Quotes about appearance
page 7

Hannah Arendt photo
James Patterson photo
Colin Powell photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Malcolm Gladwell photo

“Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Richard Bach photo
Wilkie Collins photo
John Berger photo
Naomi Wolf photo

“The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance.”

Source: Chapter 1 : 'The Beauty Myth', p. 14

Brian Selznick photo
Anaïs Nin photo
David Levithan photo
Rick Riordan photo
Marina Warner photo

“The more one knows fairy tales the less fantastical they appear; they can be vehicles of the grimmest realism, expressing hope against all the odds with gritted teeth.”

Marina Warner (1946) writer and mythographer

Source: From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

Alice Hoffman photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Franz Kafka photo
Jane Austen photo

“Foolish names and foolish faces often appear in public places.”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: American Wife

Alexandre Dumas photo

“… know you not that you are my sun by day, and my star by night? By my faith! I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and illuminated all.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Source: Queen Margot, or Marguerite de Valois

E.E. Cummings photo
Janet Evanovich photo
Jane Austen photo
Junot Díaz photo
William Blake photo
Gore Vidal photo
Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
William Hazlitt photo
Daniel Defoe photo

“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 9, A Boat.
Context: I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

Charles Bukowski photo
Kelley Armstrong photo

“Leap, and the net will appear.”

Source: The Artist's Way

Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“If my sinfulness appears to me in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Rick Riordan photo
Hannah Arendt photo
Knut Hamsun photo

“I have a head for business and a body for sin. Unfortunately, the sin appears to be gluttony.”

Jenny Colgan (1972) British writer

Source: Meet Me at the Cupcake Café

Idries Shah photo
David Sedaris photo
Hans Christian Andersen photo

“I only appear to be dead.”

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet
Zadie Smith photo
Naomi Wolf photo
Diana Gabaldon photo

“It's strange how men feel they have the right to criticize a woman's appearance to her face.”

Marilyn French (1929–2009) Novelist, critic

Source: Her Mother's Daughter

Vincent Van Gogh photo
Nikki Sixx photo

“Just let it happen and, I promise you, all that is magic will appear.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Source: This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx

Raymond Carver photo

“there isn't enough of anything
as long as we live. But at intervals
a sweetness appears and, given a chance
prevails.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Ultramarine: Poems

Douglas Adams photo
Meg Cabot photo
Darren Shan photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Adolf Hitler photo

“In a hundred years time, perhaps, a great man will appear who may offer them (the Germans) a chance at salvation. He'll take me as a model, use my ideas, and follow the course I have charted.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

As quoted in “Der Führer als Redner,” Adolf Hitler. Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers" (The Fuhrer as a speaker) by Joseph Goebbels
Other remarks

Laurie Penny photo
Samuel Butler (poet) photo

“Each window like a pill'ry appears,
With heads thrust thro' nail'd by the ears.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto III, line 391
Source: Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Karl Kraus photo

“Squeeze human nature into a straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear!”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Michel Aflaq photo

“Mathematics because of its nature and structure is peculiarly fitted for high school instruction [Gymnasiallehrfach]. Especially the higher mathematics, even if presented only in its elements, combines within itself all those qualities which are demanded of a secondary subject. It engages, it fructifies, it quickens, compels attention, is as circumspect as inventive, induces courage and self-confidence as well as modesty and submission to truth. It yields the essence and kernel of all things, is brief in form and overflows with its wealth of content. It discloses the depth and breadth of the law and spiritual element behind the surface of phenomena; it impels from point to point and carries within itself the incentive toward progress; it stimulates the artistic perception, good taste in judgment and execution, as well as the scientific comprehension of things. Mathematics, therefore, above all other subjects, makes the student lust after knowledge, fills him, as it were, with a longing to fathom the cause of things and to employ his own powers independently; it collects his mental forces and concentrates them on a single point and thus awakens the spirit of individual inquiry, self-confidence and the joy of doing; it fascinates because of the view-points which it offers and creates certainty and assurance, owing to the universal validity of its methods. Thus, both what he receives and what he himself contributes toward the proper conception and solution of a problem, combine to mature the student and to make him skillful, to lead him away from the surface of things and to exercise him in the perception of their essence. A student thus prepared thirsts after knowledge and is ready for the university and its sciences. Thus it appears, that higher mathematics is the best guide to philosophy and to the philosophic conception of the world (considered as a self-contained whole) and of one’s own being.”

Christian Heinrich von Dillmann (1829–1899) German educationist

Source: Die Mathematik die Fackelträgerin einer neuen Zeit (Stuttgart, 1889), p. 40.

