Quotes about charm
page 7

Norman Mailer photo
Khalil Gibran photo

“I was taken by His voice and His gestures, not by the substance of His speech. He charmed me but never convinced me; for He was too vague, too distant and obscure to reach my mind.”

Manasseh: On the Speech and Gesture of Jesus
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: I admired Him as a man rather than as a leader. He preached something beyond my liking, perhaps beyond my reason. And I would have no man preach to me.
I was taken by His voice and His gestures, not by the substance of His speech. He charmed me but never convinced me; for He was too vague, too distant and obscure to reach my mind.
I have known other men like Him. They are never constant nor are they consistent. It is with eloquence not with principles that they hold your ear and your passing thought, but never the core of your heart.

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“It was a marriage of love. He was sufficiently spoiled to be charming; she was ingenuous enough to be irresistible.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

"The Lees of Happiness"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Context: It was a marriage of love. He was sufficiently spoiled to be charming; she was ingenuous enough to be irresistible. Like two floating logs they met in a head-on rush, caught, and sped along together.

St. Vincent (musician) photo

“There are no signs,
There are no stars aligned,
No amulets no charms,
To bring you back to my arms.”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

"All My Stars Aligned"
Marry Me (2007)
Context: There are no signs,
There are no stars aligned,
No amulets no charms,
To bring you back to my arms.
There's just this human heart.
That's built with this human fault.
What was your question?
Love is the answer.

Joyce Kilmer photo

“He bears a sword of flame but not to harm
The wakened life that feels his quickening sway
And barnyard voices shrilling "It is day!"
Take by his grace a new and alien charm.”

"Alarm Clocks"
Trees and Other Poems (1914)
Context: When Dawn strides out to wake a dewy farm
Across green fields and yellow hills of hay
The little twittering birds laugh in his way
And poise triumphant on his shining arm.
He bears a sword of flame but not to harm
The wakened life that feels his quickening sway
And barnyard voices shrilling "It is day!"
Take by his grace a new and alien charm. But in the city, like a wounded thing
That limps to cover from the angry chase,
He steals down streets where sickly arc-lights sing,
And wanly mock his young and shameful face;
And tiny gongs with cruel fervor ring
In many a high and dreary sleeping place.

Roman Polanski photo

“Sharon had grace and charm; she knew how to make anybody's life easier.”

Roman Polanski (1933) Polish-French film director, producer, writer, actor, and rapist

Interview in Telecran magazine (25 January 1970)
Context: I'm forced to mix with people of this industry and I can swear that is really difficult to meet people with her nature and her spirit. Generally, everybody is opportunistic here. Sharon had grace and charm; she knew how to make anybody's life easier. When somebody was busy, she was there in a discreet manner to serve you a drink or a coffee.

Joel Barlow photo

“Almighty Freedom! give my venturous song
The force, the charm that to thy voice belong”

Book I
The Columbiad (1807)
Context: Almighty Freedom! give my venturous song
The force, the charm that to thy voice belong;
Tis thine to shape my course, to light my way,
To nerve my country with the patriot lay,
To teach all men where all their interest lies,
How rulers may be just and nations wise:
Strong in thy strength I bend no suppliant knee,
Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.

Callimachus photo

“Two goddesses now must Cyprus adore;
The Muses are ten, the Graces are four;
Stella's wit is so charming, so sweet her fair face;
She shines a new Venus, a Muse, and a Grace.”

Callimachus (-310–-240 BC) ancient poet and librarian

Epigram 5; translation by Jonathan Swift, cited from Anthologia Polyglotta (1849), edited by Henry Wellesley, p. 47
Epigrams

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“She with all the charm of woman,
She with all the breadth of man.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Source: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Line 48

Joel Barlow photo

“I sing the sweets I know, the charms I feel,
My morning incense, and my evening meal,
The sweets of Hasty-Pudding. Come, dear bowl,
Glide o'er my palate, and inspire my soul.”

Joel Barlow (1754–1812) American diplomat

Canto 1: st. 1, lines 1–10
The Hasty-Pudding (1793)
Context: Despise it not, ye Bards to terror steel'd,
Who hurl'd your thunders round the epic field;
Nor ye who strain your midnight throats to sing
Joys that the vineyard and the still-house bring;
Or on some distant fair your notes employ,
And speak of raptures that you ne'er enjoy.
I sing the sweets I know, the charms I feel,
My morning incense, and my evening meal,
The sweets of Hasty-Pudding. Come, dear bowl,
Glide o'er my palate, and inspire my soul.

