#refinement

It is not just a question of blowing up a building or shooting a prime minister. Such bourgeois horseplay is not contemplated. Our operation must be delicate, refined and aimed at the heart of the Intelligence apparat of the West. ↗

— Ian Fleming

#death #horseplay #james-bond #refinement #death

The process of discovering your fearless self is of refinement, not adding. The best way to reconnect with your freedom is to look at the rules you have that govern your freedom. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#fearless #freedom #happiness #inspirational #refinement

I have come to believe that our innate purpose is nothing more than to be the greatest version of ourselves. It is a process of refinement, improvement, and enhancement. When you are aligned with this process and living your purpose, you have the potential of creating something amazing. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#amazing #change #creating #enhancement #greatness

...this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover—although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one... ↗

— Paul Hoffman

#arbell #bad #beat #bitter #cale

The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect. ↗

— Felix Adler

#differentiation #diversity #every #freedom #human

Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society. ↗

— Jean Baudrillard

#conscience #deep #deep down #down #even

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#more #nothing #refinement #science #than

Program construction consists of a sequence of refinement steps. ↗

— Niklaus Wirth

#construction #program #refinement #sequence #steps

Count Ayakura’s abstraction persisted. He believed that only a vulgar mentality was willing to acknowledge the possibility of catastrophe. He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophes. However precipitous the future might seem, he learned from the game of kemari that the ball must always come down. There was no call for consternation. Grief and rage, along with other outbursts of passion, were mistakes easily committed by a mind lacking in refinement. And the Count was certainly not a man who lacked refinement. Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as an ally. Such was Count Ayakura’s version of political theory. ↗

— Yukio Mishima

#elegance #inaction #indifference #japan #passivity

If I could create an ideal world, it would be an England with the fire of the Elizabethans, the correct taste of the Georgians, and the refinement and pure ideals of the Victorians. ↗

— H. P. Lovecraft

#could #create #england #fire #georgians