Curve Quotes
More Curve Quotes
There will always be people who are ahead of the curve, and people who are behind the curve. But knowledge moves the curve.
bill james— The Mind of Bill James, 2006, p. 191
Unlike ballet, the demi plié of Bharata Natyam is not an intermediary position from which the body moves. The Indian technique demands a muscular consolidation of this position by allowing the weight of the lower body to ‘earth’ it. The arms in natya-aramba in a semi circular shape peculiar to Bharata Natyam create three-dimensional effect to the circle and trace its curve.
— In "The Routledge Dance Studies Reader" p.185
I must be mad, or very tired, When the curve of a blue bay beyond a railroad track Is shrill and sweet to me like the sudden springing of a tune, And the sight of a white church above thin trees in a city square Amazes my eyes as though it were the Parthenon.
Amy Lowell— 1925 'Meeting-House Hill'.
The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form?
dag hammarskjöld— Statement inspired by the work of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, quoted in The Christian Science Monitor (18 Jun 1964)
I was attracted by the curve — the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches.
oscar niemeyer— The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000), p. 169
It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve — the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.
oscar niemeyer— As quoted in Plans, Sections and Elevations : Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century (2004) by Richard Weston
— Variant translations:It is not the right angle that attracts me,Nor the hard, inflexible straight line, man-made.What attracts me are free and sensual curves.The curves in my country’s mountains,In the sinuous flow of its rivers,In the beloved woman’s body.As quoted in "Architect of Optimism", Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times (2007-04-13)
It is not the right angle that attracts me.nor the straight line, tough, inflexible,created by man.what attracts me is the free, sensual curve.the curve I find in the mountains of my country,in the sinuous course of its rivers,in the waves of the sea,in the clouds of the sky,in the body of the favourite woman.Of curves is made all the universe.
oscar niemeyer— As quoted on a Photo page on the Museum of Contemporary Art over Baia da Guanabara
Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it. It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve in space.
willard van orman quine— "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", p. 26
Time, so to say, runs at right angles to the page at each point on the curve.
joan robinson— Chapter VII, The Theory of the Firm, p. 104
The wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright, or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring. These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles. The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
— Walt Whitman, Miracles (1856) in Leaves of Grass
The developed world should neither shelter nor militarily destabilize authoritarian regimes unless those regimes represent an imminent threat to the national security of other states. Developed states should instead work to create the conditions most favorable for a closed regime’s safe passage through the least stable segment of the J curve however and whenever the slide toward instability comes. And developed states should minimize the risk these states pose the rest of the world as their transition toward modernity begins.
ian bremmer— The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall (2006)
A parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relations with two straight lines at every point; yet it has no end short of infinity, and it continually changes its direction. The Initiate who is aware Who he is can always check is conduct by reference to the determinants of his curve, and calculate his past, his future, his bearings, and his proper course at any assigned moment; he can even comprehend himself as a simple idea.
aleister crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
I hate my verses, every line, every word. Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try One grass-blade's curve, or the throat of one bird That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky. Oh cracked and twilight mirrors ever to catch One color, one glinting flash, of the splendor of things.
robinson jeffers— "Love the Wild Swan" (1935)
I stood tip-toe upon a little hill, The air was cooling, and so very still, That the sweet buds which with a modest pride Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside, Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems, Had not yet lost those starry diadems Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.
john keats— "I Stood Tiptoe", l. 1.
Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be, And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!
rudyard kipling— The Prairie, Stanza 5.
The “Meat” were there because of REAMDE, which had been present at background levels for several weeks now but that recently had pinballed through the elbow in its exponential growth curve and for about twelve hours had looked as though it might completely take over all computing power in the Universe, until its own size and rapid growth had caused it to run afoul of the sorts of real-world friction that always befell seemingly exponential phenomena and bent those hockey-stick graphs over into lazy S plots.
neal stephenson— Day 1 (Part I: Nine Dragons)
Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve.
john archibald wheeler— Wheeler's succinct summary of Einstein's theory of general relativity, in Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, p. 235.
Every phase of our life belongs to us. The moon does not, except in appearance , lose her first thin, luminous curve, nor her silvery crescent , in rounding to her full. The woman is still both child and girl, in the completeness of womanly character .
— Lucy Larcom, in Girlhood and character, p.27
Thus while diminishing returns do exist when industries are broadly defined, no industry can be considered in isolation from all the others, as supply and demand curve analysis requires.
— Chapter 3, The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing, p. 69
'Tis a bird I love, with its brooding note, And the trembling throb in its mottled throat; There's a human look in its swelling breast, And the gentle curve of its lowly crest; And I often stop with the fear I feel He runs so close to the rapid wheel.
nathaniel parker willis— Nathaniel Parker Willis, The Belfry Pigeon; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 597.
About the time of Nicomedes, flourished also Diocles, the inventor of the cissoid (ivy-like). This curve he used for finding two mean proportionals between two given straight lines.
— p. 50 (The Greeks)
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
Phyllis Diller— American actress and stand-up comedienne (1917 - 2012)
Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it. It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve in space.
— Willard van Orman Quine July 1988, "Two dogmas of Empiricism", in From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays, p. 26.
Be ready for that curve ball, because you have no idea where it's going. Not even the pitcher knows.
unknown
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven, The Tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The Lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The Noise astounds; till overhead a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts, And opens wider; shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd aggravated Roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal, Crush'd, horrible, convulsing Heaven and Earth.
james thomson— James Thomson, The Seasons, Summer (1727), line 1,133
The vertical is in my spirit. It helps me to define precisely the direction of lines, and in quick sketches I never indicate a curve, that of a branch in landscape for example, without being aware of its relationship to the vertical.My curves are not mad.
— La verticale est dans mon esprit. Elle m'aide à préciser la direction des lignes, et dans mes dessins rapides je n'indique pas une courbe, par exemple, celle d'une branche dans un paysage, sans avoir conscience de son rapport avec la verticale.Mes courbes ne sont pas folles.
I had no idea this was going to be an accurate prediction, but amazingly enough instead of 10 [years] doubling, we got nine over the 10 years, but still followed pretty well along the curve.
gordon moore— Computer History Museum (2005-09-15). Computer History Museum Presents: The 40th Anniversary of Moore's Law with Gordon Moore and Carver Mead. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-06. (quoting an unidentified Intel press release)
If the intensity of the material world is plotted along the horizontal axis, and the response of the human mind is on the vertical, the relation between the two is represented by the logarithmic curve. Could this rule provide a clue to the relationship between the objective measure of information, and our subjective perception of it?
hans christian von baeyer— Chapter 10, Counting Digits, The ubiquitous logarithm, p. 85