Guy De Maupassant photo

“The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Variant translation:
She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished; and she let them make a match for her with a little clerk in the Department of Education.
La Parure (The Necklace) (1884)
Context: The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

Robert E. Lee photo

“Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.”

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

Letter to his son http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/03/robert-e-Lee-owned-slaves-and-defended-slavery/, G. W. Custis Lee (23 January 1861).
1860s
Context: I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for 'perpetual Union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession: anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution. … Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and, save in defense will draw my sword on none.

Plotinus photo

“[W]hen they write incantations, and utter them as to the stars, not only to [the bodies and] souls of these, but also to things superior to soul, what do they effect? They answer, charms, allurements, and persuasions, so that the stars hear the words addressed to them, and are drawn down; if any one of us knows how in a more artificial manner to utter these incantations, sounds, aspirations of the voice, and hissings, and such other particulars as in their writings are said to possess a magical power. …They likewise pretend that they can expel disease. And if, indeed, they say that they effect this by temperance and an orderly mode of life, they speak rightly, and conformably to philosophers. But now when they assert that diseases are daemons, and that they are able to expel these by words, and proclaim that they possess this ability, they may appear to the multitude to be more venerable, who admire the powers of magicians; but they will not persuade intelligent men that diseases have not their causes either from labours, or satiety, or indigence, or putrefaction, and in short from mutations which either have an external or internal origin. This, however, is manifest from the cure of diseases. For disease is deduced downward, so as to pass away externally, either through a flux of the belly, or the operation of medicine. Disease, also, is cured by letting of blood and fasting. …The disease …[is] something different from the daemon. …The manner, however, in which these things are asserted by the Gnostics, and on what account is evident; since for the sake of this, no less than of other things, we have mentioned these daemons. …And this must every where be considered, that he who pursues our form of philosophy, will, besides all other goods, genuinely exhibit simple and venerable manners, in conjunction with the possession of wisdom, and will not endeavour to become insolent and proud; but will possess confidence accompanied with reason, much security and caution, and great circumspection.”

Plotinus (203–270) Neoplatonist philosopher

Against the Gnostics

Epictetus photo

“If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher, nor suffer others to call you so. Say rather: He is in error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I give in my adhesion to what I did before; nor had my mode of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change. (109).

Virgil photo

“Trust not too much to that enchanting face;
Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.”

O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.

Book II, line 17 (tr. John Dryden)
Eclogues (37 BC)

St. Vincent (musician) photo

“What me worry? I never do.
Life is one charming ruse for us lucky few.”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

"What Me Worry?"
Paris Is Burning (2006)
Context: What me worry? I never do.
Life is one charming ruse for us lucky few. Have I fooled you, dear?
The time is coming near when I'll give you my hand and I'll say,
"It's been grand, but... I'm out of here
I'm out of here"

R. A. Lafferty photo

“And finally a great savior broke the charm.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

On confronting the Siren-Zo of Sireneca, in Ch. 4
Space Chantey (1968)
Context: "'Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday,' so the poor slaves had to sing in their labor for the puca. And finally a great savior broke the charm. 'And Wednesday too' he said, and then it was all over with."
"Roadstrum is the great savior who breaks the charm," Roadstrum announced. "I will set a Wednesday-term to the monster. But there are other elements in this…"

E. B. White photo

“In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.”

E. B. White (1899–1985) American writer

"Here Is New York," Holiday (1948); reprinted in Here is New York (1949)
Context: The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sounds of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.
All dwellers in cities must dwell with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city itself and because, of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.

