#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

Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. ↗

— Laurence Stern

#brave #forgive #generous #how #human

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

We developed already, before the first servicing mission, this has been further developed on the second servicing mission and we refined it this time, all the terminology. ↗

— Claude Nicollier

#been #before #developed #first #further

The more refined one is, the more unhappy. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#refined #unhappy

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

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