Quotes About Expression

often the fairest impression that remains in our minds of a favourite air is one which has arisen out of a jumble of wrong notes struck by unskillful fingers upon a tuneless piano.

Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as the artist. But they do not see it because they are not trying to shed light on it.

Her [Odette's] eyes were beautiful, but so large they seemed to droop beneath their own weight, strained the rest of her face and always made her appear unwell or in a bad mood.

It was impossible for me to thank my father; what he called my sentimentality would have exasperated him.

a work of art is the only means of regaining lost time.

Depth of character, or a melancholy expression on a woman's face would freeze his senses, which would, however, immediately melt at the sight of healthy, abundant, rosy human flesh.

The need to speak prevents one not merely from listening but from seeing things, and in this case the absence of any description of my external surroundings is tantamount to a description of my internal state.

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit?

Thus while he spake, each passion dimm'd his face   Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envie and despair,   Which marrd his borrow'd visage, and betraid   Him counterfet, if any eye beheld.

May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or

Depressed people have an urge to make good things into ugly messes to better match their state of mind.

I didn't keep count of our ejaculations, though our moans and cries were loud and unrestrained, transforming the mesmerizing music into a symphony all our own.

Each one of us is the custodian of an inner world that we carry around with us. Now, other people can glimpse it from [its outer expressions]. But no one but you knows what your inner world is actually like, and no one can force you to reveal it until you actually tell them about it. That's the whole mystery of writing and language and expression — that when you do say it, what others hear and what you intend and know are often totally different kinds of things.

Beauty is a free spirit and will not be trapped within the grid of intentionality.

The imagination is committed to the justice of wholeness. It will not choose one side in an inner conflict and repress or banish the other; it will endeavor to initiate a profound conversation between them in order that something original can be born. The imagination loves symbol because it recognizes that inner divinity can only find expression in symbolic form. The symbol never gives itself completely to the light. It invites thought precisely because it resides at the threshold of darkness.

In the whole divine journey, no one else can walk your pathway. In the whole cosmic choir, no one else can sing your song.

Life happens when the tectonic power of your speechless soul breaks through the dead habits of the mind.

No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry. All admit irregularity as they imply change; and to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

All great art is praise.

Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth, what violent muscular action is to the body of man. The muscles and tendons of its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with force and convulsive energy, full of expression, passion, and strength.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

All great art is the expression of man's delight in God's work, not his own.