Dandyism is refined vulgarity. [ G. F. Goss ]

With affection's warm, intense, refined;
She mixed such calm and holy strength of mind.
That, like heaven's image in the smiling brook,
Celestial peace was pictured in her look. [ Campbell ]

A woman must be truly refined to incite chivalry in the heart of a man. [ Mme. Necker ]

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, is wasteful and ridiculous excess. [ William Shakespeare ]

Refined taste forms a good critic; but genius is further necessary to form the poet or the orator. [ Blair ]

Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks. [ Mme. de Stael ]

Polished steel will not shine in the dark; no more can reason, however refined, shine efficaciously, but as it reflects the light of Divine truth, shed from heaven. [ Foster ]

Genius is nothing more than our common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials. [ B. R. Haydon ]

He who allows his happiness to depend too much on reason, who submits his pleasures to examination, and desires enjoyments only of the most refined nature, too often ends by not having any at all. [ Chamfort ]

If refined sense, and exalted sense, be not so useful as commonsense, their rarity, their novelty, and the nobleness of their objects, make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind. [ Hume ]

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess. [ William Shakespeare ]

A taste for flowers and a love for the beautiful, as exhibited in the wonders of creative power, are evidences of a refined and sensitive nature, and peculiar traits of character which distinguish man from the lower order of animals. [ Celestia R. Colby ]

Fetch a spray from the wood and place it on your mantel-shelf, and your household ornaments will seem plebeian beside its nobler fashion and bearing. It will wave superior there, as if used to a more refined and polished circle. It has a salute and response to all your enthusiasm and heroism. [ Thoreau ]

Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have received what I suppose is a taste for them, or religion has refined my mind and made it susceptible of impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O, how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God, by their becoming a source of pride! [ Henry Martyn ]