As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean. [ Coleridge ]
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. [ Rich. II ]
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye? [ William Shakespeare ]
The lion's not half so fierce as he is painted. [ Proverb ]
Flattery is like a painted armor; only for show. [ Socrates ]
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. [ William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc.1 ]
Eloquence is the painting of thought; and thus, those who, after having painted it, still add to it, make a picture instead of a portrait. [ Pascal ]
He by whom the geese were formed white, parrots stained green, and peacocks painted of various hues - even He will provide for their support. [ Hitopadesa ]
Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image; not one painted on paper, but the living essence of the divine nature, which beams full of all goodness. [ Luther ]
Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a child look like a deer. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
The masters painted for joy, and knew not that virtue had gone out of them. They could not paint the like in cold blood. The masters of English lyric wrote their songs so. It was a fine efflorescence of fine powers. [ Emerson ]
My first and last secret of Art is to get a thorough intelligence of the fact to be painted, represented, or, in whatever way, set forth - the fact deep as Hades, high as heaven, and written so, as to the visual face of it on this poor earth. [ Carlyle ]
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 ]
No woman is a genius: women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. They represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals. There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the colored. The plain women are very useful. If you want to gain a reputation for respectability you have merely to take them down to supper. The other women are very charming. They commit one mistake, however. They paint in order to try to look young. Our grandmothers painted in order to try to talk brilliantly. Rouge and esprit used to go together. That has all gone out now. As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter she is perfectly satisfied. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]