Subtlety Quotes

“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.

I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled, "Fuck subtle.”
― Jim Butcher, Changes

“If you don't want to be noticed, you don't use a Star Destroyer.”
― Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

“We can do subtle," I assured her.
"It's our middle name," Andrea added.
For some odd reason Rene didn't look convinced.”
― Ilona Andrews, Magic Slays

“To be most effective, flattery is always best applied with a trowel.”
― Alan Bradley, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

“The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman's sigh as she passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

“Seemingly minor yet persistent things penetrate the mind over time making it difficult to ever realize the impact; hence, though quite unfortunate, the most dangerous forms of corruption are those that are subtle and below the radar.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

“Bookish people, who are often maladroit people, persist in thinking they can master any subtlety so long as it's been shaped into acceptable expository prose.”
― Carol Shields, Unless

“You're about as subtle as a fucking train wreck. On a boat.”
― Doug Walker

“Little things
over time
make big differences,
as true for depletion as it is
for progress.”
― Shellen Lubin

“He said that it was very difficult to become an astronaut. I said that I knew. You had to become an officer in the air force and you had to take lots of orders and be prepared to kill other human beings, and I couldn't take orders. Also I didn't have 20/20 vision, which you needed to be a pilot.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“It happens to be one of those days when I see everybody in the family, including myself, through the wrong end of a telescope”
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

“There is a time for diplomacy and a time for the battering ram.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Sublime, close at hand but mysterious
With the living silence of the rose.”
― Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel

“When the enemy is at ease, be able to weary him; when well fed, to starve him; when at rest, to make him move. Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.

That you may march a thousand li without wearying yourself is because you travel where there is no enemy. Go into emptiness, strike voids, bypass what he defends, hit him where he does not expect you.

To be certain to take what you attack is to attack a place the enemy does not protect. To be certain to hold what you defend is to defend a place the enemy does not attack.

Therefore, against those skilled in attack, an enemy does not know where to defend; against the experts in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack. Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“You can never be too subtle, and you can never be too simple.”
― Paul Valéry, The Collected Works of Paul Valéry, Vol. 14

“When something cement does not fit into the current context of activated ideas, the system detects an abnormality, as you just experienced. You had no particular idea of what was coming after something, but you knew when the word cement came that it was abnormal in that sentence. Studies of brain responses have shown that violations of normality are detected with astonishing speed and subtlety.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“You have no subtlety, Potter," said Snape, his dark eyes glittering. "You do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“It's ironic that we associate taste with connoisseurship, subtlety, and fine discrimination when it is among the coarsest of senses.”
― Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

“It was not imprisonment, supposedly, but simply that all Manchus needed special protection because they were related to the royal house and so were part of officialdom. Actually it was a luxurious imprisonment, for this was the Chinese way of conquering enemies. When the Manchu invasion of 1644 was successful in a military sense-and almost any people could invade China successfully, it seemed, in a military sense-China did not resist. The people were apparently passive, mildly curious, and even courteous to their conquerors. The real struggle came afterwards, but so subtly that the conquerors never knew they were being conquered. The technique of victory was that as soon as the invaders laid down their arms the philosophical but intensely practical Chinese persuaded them to move into palaces and begin to enjoy themselves. The more the new rulers ate and drink, the better pleased the Chinese were, and if they also learned to enjoy gambling and opium and many wives, so much the better. One would have thought that the Chinese were delighted to be invaded and conquered. On the pretext of increased comfort, the Manchus were persuaded to live in especially pleasant part of any city, and to be protected by special guards against rebellious citizens. This meant they were segregated and since they were encouraged to do no work, the actual and tedious details of the government were assumed performed by the chinese, ostensibly for them. The result of this life of idleness and luxury was that the Manchus generally became a fit while the Chinese administered the government. The Manchus were like pet cats and the Chinese kept them so, knowing that when the degeneration was complete, a Chinese revolutionary would overthrow the rotten structure. Revolution was in the Chinese tradition and every dynasty was overthrown, if not by foreign invasion, then by native revolution”
― Pearl S. Buck, My Several Worlds