James Branch Cabell photo

“I fight against the gluttony of time with so many very amusing weapons — with gestures and with three attitudes and with charming phrases; with tears and with tinsel, and with sugar-coated pills, and with platitudes slightly regilded.”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

Horvendile, in Ch. 13 : What a Boy Thought
The Way of Ecben (1929)
Context: I fight against the gluttony of time with so many very amusing weapons — with gestures and with three attitudes and with charming phrases; with tears and with tinsel, and with sugar-coated pills, and with platitudes slightly regilded. Yes, and I fight him also with little mirrors wherein gleam confusedly the corruptions of lust, and ruddy loyalty, and a bit of moonshine, and the pure diamond of the heart's desire, and the opal cloudings of human compromise: but, above all, I fight that ravening dotard with the strength of my own folly.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

" To Virgil http://home.att.net/%7ETennysonPoetry/virg.htm", st. 3 (1882)
Context: Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word.

George Gordon Byron photo

“I was not form'd
To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine,
Nor dote even on thy beauty — as I've doted
On lesser charms, for no cause save that such
Devotion was a duty, and I hated
All that look'd like a chain for me or others”

Act IV, scene 1.
Sardanapalus (1821)
Context: But take this with thee: if I was not form'd
To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine,
Nor dote even on thy beauty — as I've doted
On lesser charms, for no cause save that such
Devotion was a duty, and I hated
All that look'd like a chain for me or others
(This even rebellion must avouch); yet hear
These words, perhaps among my last — that none
E'er valued more thy virtues, though he knew not
To profit by them…

Francesco Petrarca photo

“There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away — sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come.”

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet

Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio (28 April 1373) as quoted in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 426
Context: Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live. I know my own powers. I am not fitted for other kinds of work, but my reading and writing, which you would have me discontinue, are easy tasks, nay, they are a delightful rest, and relieve the burden of heavier anxieties. There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away — sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come. I believe I speak but the strict truth when I claim that as there is none among earthly delights more noble than literature, so there is none so lasting, none gentler, or more faithful; there is none which accompanies its possessor through the vicissitudes of life at so small a cost of effort or anxiety.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star
In his steep course?”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

St. 1.
"Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni" (1802)
Context: Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star
In his steep course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald awful head, О sovran Blanc!

Harry Truman photo

“When a High Explosive shell bursts in fifteen feet and does you no damage, you can bet your sweet life you bear a charmed life and no mistake.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Letter to Bess Wallace (8 September 1918) https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/ww1/documents/fulltext.php?documentid=1-15
Context: Now days battles are just sort of a "You shoot up my town and I'll shoot up yours." They say that Americans don't play fair. They shoot 'em up all the time. I hope so because I want to finish this job as soon as possible and begin making an honest living again... Have fired 500 rounds at the Germans, at my command, been shelled, didn't run away thank the Lord and never lost a man. Probably shouldn't have told you but you'll not worry any more if you know I'm in it than if you think I am. Have had the most strenuous work of my life, am very tired but otherwise absolutely in good condition physically mentally and morally... When a High Explosive shell bursts in fifteen feet and does you no damage, you can bet your sweet life you bear a charmed life and no mistake. I didn't have sense enough to know what was going on until the next day and then I was pretty scared. The men think I am not much afraid of shells but they don't know. I was too scared to run and that is pretty scared.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Charm us, orator, till the lion look no larger than the cat.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Source: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Line 112

Thomas Carlyle photo

“The man of Humor sees common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness and love ; whatever has existence has a charm for him. Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
Context: Humor is properly the exponent of low things; that which first renders them poetical to the mind. The man of Humor sees common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness and love; whatever has existence has a charm for him. Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. He who wants it, be his other gifts what they may, has only half a mind; an eye for what is above him, not for what is about him or below him. Now, among all writers of any real poetic genius, we cannot recollect one who, in this respect, exhibits such total deficiency as Schiller. In his whole writings there is scarcely any vestige of it, scarcely any attempt that way. His nature was without Humor; and he had too true a feeling to adopt any counterfeit in its stead. Thus no drollery or caricature, still less any barren mockery, which, in the hundred cases are all that we find passing current as Humor, discover themselves in Schiller. His works are full of labored earnestness; he is the gravest of all writers.

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“Those who trust develop a finer sense for the good, even at the hight cost of blighted hopes. Charmed by the spell of love, faith is, as it were, imposed upon their heart.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

"The Holy Dimension", p. 338
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)
Context: The account of our experiences, the record of debit and credit, is reflected in the amount of trust or distrust we display towards life and humanity. There are those who maintain that the good is within our reach everywhere; you have but to stretch out your arms and you will grasp it. But there are others who, intimidated by fraud and ugliness, sense scorn and ambushes everywhere and misgive all things to come. Those who trust develop a finer sense for the good, even at the hight cost of blighted hopes. Charmed by the spell of love, faith is, as it were, imposed upon their heart.

