Delicacy Quotes

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“…how it would be nice if, for every sea waiting for us, there would be a river, for us.
And someone -a father, a lover, someone- able to take us by the hand and find that river -imagine it, invent it- and put us on its stream, with the lightness of one only word, goodbye. This, really, would be wonderful. It would be sweet, life, every life. And things wouldn’t hurt, but they would get near taken by stream, one could first shave and then touch them and only finally be touched. Be wounded, also. Die because of them. Doesn’t matter. But everything would be, finally, human. It would be enough someone’s fancy -a father, a lover, someone- could invent a way, here in the middle of the silence, in this land which don’t wanna talk. Clement way, and beautiful.
A way from here to the sea.”
― Alessandro Baricco, Ocean Sea

“Childhood is such a delicate tissue; what they had done this morning could snag somewhere in the little ones, make a dull, small pain that will circle back again and again, and hurt them in small ways for the rest of their lives.”
― Lauren Groff, Arcadia

“She's more delicate than you'd think," I say. She's glass. I'm glass. We're all glass, busted up, unrecognizable from our original selves. We walk around in fragments. It's a circus act.”
― Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts

“Her beauty was a divine delicacy that I could only hold within my dreams. I tested my dream of her beauty, and I whispered her grace to the angels. The sounds of heaven replied back to me, telling me that her beauty transcended not only my dreams, but even heaven.”
― Lionel Suggs

“I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn't protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered.
Live like a flower. You have that right. It's something you can achieve, for sure, in your lifetime. And it's enough.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“...this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover—although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one...”
― Paul Hoffman, The Left Hand of God

“One of the things that we admire about porcelain is its delicate fragility. We should learn to appreciate the same in people.”
― Andrew Davenport

“In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“If a good system of agriculture, unrivaled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, schools established in every village for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, the general practice of hospitality and charity amongst each other, and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote a civilized people – then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe, and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo.”
― Thomas Munro

“I have an acute sense of delicacy. Naturally I am prejudiced in favour of virtue.

("The Accursed Cordonnier")”
― Bernard Capes, Gaslit Nightmares: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and Others

“Le sommeil est un chemin qui mène à la soupe du lendemain.”
― David Foenkinos, La délicatesse

“You live in a damnably twisted and convoluted world," replied Mathias. "And you are trampling accross it with all the delicacy of an elephant in a glass shop!" -Conversation between Mathias Munster and Giacomo Foscarini”
― Riccardo Bruni, The Lion and the Rose

“Ever since she was a young girl, [Patricia Highsmith] had felt an extraordinary empathy for animals, particularly cats. The creatures, she said, 'provide something for writers that humans cannot: companionship that makes no demands or intrusions, that is as restful and ever-changing as a tranquil sea that barely moves'. Her affection for cats was 'a constant as was feline companionship wherever her domestic situation permitted,' says Kingsley. 'As for animals in general, she saw them as individual personalities often better behaved, and endowed with more dignity and honesty than humans. Cruelty to or neglect of any helpless living creature could turn her incandescent with rage.' Janice Robertson remembers how [...] Highsmith was walking through the streets of Soho when she saw a wounded pigeon lying in the gutter. 'Pat decided there and then that this pigeon should be rescued,' says Janice. 'Although I think Roland persuaded her that it was past saving, she really was distraught. She couldn't bear to see animals hurt.' Bruno Sager, Highsmith's carer at the end of her life, recalls the delicacy with which the writer would take hold of a spider which had crawled into the house, making sure to deposit it safely in her garden. 'For her human beings were strange - she thought she would never understand them - and perhaps that is why she liked cats and snails so much,' he says.”
― Andrew Wilson, Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι

“To understand how seriously the people of Noto take the concept of waste, consider the fugu dilemma. Japanese blowfish, best known for its high toxicity, has been a staple of Noto cuisine for hundreds of years. During the late Meiji and early Edo periods, local cooks in Noto began to address a growing concern with fugu fabrication; namely, how to make use of the fish's deadly ovaries. Pregnant with enough poison to kill up to twenty people, the ovaries- like the toxic liver- had always been disposed of, but the cooks of Noto finally had enough of the waste and set out to crack the code of the toxic reproductive organs. Thus ensued a long, perilous period of experimentation. Locals rubbed ovaries in salt, then in nukamiso, a paste made from rice bran, and left them to ferment. Taste-testing the not-quite-detoxified fugu ovary was a lethal but necessary part of the process, and many years and many lives later, they arrived at a recipe that transformed the ovaries from a deadly disposable into an intensely flavored staple. Today pickled fugu ovaries remain one of Noto's most treasured delicacies.”
― Matt Goulding, Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture

“Violently tear off all a woman's clothes,
but not with all delicacy reveal her soul,
because she will be scared and,
feeling really naked, she will run away.”
― Augusto Branco

“With the delicacy of a flower,
love tames the most aloof hearts.”
― Augusto Branco

“Propaganda’s favorite delicacy is ignorance. Take that out of its diet and it will starve.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I've swallowed fish-eyes whole
like an endoscope.
I once ate a trout cooked inside a dolphin.
Felt like a shark eating another shark,
inside the cold-blooded womb of yet another shark.”
― Yann Rousselot, Dawn of the Algorithm

“Such delicacies are relationships.”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“Class was almost over, thankfully. Right before the bell rang a girl entered the classroom, the same chick that had cornered Greyson in the hall that first day. She hadn't really, but I rewrote that scene to one I liked better. Mr. Price had already retired to his desk. He looked exhausted.

