A person of genius; a brilliant mind. [ French ]
The envied have a brilliant fate;
Pity is given where griefs are great. [ Palladas ]
Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]
His eloquence is classic in its style,
Not brilliant with explosive coruscations
Of heterogeneous thoughts, at random caught.
And scattered like a shower of shooting stars,
That end in darkness: no; - his noble mind
Is clear, and full, and stately, and serene.
His earnest and undazzled eye he keeps
Fixed on the sun of Truth, and breathes his words
As easily as eagles cleave the air,
And never pauses till the height is won;
And all who listen follow where he leads. [ Mrs. Hale ]
Good writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Glory can be for a woman but the brilliant mourning of happiness. [ Mme. de Stael ]
London society is entirely composed of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]
Shun idleness: it is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals. [ Voltaire ]
The most brilliant fortunes are often not worth the littleness required to gain them. [ Rochefoucauld ]
Memory is not so brilliant as hope, but it is more beautiful, and a thousand times more true. [ G. D. Prentice ]
The most brilliant qualities become useless when they are not sustained by force of character. [ Segur ]
However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament. [ Bovee ]
We should often have reason to be ashamed of our most brilliant actions if the world could see the motives from which they spring. [ Rochefoucauld ]
There is no such thing as romance in our day, women have become too brilliant; nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman. [ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance ]
Old age is the night of life, as night is the old age of the day. Still, night is full of magnificence; and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day. [ Mme. Swetchine ]
Even though he was an enemy of mine, I had to admit that what he had accomplished was a brilliant piece of strategy. First, he punched me, then he kicked me, then he punched me again. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
She is not a brilliant woman; she is not even an intellectual one; but there is such a thing as a genius for affection, and she has it. It has been good for her husband that he married her. [ Helen Hunt ]
We are more jealous of frivolous accomplishments with brilliant success, than of the most estimable qualities without. Dr. Johnson envied Garrick, whom he despised, and ridiculed Goldsmith, whom he loved. [ Hazlitt ]
An honest reputation is within the reach of all men; they obtain it by social virtues, and by doing their duty. This kind of reputation, it is true, is neither brilliant nor startling, but it is often the most useful for happiness. [ Duclos ]
There is nothing so sure of succeeding as not to be over brilliant, as to be entirely wrapped up in one's self, and endowed with a perseverance which, in spite of all the rebuffs it may meet with, never relaxes in the pursuit of its object. [ Baron de Grimm ]
Without earnestness no man is ever great, or does really great things. He may be the cleverest of men; he may be brilliant, entertaining, popular; but he will want weight. No soulmoving picture was ever painted that had not in it depth of shadow. [ Peter Bayne ]
The contemplation of night should lead to elevating, rather than depressing, ideas. Who can fix his mind on transitory and earthly things, in presence of those glittering myriads of worlds; and who can dread death or solitude in the midst of this brilliant, animated universe? [ Richter ]
It is all very well to tell me that a young man has distinguished himself by a brilliant first speech. He may go on, or he may be satisfied with his first triumph, but show me a young man who has not succeeded at first, and nevertheless has gone on, and I will back that young man to do better than most of those who have succeeded at the first trial. [ Charles James Fox ]
The contemplation of night should lead to elevating rather than to depressing ideas. Who can fix his mind on transitory and earthly things, in presence of those glittering myriads of worlds; and who can dread death or solitude in the midst of this brilliant, animated universe, composed of countless suns and worlds, all full of light and life and motion? [ Richter ]
A composition which dazzles at first sight by gaudy epithets, or brilliant turns of expression, or glittering trains of imagery, may fade gradually from the mind, leaving no enduring impression. Words which flow fresh and warm from a full heart, and which are instinct with the life and breath of human feeling, pass into household memories, and partake of the immortality of the affections from which they spring. [ Whipple ]
Whatever we may say against such collections which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem, to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of the mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant quotations." [ Goethe ]