Jonathan Swift Quotes

Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.

Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.

What tender force, what dignity divine, what virtue consecrating every feature; around that neck what dross are gold and pearl!

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.

The orchid's association in Chinese culture with such virtues as elegance, good taste, friendship, and fertility goes all the way back to Confucius himself, who was said to have a particular attachment to the flowers.

The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the Music breathing from her face, The heart whose softness harmonised the whole — And, oh! that eye was in itself a Soul!

Socrates, who was a perfect model in all great qualities, ... hit on a body and face so ugly and so incongruous with the beauty of his soul, he who was so madly in love with beauty.

Elegance means being beautiful both on the inside and out.

O lady, nobility is thine, and thy form is the reflection of thy nature!

Class does not mean huge possession of money. Mother Teresa was a classy woman. So is Manjula Bhargava, a great mathematician of Indian origin. The concept that you automatically gain class by acquiring money is an outdated thought process.

A fine lady; by which term I wish to express the result of that perfect education in taste and manner, down to every gesture, which heaven forbid that I, professing to be a poet, should undervalue. It is beautiful, and therefore I welcome it in the name of the author of all beauty. I value it so highly that I would fain see it extend not merely from Belgravia to the tradesman's villa, but thence, as I believe it one day will, to the laborer's hovel and the needlewoman's garret.

Virtue is a beautiful thing in woman when they don't go about with it like a child with a drum making all sorts of noise with it.

A lovely lady, garmented in light From her own beauty.

Elegance is not an outer quality, but a part of the soul that is visible to others.

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

When we see a soul whose acts are all regal, graceful, and pleasant as roses, we must thank God that such things can be and are.

There is no strength that is greater than the strength of virtue. There is no other nobility equal to the nobility of virtue. There is no quality so becoming, no attire so attractive.

Elegance is a discipline of life.

In Tereza’s eyes, books were the emblems of a secret brotherhood. For she had but a single weapon against the world of crudity surrounding her: the novels. She had read any number of them, from Fielding to Thomas Mann. They not only offered the possibility of an imaginary escape from a life she found unsatisfying; they also had a meaning for her as physical objects: she loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane from the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.

Refinement is the delicate aroma of Christianity.

Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside.

The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.

Elegance comes from being as beautiful inside as outside.

The word "elegance" is a bit different now.