Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786–1867) United States philosopher and banker
Part II. Of the Extent of Sensible Knowledge.
The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)
“Sensible painting, like sensible law, sensible writing, or sensible anything else, consists as much in knowing what to omit as what to insist upon.”
Detail
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part IX - A Painter's Views on Painting
Context: One reason why it is as well not to give very much detail is that, no matter how much is given, the eye will always want more; it will know very well that it is not being paid in full. On the other hand, no matter how little one gives, the eye will generally compromise by wanting only a little more. In either case the eye will want more, so one may as well stop sooner or later. Sensible painting, like sensible law, sensible writing, or sensible anything else, consists as much in knowing what to omit as what to insist upon.
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Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 81. An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621–1683), who, in speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense never tell it", reported in Burnet, History of my own Times, vol. i. p. 175, note (edition 1833).
“No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”
W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand
"Notes on Music and Opera", p. 472
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker
Source: Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910), Ch. 15
“What do people like to call stupid the most? Something sensible that they can’t understand.”
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Was nennen die Menschen am liebsten dumm? Das Gescheite, das sie nicht verstehen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 37.
Theodore Roszak (1933–2011) American social historian, social critic, writer
Source: The Gendered Atom: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science (1999), Ch.11 Only Connect
Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic
International Herald Tribune (29 October 1991)
Variant translation: If your heart is in the right place and you have good taste, not only will you pass muster in politics, you are destined for it. If you are modest and do not lust after power, not only are you suited to politics, you absolutely belong there.
Context: When a man has his heart in the right place and good taste, he can not only do well in politics but is even predetermined for it. If someone is modest and does not yearn for power, he is certainly not ill-equipped to engage in politics; on the contrary, he belongs there. What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.
“We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Of Eating of Flesh, Tract 1
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)