#refine

Genius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials. ↗

— Benjamin Haydon

#common #doing #done #faculties #genius

I've refined my mechanics, refined my pitches. I've gotten more confidence, and I've gotten more determination. I've got a better idea what I'm doing out there. ↗

— Randy Johnson

#better idea #confidence #determination #doing #got

The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails. ↗

— James Joyce

#artist #behind #beyond #creation #existence

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

— Paul Tournier

#more #our #refined #subtle #vulnerable

I have terrible hearing trouble. I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf. ↗

— Pete Townshend

#hearing #helped #i #invent #makes

His daughter returned from her boarding school, improved in fashionable airs and expert in manufacturing fashionable toys; but, in her conversation, he sought in vain for that refined and fertile mind which he had fondly expected. ↗

— Emma Willard

#boarding #boarding school #conversation #daughter #expected

Program construction consists of a sequence of refinement steps. ↗

— Niklaus Wirth

#construction #program #refinement #sequence #steps

The tallest building in the world is now in Dubai, the biggest factory in the world is in China, the largest oil refinery is in India, the largest investment fund in the world is in Abu Dhabi, the largest Ferris wheel in the world is in Singapore. ↗

— Fareed Zakaria

#biggest #building #china #dubai #factory

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing. ↗

— Joshua Bell

#best way #getting #interpretation #out #performing

One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner"; the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; "it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure. ↗

— Amy Carmichael

#fire #gold #heat #pain #pure