Michel De Montaigne photo

“Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm.”

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism

Source: What is Political Philosophy (1959), p. 40
Context: Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm. It is the highest form of the mating of courage and moderation. In spite of its highness or nobility, it could appear as Sisyphean or ugly, when one contrasts its achievement with its goal. Yet it is necessarily accompanied, sustained and elevated by eros. It is graced by nature's grace.

Carl Friedrich Gauss photo

“The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal themselves in all their beauty only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it.”

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) German mathematician and physical scientist

Letter to Sophie Germain (30 April 1807) ([...]; les charmes enchanteurs de cette sublime science ne se décèlent dans toute leur beauté qu'à ceux qui ont le courage de l'approfondir. Mais lorsqu'une personne de ce sexe, qui, par nos meurs [sic] et par nos préjugés, doit rencontrer infiniment plus d'obstacles et de difficultés, que les hommes, à se familiariser avec ces recherches épineuses, sait néanmoins franchir ces entraves et pénétrer ce qu'elles ont de plus caché, il faut sans doute, qu'elle ait le plus noble courage, des talents tout à fait extraordinaires, le génie superieur.)
Context: The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal themselves in all their beauty only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a person of that sex, that, because of our mores and our prejudices, has to encounter infinitely more obstacles and difficulties than men in familiarizing herself with these thorny research problems, nevertheless succeeds in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating their most obscure parts, she must without doubt have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius.

Bhagat Singh photo

“I emphasize that I am full of ambition and hope and of full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice.”

Bhagat Singh (1907–1931) Indian revolutionary

Selected writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (1986), p. 65
Context: I emphasize that I am full of ambition and hope and of full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice. These things can never be hinderance in the way of man, provided he be a man. You will have the practical proof in the near future.

Robert Frost photo

“For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I am in a place, in a situation, as if I had materialized from cloud or risen out of the ground. There is a glad recognition of the long lost and the rest follows. Step by step the wonder of unexpected supply keeps growing. The impressions most useful to my purpose seem always those I was unaware of and so made no note of at the time when taken, and the conclusion is come to that like giants we are always hurling experience ahead of us to pave the future with against the day when we may Want to strike a line of purpose across it for somewhere. The line will have the more charm for not being mechanically straight.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Context: No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I am in a place, in a situation, as if I had materialized from cloud or risen out of the ground. There is a glad recognition of the long lost and the rest follows. Step by step the wonder of unexpected supply keeps growing. The impressions most useful to my purpose seem always those I was unaware of and so made no note of at the time when taken, and the conclusion is come to that like giants we are always hurling experience ahead of us to pave the future with against the day when we may Want to strike a line of purpose across it for somewhere. The line will have the more charm for not being mechanically straight. We enjoy the straight crookedness of a good walking stick. Modern instruments of precision are being used to make things crooked as if by eye and hand in the old days.

R. A. Lafferty photo

“I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 6
Context: I am Aeaea. To my notion there is no other lady anywhere. And I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather. Well, come along, come along! You are my things now, and you will come when I call you.

Charles Fort photo

“My general expression is that all human beings who can do anything; and dogs that track unseen quarry, and homing pigeons, and bird-charming snakes, and caterpillars who transform into butterflies, are magicians.”

Charles Fort (1874–1932) American writer

Ch. 27 http://www.resologist.net/talent27.htm
Wild Talents (1932)
Context: My general expression is that all human beings who can do anything; and dogs that track unseen quarry, and homing pigeons, and bird-charming snakes, and caterpillars who transform into butterflies, are magicians. … Considering modern data, it is likely that many of the fakirs of the past, who are now known as saints, did, or to some degree did, perform the miracles that have been attributed to them. Miracles, or stunts, that were in accord with the dominant power of the period were fostered, and miracles that conflicted with, or that did not contribute to, the glory of the Church, were discouraged, or were savagely suppressed. There could be no development of mechanical, chemical, or electric miracles —
And that, in the succeeding age of Materialism — or call it the Industrial Era — there is the same state of subservience to a dominant, so that young men are trained to the glory of the job, and dream and invent in fields that are likely to interest stockholders, and are schooled into thinking that all magics, except their own industrial magics, are fakes, superstitions, or newspaper yarns.

