Famous Quotes & Sayings

Trevanian Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 28 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Trevanian.

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Famous Quotes By Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1326568

As you know, shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is ... how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 287507

The years passed unnoticed and unremembered, and one autumn morning I found myself suddenly forty-five years old. It was a time for weighing youthful hopes against mature accomplishment, for it was quite certain that I had by then done all I was ever going to do. Sitting alone at my desk that evening of my forty-fifth birthday I asked that least original of introspective questions: Where had it all gone? And the somewhat less banal question: What, after all, had it been? My — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 620317

It was not their irritating assumption of equality that annoyed Nicholai so much as their cultural confusions. The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 594744

Well, of
course one must have concentration. Courage. Self-control. That goes
without saying. But more important than these, one must have ... I
don't know how to say it. One must be both a mathematician and a
poet. As though poetry were a science; or mathematics an art. One
must have an affection for proportion to play Go at all well.Ah ... what Go is to philosophers
and warriors, chess is to accountants and merchants. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 896960

Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 532604

Hana: What on Earth is a 'barbeque'? Hel: A primitive tribal ritual featuring paper plates, elbows, flying insects, encrusted meat, hush puppies, and beer. Hana: I daren't ask what a 'hush puppy' is. Hel: Don't. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 771523

Obtuseness was its own defense — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 168319

Niko? I have decided to christen this little pool Le Cagot's Soul."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Because it is clear and pure and lucid."
"And treacherous and dangerous?"
"You know, Niko, I begin to suspect that you are a man of prose. It is a blemish on you."
"No one's perfect."
"Speak for yourself. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 118132

The rope connecting two men on a mountain is more than nylon protection; it is an organic thing that transmits subtle messages of intent and disposition from man to man; it is an extension of the tactile senses, a psychological bond, a wire along which currents of communication flow. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1115804

The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1289109

We all desire to be understood, but no one enjoys being obvious. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1050104

Do not fall into the error of the artist who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience - twenty times. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 273587

Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is ... how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that." Nicholai's imagination was galvanized by the concept of shibumi. No other ideal had ever touched him so. "How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?" "One does not achieve it, one ... discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san." "Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?" "Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1219702

It's not Americans I find annoying; it's Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called 'American' only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu, or Japanese Type-B encephalitis. It's symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experiences. In the later stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of human activities: fun. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1860901

Generalization is flawed thinking only when applied to individuals. It is the most accurate way to describe the mass, the Wad. And yours is a democracy, a dictatorship of the Wad. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 2149340

Indeed, my first interest in the pioneer work of Doctor Freud sprang, not from a concern for persons wounded in their collisions with reality, but from my personal curiosity about the nature of creativity and the springs of motivation. So — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1569474

However, little by little, I am coming to the view that what I mistook for humility was, in fact, an accurate evaluation of your worth. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 2039867

Why did I submit myself to the butchery of the trenches when I might have served in the echelons as a medical officer? Even the most rudimentary knowledge of Doctor Freud would suggest that I was pursuing a death wish — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 2051363

Short first pregnancies do not occasion criticism in our valley, for it is widely known that the good Lord often makes first pregnancies mercifully brief as His reward to the girl for having preserved her chastity until marriage. Subsequent pregnancies, however, usually run their full terms, which only makes sense, as the very fact that they are not first pregnancies means that the mother was not chaste at the moment of conception. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 2071336

Ripe for romance? Is that not only the self-conscious and sensitive young man's way of saying he was heavy with passion? Is not, perhaps, romance only the fiction by means of which the tender-minded negotiate their lust? — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 2140996

All right. But take my advice, Mr. Hel. Don't let this chance get away. Opportunity doesn't knock twice, you know."
"Penetrating observation. Did you make up the epigram?"
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Very well. And ask the guard to knock on my cell door twice. I wouldn't want to confuse him with opportunity. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1555541

Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1541015

No one really likes Switzerland, except those who prefer cleanliness to life. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1531128

It is revealing of the American culture that its prototypic hero is the cowboy: an uneducated, boorish, Victorian migrant agricultural worker. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 1174224

And he recalled the ancient adage: Who must do the harsh things? He who can. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 834221

Niceness is an overrated quality. Being nice is how a man pays his way into a party if he hasn't the guts to be tough or the class to be brilliant. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 646905

In seeming contradiction of physical laws, time is heavy only when it is empty. — Trevanian

Trevanian Quotes 590254

Pass through knowledge to arrive at simplicity. — Trevanian