#refine

You know," said Al in a daze of hunger and cold, "when you see this, you realize that despite all the crap that goes on in the cities, despite all the words and accusations, the country has balance and momentum. The whole thing is symmetrical and beautiful; it works. The cities are like bulbs on a Christmas tree. They may bum, swell, and shatter, but the green stays green. Look at it," he said, eyes fixed on the horizon, not unmoved by the motion of the train. "Look at it. It's alive. ↗

— Mark Helprin

#beauty

In Europe the rich are refined enough to act as if they're not wealthy. That is how civilized people behave. If you ask me, being cultured and civilized is not about everyone being free and equal; it's about everyone being refined enough to act as if they were. Then no one has to feel guilty. ↗

— Orhan Pamuk

#culture #equality #guilt #refinement #rich

Stop allowing your outdated ideas to hinder your progress. How would your life be different if you became open to new information that can refine, improve, enhance your way of thinking, and empower your way of living? ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#enhance #hinder #ideas #improve #information

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot. ↗

— Mark Twain

#keeps #kind #parrot #person #quite

Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. ↗

— Morihei Ueshiba

#divinity #enlightenment #everyone #follow #here

And it's sad because it's like a surprise to people - almost an anomaly - when artists are actually refined and trained on an instrument. That's the last thing people think about. ↗

— Vanessa Carlton

#actually #almost #anomaly #artists #because

Sometimes you try a song and people don't respond, or you tell a story and you just hear crickets. But when you play thousands of shows, you start to refine stuff. ↗

— Harry Connick, Jr.

#just #people #play #refine #respond

So what this is is us, our personalities refined down on to a stage performance. In other words, the way we play is the end product of the way we live - we live in the cities, you see. ↗

— Alice Cooper

#down #end #end product #in other words #live

The eye is the most refined of our senses, the one which communicates most directly with our mind, our consciousness. ↗

— Robert Delaunay

#consciousness #directly #eye #mind #most

Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly. ↗

— T. S. Eliot

#help #language #only #poetry #prevent