Jan Mankes photo

“I really love Thijs Maris and his works possess for me a peculiar charm.. .You will certainly love Thijs Maris yourself and then you know.. ..how lovely it is to walk along in his childlike ardour.”

Jan Mankes (1889–1920) Dutch painter

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek

(original Dutch: citaat van Jan Mankes, in het Nederlands:) Ik houd van Thijs Maris en zijn dingen bezitten voor mij een eigenaardige bekooring.. .U zult zelf zeker van Thijs Maris houden en dan weet u.. ..hoe heerlijk het is mee te leven in zijn [Thijs!] kinderlijke innigheid.

In his letter to artist and art-critic Augustine Obreen, 16/19 June 1915; as cited in Jan Mankes – in woord en beeld, ed. Sjoerd van Faassen; Museum Bèlvédère, Heerenveen, 2015 ISBN 1877-0983, n. 22, p. 26
1915 - 1920

Baruch Spinoza photo
Robert Sheckley photo
J. Howard Moore photo
Jan Smuts photo
Otto von Bismarck photo
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome. Every beginning is cheerful: the threshold is the place of expectation. The boy stands astonished, his impressions guide him: he learns sportfully, seriousness comes on him by surprise. Imitation is born with us: what should be imitated is not easy to discover. The excellent is rarely found, more rarely valued. The height charms us, the steps to it do not: with the summit in our eye, we love to walk along the plain. It is but a part of art that can be taught: the artist needs it all. Who knows it half, speaks much, and is always wrong: who knows it wholly, inclines to act, and speaks seldom or late. The former have no secrets and no force : the instruction they can give is like baked bread, savory and satisfying for a single day; but flour cannot be sown, and seed-corn ought not to be ground. Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the highest matter. Action can be understood and again represented by the spirit alone. No one knows what he is doing while he acts aright, but of what is wrong we are always conscious. Whoever works with symbols only is a pedant, a hypocrite, or a bungler. There are many such, and they like to be together. Their babbling detains the scholar: their obstinate mediocrity vexes even the best. The instruction which the true artist gives us opens the mind; for, where words fail him, deeds speak. The true scholar learns from the known to unfold the unknown, and approaches more and more to being a master.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician

Book VII Chapter IX
Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre (Journeyman Years) (1821–1829)

V. V. Giri photo
Christian Dior photo

“Dior is like a big adolescent with old- fashioned shyness of as schoolboy and most charming in his childish awkwardness.”

Christian Dior (1905–1957) French fashion designer

Michael Ciry on Dior as a young boy, in p. 20
Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New

Waheeda Rehman photo
Sarojini Naidu photo

“Is not just a faded echo of the feeble voice of decadent romanticism but an authentic Indian English utterance exquisitely tuned to the composite to Indian ethos, bringing home to the unbiased reader all the opulence, pageantry and charm of Indian life, and the spenders of Indian scene.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) Indian politician, governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949

Review of her poetry publications in *[Das, Sisir Kumar, History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy, http://books.google.com/books?id=sqBjpV9OzcsC, 1 January 1995, Sahitya Akademi, 978-81-7201-798-9, 184]

Bhimsen Joshi photo
Totaram Sanadhya photo
Stella Vine photo

“The art world is really exactly the same as the sex industry: you have to be completely on guard, you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre. And you will also meet charming, wonderful people like a rainbow at the end of the day.”

Stella Vine (1969) English artist

Source: David Smith, "Art? It's like the sex trade", http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1759321,00.html The Observer, (2006-04-23) : On the art world.

