Trace Quotes
More Trace Quotes
Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them. We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.
sarah bernhardt— Ch. 33 (My Double Life (1907))
“I’m very sorry,” the drone said, without a trace of contrition.
iain banks— Chapter 3 (p. 308)
It was somewhere between the interview with the Indian entrepreneur who wanted to do my taxes from Bangalore and the one who wanted to write my software from Bangalore, and the one who wanted to read my x-rays from Bangalore, and the one who wanted to trace my lost luggage from Bangalore...I was realizing that, while I had been sleeping, while I had been off covering the 9/11 wars, I had missed something really fundamental in this globalization story. I had lost the thread, and I found it in Bangalore.
— Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century".
Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race. Give ample room, and verge enough The characters of hell to trace.
thomas gray— 1757 The Bard. A Pindaric Ode, l.49-52.
When Pearse summoned Cuchulain to his side, What stalked through the Post Office? What intellect, What calculation, number, measurement, replied? We Irish, born into that ancient sect But thrown upon this filthy modern tide And by its formless spawning fury wrecked, Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace The lineaments of a plummet-measured face.
William Butler Yeats— "The Statues", stanza 4 (1938). Collected in Last Poems (1939).
Myriads of individuals, each one unique, live out their lives in rapt intercourse with one another, contribute their heart's pulses to the universal music, and presently vanish, giving place to others. All this age-long sequence of private living, which is the actual tissue of humanity's flesh, I cannot describe. I can only trace, as it were, the disembodied form of its growth.
Olaf Stapledon— Chapter XIV: Neptune
Yet in my lineaments they trace Some features of my father's face.
lord byron— Parisina, Stanza 13, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
C. S. Lewis— Letter VIII (The Screwtape Letters (1942))
Most students of nature sooner or later pass through a process of writing off a large percentage of their supposed capital of knowledge as a merely illusory asset. As we trace more accurately certain familiar sequences of phenomena we begin to realize how closely these sequences, or laws , as we call them, are hemmed round by still other laws of which we can form no notion. With myself this writing off of illusory assets has gone rather far and the cobweb of supposed knowledge has been pinched (as some one has phrased) into a particularly small pill.
william crookes— Address as President to the Society for Psychical Research (29 January 1897), published in Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. XII (March 1897), p. 338
Sweet babe, in thy face soft desires I can trace. Secret joys and secret smiles, little pretty infant wiles.
william blake— William Blake, A Cradle Song.
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
The village master taught his little school; A man severe he was and stern to view; I knew him well, and every truant knew; Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for manya joke had he.
Oliver Goldsmith— The Deserted Village, lines 196-202 (1770)
These collages were static symmetrical constructions, porticos with pathetic vegetation, the gateway to the realm of dreams. They were done with colored paper in black, orange or blue dye plates. Although cubist painting interested me very much, not a trace of their influence was to be found in my collages.
hans arp— p. 420 - quote on his early collages, Arp made ca. 1914.
Just in proportion as the soul is in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, in communion with His will, shall we trace His leadings, hear His voice, and understand in part.
anna shipton— P. 247. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
shunryu suzuki— Quoted in ''Enter the Heart of the Fire : A collection of Mystical Poems (1981) by Mary E. Giles and Kathryn Hohlwein
Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven! It cannot trace Either your name or your face Nobody knows you're still living.
bertolt brecht— "Great hymn of thanksgiving" [Grosser Dankchoral] (1920) from The Devotions (1922-1927); trans. Karl Neumann in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 74
In every serious doctrine of the destiny of men, there is some trace of the doctrine of the equality of men. But the capitalist really depends on some religion of inequality. The capitalist must somehow distinguish himself from human kind; he must be obviously above it or he would be obviously below it.
gilbert keith chesterton— p. 34 (The Great Minimum)
Bend color names which should be made of neon or copper tubing. Place an object on a surface – trace the object – then bend the object – leaving some part of it attached.
jasper johns— Book A (sketchbook), p 43, c 1963-64: as quoted in Jasper Johns, Writings, sketchbook Notes, Interviews, ed. Kirk Varnedoe, Moma New York, 1996, p. 54
Art is the child of Nature; yes, Her darling child, in whom we trace The features of the mother's face, Her aspect and her attitude, All her majestic loveliness Chastened and softened and subdued Into a more attractive grace, And with a human sense imbued. He is the greatest artist, then, Whether of pencil or of pen, Who follows Nature.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Kéramos, st. 29
The noble Moor of Spain is anything but a pure Arab of the desert, he is half a Berber (from the Aryan family) and his veins are so full of Gothic blood that even at the present day noble inhabitants of Morocco can trace their descent back to Teutonic ancestors.
houston stewart chamberlain— Houston Stewart Chamberlain, The Foundations of the 19th Century (1899), Adamant Media Corporation, 2005, p.398
Despite the immense diversity of creation, we all accept that there exists in nature a profound underlying unity. The search for this unity provides the motivation for the lives of many different men some who, like Einstein , search for it in general natural laws and others who, like Teilhard de Chardin, would trace cosmic evolution to a divine origin.
— René Dubos, Science and Man's Nature (1965).
My face. Is this long strip of skin Which bears of worry many a trace, Of sallow hue, of features thin, This mass of seams and lines, my face?
— Edmund Yates, Aged Forty.
Lorenzo! hast thou ever weigh'd a sigh? Or studied the philosophy of tears? * * * * * Hast thou descended deep into the breast, And seen their source? If not, descend with me, And trace these briny riv'lets to their springs.
Edward Young— Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 516.
...quite in keeping with Trotsky’s passion for ideas, his generous indignation at injustice, was his sense of personal rectitude, his idealistic approach to life. All who knew him intimately even when he was one of the rulers of Russia speak of it. Max Eastman and also Souvarine, who, a fierce opponent of Trotsky’s politics, has said of him that there was nothing “mesquin” in his character, not a trace of rascality. It is a noticeable characteristic of many great writers and philosophers, but a fatal weakness in a politician.
— C. L. R. James, "Trotsky’s Place In History", The New International, September 1940.
When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
— Shunryu Suzuki, quoted in Enter the Heart of the Fire : A collection of Mystical Poems (1981) by Mary E. Giles and Kathryn Hohlwein
Poets like painters, thus unskill'd to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With gold and jewels cover every part, And hide with ornaments their want of art.
Alexander Pope— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 293.
A mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that mind Pure Mind or Pure ?tman.
— Ramakrishna, as quoted in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 68
I care not, Fortune , what you me deny; You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace , You cannot shut the windows of the sky , Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; You cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve.
james thomson— James Thomson, Castle of Indolence (1748), Canto II, Stanza 3
