Charles Kingsley Quotes

Culture is but the fine flowering of real education, and it is the training of the feeling, the tastes, and the manners that makes it so.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

My interest in society - at times so pronounced that the word 'snob' comes a little to mind - derives from the fact that I like an immense number of things which society, money, and position bring in their train: painting, tapestries, rare books, smart dresses, dances, gardens, country houses, correct cuisine, and pretty women.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

The word "elegance" is a bit different now.

One can be well-bred and write bad poetry

Everyone knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything cooly is to do it genteelly.

There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art.

Luxury is not a necessity to me, but beautiful and good things are.

But a dandy can never be a vulgar man.

I love fashion, beauty, glamour. It's the mark of civilisation.

I like things that are civilized.

Taste is more to do with manners than appearances. Taste is both myth and reality; it is not a style.

But I think beautiful is simple and elegant, like a ballad with simple harmony.

Simplicity is a great element of good breeding.

You can't legislate good taste.

I'm big on what's in good taste.

The sign of a person who has had an education is good manners.

Taste is the next gift to genius.

A beautiful dress can be as exciting as a poem.

Let us be elegant or die! --Amy

Fine natures are like fine poems; a glance at the first two lines suffices for a guess into the beauty that waits you if you read on.

Good taste consists first upon fitness.

Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well.

Do you dance, Mr. Darcy?" Darcy: "Not if I can help it!" Sir William: "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing, after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished societies." Mr. Darcy: "Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world; every savage can dance.