Matthew Arnold photo

“Steeped in sentiment as she lies, spreading her gardens to the moonlight, and whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age, who will deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling us nearer to the true goal of all of us, to the ideal, to perfection, — to beauty, in a word, which is only truth seen from another side?”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

nearer, perhaps, than all the science of Tübingen. Adorable dreamer, whose heart has been so romantic who hast given thyself so prodigally, given thyself to sides and to heroes not mine, only never to the Philistines! home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!
Preface to the Second Edition (1869)
Essays in Criticism (1865)

Dylan Moran photo
John Muir photo
Jane Austen photo
Thomas Carlyle photo
John Stuart Mill photo
G. K. Chesterton photo
Robert Silverberg photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

“Turn where we may,—within,—around,—the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve. Now, therefore, while every thing at home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age,—now, while the crash of the proudest throne of the continent is still resounding in our ears,—now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the exiled heir of forty kings,—now, while we see on every side ancient institutions subverted, and great societies dissolved,—now, while the heart of England is still sound,—now, while the old feelings and the old associations retain a power and a charm which may too soon pass away,—now, in this your accepted time,—now in this your day of salvation,—take counsel, not of prejudice,—not of party spirit,—not of the ignominious pride of a fatal consistency,—but of history,—of reason,—of the ages which are past,—of the signs of this most portentous time. Pronounce in a manner worthy of the expectation with which this great Debate has been anticipated, and of the long remembrance which it will leave behind. Renew the youth of the State. Save property divided against itself. Save the multitude, endangered by their own ungovernable passions. Save the aristocracy, endangered by its own unpopular power. Save the greatest, and fairest, and most highly civilized community that ever existed, from calamities which may in a few days sweep away all the rich heritage of many ages of wisdom and glory. The danger is terrible. The time is short. If this Bill should be rejected, I pray to God that none of those who concur in rejecting it may ever remember their votes with unavailing regret, amidst the wreck of laws, the confusion of ranks, the spoliation of property, and the dissolution of social order.”

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician

Speech in the House of Commons (2 March 1831) https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1831/mar/02/ministerial-plan-of-parliamentary-reform#column_1204 in favour of the Reform Bill
1830s

James K. Morrow photo
Annie Besant photo

“I do repent of wine and talk of wine,
Of idols fair with charms like silver fine:
A lip-repentance and a lustful heart—
O God, forgive this penitence of mine!”

Asjadi persian poet

A Literary History of Persia, Vol. 2, p. 123 https://archive.org/details/a-literary-history-of-persia-vol-2-1964
Poetry

Théodore Guérin photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“And yet, [Hitler] is not without a certain charm. But it is the soft, almost feminine charm of the Austrian! When he talks it is with a broad Austrian dialect.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "I Saw Hitler" 1932, p. 14

Alexander Pope photo

“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”

Canto V, line 33
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)

Moon So-ri photo

“It’s hard for people to know themselves. It’s hard to know how you’re charming. When you’re young, even when people compliment you, it’s difficult to accept that.”

Moon So-ri (1974) South Korean actress

As quoted in "Now a director and scriptwriter, actress Moon So-ri speaks about her film" in The Korea Herald (6 Septmeber 2017) http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170906000677

Giacomo Casanova photo

“I have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of first introducing it into minds which were ignorant of its charms.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, Preface, p. 34
Referenced

Prevale photo

“The charm of bad girl attracts. Always.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il fascino della ragazzaccia attrae. Sempre.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“You are intelligent, sweet, elegant, charming, erotic, sensual and transgressive. You are what creates an obsessive seduction.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Sei intelligente, dolce, elegante, affascinante, erotica, sensuale e trasgressiva. Sei tutto ciò che crea una seduzione ossessiva.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“She, of a particular and unique beauty. The features of his face and her body are of a subtle transgression that blends between sweetness and sensuality. Her charm smells of woman.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) ​Lei, di una particolare ed unica bellezza. I lineamenti del suo volto e del suo corpo sono di una sottile trasgressione che si fonde tra dolcezza e sensualità. Il suo fascino profuma di donna.
Source: prevale.net

Zhiar Ali photo
J.B. Priestley photo
Émile Banning photo

“A people needs air, broad horizons, an ideal which charms its imagination and makes its heart beat; reduce it to household calculations, to the politics of party interests, it will disintegrate and corrupt itself.”

Émile Banning (1836–1898) academic, civil servant

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, A romantic associate of Leopold II. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 CROKAERT, P. Brialmont, 23.

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Prevale photo

“When a woman's charm dominates thought, a man becomes a prisoner of it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Quando il fascino di una donna domina il pensiero, l'uomo ne diventa prigioniero.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The charm of bad girl attracts. Always.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il fascino della ragazzaccia attrae. Sempre.