“She’d make Nuryevet a strong country, unified again under one ruler, a country where the men were beautiful and the women were powerful and the children were healthy and bright-eyed
(comment: I love how the author switches gender norms and normalizes it off-handedly throughout the book)”
― Alexandra Rowland, A Conspiracy of Truths

“It never rains but it pours.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery

“I truly admire the British for their understatement and subtle sarcasm. A good rule is when using sarcasm is, it is best to "put a little English" on it.”
― C.A.A. Savastano

“Some people get sarcasm, and others do not. Poor them.”
― C.A.A. Savastano

“Gurgeh glanced at the man on stage. The lights were bright, sunlight spectraed. The slightly plump, pale-skinned male had several enormous, multicolored bruises—like huge prints—on his body. Those on his back and chest were largest, and showed Azadian faces. The mixture of blacks, blues, purples, greens, yellows and reds combined to form portraits of uncanny accuracy and subtlety, which the flexings of the man’s muscles seemed to make live, exactly as though those faces took on new expressions with each moment. Gurgeh looked, and felt his breath draw in.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games

“Disbelievers doubt rumors of miracles. They insist on seeing things with their own eyes. Believers recognize small miracles, like the everyday love that exists in families. (Who else could love these people?) Perhaps the greater miracle is that God’s work is quiet and subtle, easily overlooked; perhaps the greater miracle is that His work doesn’t conform to the expectations or demands of those who do not believe in Him.”
― Jean-Michel Hansen

“- Tens noção, Samuel, de como a linguagem às vezes pode ser injusta?
- Estás-te a referir a quê?
- Enquanto as mulheres dizem umas às outras com a maior naturalidade do mundo "Adoro-te", nós temos de contentar-nos em dizer… "Lembras-te?”
― Enrique Arce, La grandeza de las cosas sin nombre

“Gandhi: "My friend, I'm glad you listened to the voice of God, and not the voice of Gandhi."
Mountbatten: "Well, Gandhiji, his is the only voice I'd sooner listen to than yours, but in what respect did I take God's advice against yours.”
― Larry Collins, Freedom At Midnight

“It was not imprisonment, supposedly, but simply that all Manchus needed special protection because they were related to the royal house and so were part of officialdom. Actually it was a luxurious imprisonment, for this was the Chinese way of conquering enemies. When the Manchu invasion of 1644 was successful in a military sense-and almost any people could invade China successfully, it seemed, in a military sense-China did not resist. The people were apparently passive, mildly curious, and even courteous to their conquerors. The real struggle came afterwards, but so subtly that the conquerors never knew they were being conquered. The technique of victory was that as soon as the invaders laid down their arms the philosophical but intensely practical Chinese persuaded them to move into palaces and begin to enjoy themselves. The more the new rulers ate and drink, the better pleased the Chinese were, and if they also learned to enjoy gambling and opium and many wives, so much the better. One would have thought that the Chinese were delighted to be invaded and conquered. On the pretext of increased comfort, the men shoes were persuaded to live in especially pleasant part of any city, and to be protected by special guards against rebellious citizens. This meant they were segregated and since they were encouraged to do no work, the actual and tedious details of the government were assumed performed by the chinese, ostensibly for them. The result of this life of idleness and luxury was that the Manchus generally became a fit while the Chinese administered the government. The Manchus were like pet cats and the Chinese kept them so, knowing that when the degeneration was complete, a Chinese revolutionary would overthrow the rotten structure. Revolution was in the Chinese tradition and every dynasty was overthrown, if not by foreign invasion, then by native revolution.”
― Pearl S. Buck, My Several Worlds

“It began to dawn on me then ... all the time I was being reminded of something, I didn’t know quite what, and I was lying awake every night trying to remember what it was, and even now I can’t say much about it, but it is like what the other Rachel, and Olga, and Simon, used to tell me of how the three were taught by people just coming past, and how they learned things without there being actual lessons and timetables most of the time. I keep meeting people, and all of them seem to know at once who I am and what to tell me or where to take me. That is very peculiar. Something peculiar is going on, but I don’t know what.”
― Doris Lessing, Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta