I know there are voices I do not hear,
And colors I do not see;
I know that the world has numberless doors
Of which I have not the key. [ Minot J. Savage ]
These gems have life in them: their colors speak,
Say what words fail of. [ George Eliot ]
Confound the cats! All cats - alway -
Cats of all colors, black, white, gray;
By night a nuisance and by day - Confound the cats! [ Dobbin ]
We take our colors, chameleon-like, from each other. [ Chamfort ]
Folded eyes see brighter colors than the open ever do. [ Mrs. Browning ]
Wine colors the face, to prevent the appearance of modesty. [ A. de Musset ]
The mind wears the colors of the soul, as a valet those of his master. [ Madame Swetchine ]
Women, like roses, should wear only their own colors, and emit no borrowed perfumes. [ Rabbi Ben Azai ]
Conspicuous with three listed colors gay, betokening peace from God, and covenant new. [ Milton ]
Beauty, frail flower that every season fears, blooms in thy colors for a thousand years. [ Pope ]
The peacock in all his pride does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed. [ Addison ]
A gentleman is always a gentleman; but the butterflies of society differ as much in their moods as does that insect in its colors. [ Mme. Dufresnoy ]
Error is sometimes so nearly allied to truth that it blends with it as imperceptibly as the colors of the rainbow fade into each other. [ W. B. Clulow ]
Style in painting is the same as in writing, - a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]
To describe women, the pen should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly. [ Diderot ]
Persons are oftentimes misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty. [ Shenstone ]
God took his softest clay and his purest colors, and made a fragile jewel, mysterious and caressing - the finger of woman; then he fell asleep. The devil awoke, and at the end of that rosy finger put a nail. [ Victor Hugo ]
Glow-worms are the image of women: when they are in the dark, one is struck with their brilliancy; as soon as they appear in the broad light of the world, one sees them in their true colors, with all their defects. [ Mme. Necker ]
An artist that works in marble or colors has them all to himself and his tribe: but the man who moulds his thoughts in verse has to employ the materials vulgarized by everybody's use, and glorify them by his handling. [ O. W. Holmes ]
Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies' wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn-door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas. [ Samuel Smiles ]
God creates out of the dry, dull earth so many flowers of such beautiful colors, and such sweet perfume, such as no painter nor apothecary can rival. From the common ground God is ever bringing forth flowers, golden, crimson, blue, brown, and of all colors. [ M. Luther ]
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it. [ Voltaire ]
Wit throws a single ray, separated from the rest, - red, yellow, blue, or any intermediate shade, - upon an object; never white light; that is the province of wisdom. We get beautiful effects from wit, - all the prismatic colors, - but never the object as it is in fair daylight. [ Holmes ]
The first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what grammar is in literature, - a general preparation for whatever species of the art the student may afterwards choose for his more particular application. The power of drawing, modelling, and using colors is very properly called the language of the art. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades of paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colors more beautiful, though not so glowing as they would be without it. [ Addison ]
He must have an artist's eye for color and form who can arrange a hundred flowers as tastefully, in any other way, as by strolling through a garden, and picking here one and there one, and adding them to the bouquet in the accidental order in which they chance to come. Thus we see every summer day the fair lady coming in from the breezy side hill with gorgeous colors and most witching effects. If only she could be changed to alabaster, was ever a finer show of flowers in so fine a vase? But instead of allowing the flowers to remain as they were gathered, they are laid upon the table, divided, rearranged on some principle of taste, I know not what, but never again have that charming naturalness and grace which they first had. [ Beecher ]