Jack Williamson photo
Prevale photo

“You are the excellence of charm: strong and fragile, cheerful and melancholy, innocent and perverse, selfish and altruistic, sociable and asocial, simple and complicated, sensitive and impassive, elegant and trendy, sweet and bitchy, true, concrete… authentic and sincere. You are a condemnation for the one who hosanna you. Your essence is a masterpiece of woman.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Tu sei l'eccellenza del fascino: forte e fragile, allegra e malinconica, innocente e perversa, egoista e altruista, socievole e asociale, semplice e complicata, sensibile e impassibile, elegante e trendy, dolce e stronza, vera, concreta... autentica e sincera. Sei una condanna per chi ti osanna. La tua essenza è un capolavoro di donna.
Source: prevale.net

Edmond Rostand photo
Prevale photo

“The charm par excellence belongs to the rebellious and determined woman.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il fascino per eccellenza appartiene alla donna ribelle e determinata.​
Source: prevale.net

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“It seemed to you perhaps as if the sun shone brighter and everything had acquired a new charm. At any rate, I believe this is always the effect of a serious love and that's a delightful thing.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter tot Theo, from The Hague, Sunday, 18 March 1883; as cited in letter 330 - complete vangoghletters online http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let330/letter.html
1880s, 1883

Prevale photo

“Charm is the power to attract at any age.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il fascino è il potere di attrarre a qualsiasi età.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Reality shows that there are differences even in the poses of the completely naked body: some show vulgarity, transgression, obscenity… others simplicity, charm and elegance.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La realtà mostra che ci sono differenze anche nelle pose del corpo completamente nudo: alcune mostrano volgarità, trasgressione, oscenità... altre semplicità, fascino ed eleganza.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The charm of a woman can be manifested in courage, mystery and her way of thinking.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il fascino di una donna può manifestarsi nel coraggio, nel mistero e nel suo modo di pensare.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“In life, choose a sweet, strong, courageous, enterprising, cute, loyal, charming, elegant and perverse person at your side. She must be able to take your breath away just thinking about her.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nella vita, al vostro fianco scegliete una persona dolce, forte, coraggiosa, intraprendente, carina, leale, affascinante, elegante e perversa. Deve essere in grado di togliervi il respiro al solo suo pensiero.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Beauty, sweetness and sympathy, but also elegance and charm; they belong to a woman of style.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Bellezza, dolcezza e simpatia, ma anche eleganza e fascino; appartengono ad una donna di stile.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The woman who has charm, has character.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La donna che ha fascino, ha carattere.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“You are the enchanting woman who remains carved into my mind. You have a dominant character, you are authentic and charming.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Sei la donna incantevole che rimane scolpita nella mia mente. Hai un carattere dominante, sei autentica e affascinante.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The indomitable woman has that charm of rebellion, moreover a symptom of intellect, which remains sculped in the mind.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La donna indomabile ha quel fascino di ribellione, peraltro sintomo di intelletto, che rimane scolpito nella mente.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The beauty of a woman is a combination of values: intellect, sympathy, sensuality, physique, simplicity, sweetness, charm, elegance, transgression, passion and culture. Values that make it unique in its nature.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La bellezza di una donna è una combinazione di valori: intelletto, simpatia, sensualità, fisico, semplicità, dolcezza, fascino, eleganza, trasgressione, passione e cultura. Valori che la rendono unica nella sua natura.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“You are the combination of charm, elegance and sensuality. My damnation that to your thought alone, steals all my attention.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Sei la combinazione di fascino, eleganza e sensualità. La mia dannazione che al solo tuo pensiero, ruba tutta la mia attenzione.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“In a woman: beauty attracts, sweetness captures, charm seduces, character intrigues and courage conquers.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: In una donna: la bellezza attrae, la dolcezza cattura, il fascino seduce, il carattere intriga e il coraggio conquista.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“I wish I could give you my eyes so that I could show you your superlative beauty, your intriguing charm, your inimitable personality, your sympathy and your remarkable and constant courage.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Vorrei poterti donare i miei occhi per mostrarti la tua superlativa bellezza, il tuo intrigante fascino, la tua inimitabile personalità, la tua simpatia ed il tuo notevole e costante coraggio.
Source: prevale.net