Roy Lichtenstein photo
Jean Piaget photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“Your great demonstration which marks this day in the City of Washington is only representative of many like observances extending over our own country and into other lands, so that it makes a truly world-wide appeal. It is a manifestation of the good in human nature which is of tremendous significance. More than six centuries ago, when in spite of much learning and much piety there was much ignorance, much wickedness and much warfare, when there seemed to be too little light in the world, when the condition of the common people appeared to be sunk in hopelessness, when most of life was rude, harsh and cruel, when the speech of men was too often profane and vulgar, until the earth rang with the tumult of those who took the name of the Lord in vain, the foundation of this day was laid in the formation of the Holy Name Society. It had an inspired purpose. It sought to rededicate the minds of the people to a true conception of the sacredness of the name of the Supreme Being. It was an effort to save all reference to the Deity from curses and blasphemy, and restore the lips of men to reverence and praise. Out of weakness there began to be strength; out of frenzy there began to be self-control; out of confusion there began to be order. This demonstration is a manifestation of the wide extent to which an effort to do the right thing will reach when it is once begun. It is a purpose which makes a universal appeal, an effort in which all may unite.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Authority and Religious Liberty (1924)

Paul Tillich photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Julian of Norwich photo

“He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Second Revelation, Chapter 10
Context: It is God’s will that we have three things in our seeking: — The first is that we seek earnestly and diligently, without sloth, and, as it may be through His grace, without unreasonable heaviness and vain sorrow. The second is, that we abide Him steadfastly for His love, without murmuring and striving against Him, to our life’s end: for it shall last but awhile. The third is that we trust in Him mightily of full assured faith. For it is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that love Him.
For His working is privy, and He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!

David Brin photo
Edouard Manet photo

“Get it down quickly, don't worry about the background. Just go for the tonal values. You see? When you look at it, and above all when you see how to render it as you see it, thats is, in such a way that its make the same impression on the viewer as it does on you, you don't look for, you don't see the lines on the paper over there, do you? And then, when you look at the whole thing you don't try to count the scales on the salmon, of course you don't. You see them as little silver pearls against grey and pink – isn't thats right? – look at the pink of the salmon, with the bone appearing white in the centre and then grays, like the shades of mother of pearl. And the grapes, now do you count each? No, of course not. What strikes you is their clear, amber colour and the bloom which models the form by softening it. What you have to decide with the cloth is where the highlights come and then the planes which are not in the direct light. Halftones are for the magasin pittoresque engravers. The folds will come by themselves if you put them in the proper place. Ah! M. Ingres, there's the man! We're all just children. There's the one who knew how to paint materials! Ask Bracquemond [Paris' artist and print-maker]. Above all, keep your colours fresh. [instructing his new protegee, the Spanish young woman-painter Eva Gonzales, circa 1869]”

Edouard Manet (1832–1883) French painter

Manet, recorded by Philippe Burty, as cited in Manet by Himself, ed. Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Little Brown 2000, London; p. 52
1850 - 1875

Anu Partanen photo
Alexander Maclaren photo
Robert E. Lee photo

“The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obilterate the effects of the war and restore the blessing of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling, qualify themselves to vote and elect to the State and general legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

Letter to Governor Letcher
Variant: The interests of the State are therefore the same as those of the United States. Its prosperity will rise or fall with the welfare of the country. The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling; qualify themselves to vote; and elect to the State and general Legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country, and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.

Jane Roberts photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Pierre Duhem photo

“The first question we should face is: What is the aim of a physical theory? To this question diverse answers have been made, but all of them may be reduced to two main principles:
"A physical theory," certain logicians have replied, "has for its object the explanation of a group of laws experimentally established."
"A physical theory," other thinkers have said, "is an abstract system whose aim is to summarize and classify logically a group of experimental laws without claiming to explain these laws…
Now these two questions — Does there exist a material reality distinct from sensible appearances? and What is the nature of reality? — do not have their source in experimental method, which is acquainted only with sensible appearances and can discover nothing beyond them. The resolution of these questions transcends the methods used by physics; it is the object of metaphysics.
Therefore, if the aim of physical theories is to explain experimental laws, theoretical physics is not an autonomous science; it is subordinate to metaphysics…
Now, to make physical theories depend on metaphysics is surely not the way to let them enjoy the privilege of universal consent.”

Pierre Duhem (1861–1916) French physicist, historian of science

Notice sur les Titres et Travaux scientifiques de Pierre Duhem rédigée par lui-même lors de sa candidature à l'Académie des sciences (mai 1913), The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

Cesare Lombroso photo

“The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities.”

Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) Italian criminologist

Pt. II, ch. 2.
The Man of Genius (1891)

Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Karl Mannheim photo
Jane Roberts photo
Thiruvalluvar photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“We abandoned the appearance of power to preserve the essence of it.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 20 “Conclusion” section 1, p. 408

Vilfredo Pareto photo

“I've been lawsuit-threated [sic] by experts, and i can tell you from that experience, dv8 appears to not be an expert.”

Paul Vixie (1963) American internet pioneer

IETF mailing list archive http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg30614.html

Thomas Hardiman photo