no human keenness can discern the subtle shades of faith.

Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose - a feather blown - I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.

The challenge was that it was harder to be subtle than strident.

[T]hey stretch you on a table. Then they bid you close your eyelids, And they mask you with a napkin, And the anæsthetic reaches Hot and subtle through your being.

Worry is a subtle way of telling God that He's fallen asleep at the wheel and that things aren't under His authority, but ours.

There are two basic rules which should never be broken. Be subtle. And don't, for God's sake, try to do business with anyone who's having a bad game.

Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death

God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean.