#refined

I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined. ↗

— Jose Saramago

#curiosity #developed #except #frequent #had

The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#aristocracy #background #chivalry #civilization #exalted

I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling. ↗

— Frances Burney

#behaviour #cannot #characters #history #i

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

— Paul Tournier

#more #our #refined #subtle #vulnerable

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

The artist's job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery. To intuit it, and recognize that the story-germ has some inherent mystery in it, and sort of midwife that mystery into the story in such a way that it isn't damaged in the process, and may even get heightened or refined. ↗

— George Saunders

#conduit #damaged #even #get #heightened

Barack Obama's life was so much simpler in 2009. Back then, he had refined the cold act of blaming others for the bad economy into an art form. Deficits? Blame Bush's tax cuts. Spending? Blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No business investment? Blame Wall Street. ↗

— John Sununu

#afghanistan #art #art form #back #bad

Over the course of those 12 episodes we discarded what didn't work and kept what did and that refined it. ↗

— Dave Rowntree

#did #discarded #episodes #kept #over

The thing about playing percussion is that you can create all these emotions that can be sometimes beautiful, sometimes really ugly, or sometimes sweet, sometimes as big as King Kong and so on. And so there can be a real riot out there, or it can be so refined. ↗

— Evelyn Glennie

#beautiful #big #create #emotions #king

Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls. ↗

— Gaston Bachelard

#communion #effect #ideas #images #minds