"Alexis Owens?" I was focused on the pink paper in her hand. My flyer. This couldn't be good.

"Yes."

She turned the paper over. It was the LOST CAT flyer. I chuckled then realized the chick looked about ready to cry. Didn't she know you couldn't believe everything you read on a bulletin board?

"Did anyone claim him?"

Before I could answer her, her focus shifted to Greyson. My jaw might have dropped, but his chick did not walk into our class with a bogus flyer just to get a look at Greyson? By the way she was licking her lips, yes, she had. I had to give it to her; she was bold.

I glanced over at the object of her obsession only to find he was looking at me. That sweet burn moved down my spine in the most pleasant way. Maybe she wasn't so crazy walking in here to get a look at him. If I wasn't such a coward, I'd take the opportunity to talk to him but I was glued to my seat.

I watched every move he made. I wasn't much better than the chick. He headed for the door, but as he passed the girl he said, "I claimed him. Cat is a delicacy in Ireland."

Those pale eyes glanced back at me and he winked before he walked from class.”
― L.A. Fiore, Our Unscripted Story

“I celebrated my arrival in Kyoto with a dinner of grilled eel, a sublime delicacy in Japan. In the water the fish resembles a ferocious jagged-toothed snake. But when sizzled over hot charcoal it looks like a fillet of sole that has spent the winter in Palm Beach. The skin turns crisp and smoky and the fatty white flesh, basted with a sweet soy syrup, becomes deeply tanned and as succulent as foie gras.”
― Victoria Abbott Riccardi, Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto

“Prawn and lobster brains were considered a delicacy for their rich flavor. The Shen twins and Celia were engaged in the same practice, sipping the heads as if they were miniature cups of mead.”
― Roselle Lim, Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune

“The one night a year when millions of balolo, tiny sea worms, come up from the deep and transform the surface of the sea into a billowing, undulating carpet. The small deep-water serpent that's lifted up by the full moon for one single, magical night to lay its eggs and sperm in a gelatinous soup- it's a gastronomic delicacy the people of Korototoka can't get enough of.”
― Anne Østby, Pieces of Happiness

“A special treat has been prepared----ayu, a troutlike fish caught in the Nagara River from the Gifu area. It is served whole over a bed of rice, once a currency and now a sacred grain.
"Very fresh," the chef informs us with a proud smile. "Caught this morning."
"It's considered a delicacy," my father says as the chef leaves. I haven't managed a taste yet. I'm watching my father, observing how he'll eat the fish.
He brings the bowl to his face, then uses the ohashi to grasp the tiny sweetfish and take a bite, staring with the head. I blink. Oh, okay. That's how it's done. I pick up my ohashi and copy his moves.
My teeth sink into the fish. I wait for my gag reflex to kick in, but it doesn't. The skin is crunchy and salty, but gives way to a softer, sweet inside, tasting like watermelon. My saliva glands kick into overdrive. Just like that, I'm all in. If ayu is on the menu, I'll have two.”
― Emiko Jean, Tokyo Ever After

“With the delicacy of a flower,
love tames the most withdrawn hearts.
With time, you learn to value those who look for you, who make themselves present.”
― Augusto Branco

“The desert madness." He'd never been to Africa, but he'd seen plenty of remote places and what they did to men. "Lots of them get it. They've nothing to do but brood. Time treats them badly. It stretches worse here because the liquor stinks and there aren't any women. The place just uses them up. Even their assholes get raw from the sand."

"I'll never let the desert affect me as it does them," Paul said. "I'll go home first."

Remy couldn't help mocking Paul gently for his naïve enthusiasm. "I think you take it a bit far the other way. Let me see if I understand your point of view. In the market there are clouds of flies competing with swarms of beggars for the pleasure of eating camel shit mixed with rotting vegetables. What they can't stomach the cook picks up. He spices it up nicely with some old spit and smears it on top of a mixture of couscous, peb- bles, and sand. Then he dishes it back to you, at six times the price he'd charge anyone else. You know what you're eating-you watch him prepare it-but all the same you enjoy it, because it's exotic."

"That's about it." Paul smiled. "L'haute cuisine d'Afrique." Remy roared.”
― David Ball, Empires of Sand by David Ball