Inelegant Quotes & Sayings

The truly correct proof is one that strikes a harmonious balance between strength and flexibility. There are plenty of proofs that are technically correct but are messy and inelegant or counterintuitive. But it's not something you can put into words - explaining why a formula is beautiful is like trying to explain why the stars are beautiful. — Yoko Ogawa

It was inelegant, but what was not when taking a hostage? — Thomm Quackenbush

Reality is inelegant," Phillip huffed. "No," Martin said definitively. "Reality is stunningly elegant. Our understanding of it is not. — Scott Meyer

She's only seventeen years old," Llarimar said. "I can't imagine being
married to the God King at her age."
"I can't imagine you being married to the God King at any age, Scoot,"
Lightsong said. Then he pointedly cringed. "Actually, yes I can imagine it,
and the dress looks painfully inelegant on you. Make a note to have my
imagination flogged for its insolence in showing me that par tic u lar sight."
"I'll put it in line right behind your sense of decorum, Your Grace,"
Llarimar said dryly.
"Don't be silly," Lightsong said, taking a sip of wine. "I haven't had one
of those in years. — Brandon Sanderson

Its subtlest, most appealing accomplishment may be in how other characters respond to Gregorius' precipitous swerve onto the spiritual path. ( ... ) That said, Night Train to Lisbon is a very long, ambitious book that's feverishly overwritten. ( ... ) Think of W.G. Sebald recast for the mass market: stripped of nuance, cooked at high temperature and pounded home, clause after clause. Some of the clumsiness derives from Barbara Harshav's inelegant translation
we're often aware of her struggle
but she can't be blamed for the pervasive bloat. — Michelle Huneven

I find it extraordinary that a straightforward if inelegant device for ensuring the survival of the species should involve human beings in such emotional turmoil. Does sex have to be taken so seriously? — P.D. James

To reject wisdom because the person communicates it is uncouth and his manners are inelegant, what is it but to throw away a pine-apple, and assign for a reason the roughness of its coat? — Thomas Hartwell Horne

I hoped the dramatic power of the play would rest on that tension between elegant structure - the underlying plan is that you see the first and last meeting of every couple in the play - and inelegant emotion. — Patrick Marber

Colton suspects we're not just children, that we are, in fact, the terrifying things that go bump in the night. But, no, that's wrong. Not things that bump. Bumps are clumsy and inelegant. They are sounds made by creatures not at home in the darkness. I don't bump. I crunch in the night. I crack; I splatter; I splash. But I never, ever bump. — Eliza Crewe

You say halfer as if it's a terrible thing," he said. "But everyone I've ever known has been a halfer; if old enough t-to be called an adult, then ch-childish in their prejudices. All of us in the world really, I take to be h-halfers- half human, half divine, halfers of the best sort. I'd think the s-same must be true for the people of Wonderland, that there's ... there is no such thing as s-someone who is not a halfer, or even a quarter-er, if you'll allow me the inelegant term. — Frank Beddor

Enough, both of you,' Clary said. 'You can't be complete jerks to each other forever, you know.'
Technically,' said Simon, 'I can.'
Jace made an inelegant noise; after a moment Clary realized that he was trying not to laugh, and only semi-succeeding. — Cassandra Clare

Nothing more inelegant and ineffective than an art conceived in another art's form. — Robert Bresson

Japan and Hong Kong are steadily whittling away at the last of the elephants, turning their tusks (so much more elegant left on the elephant) into artistic carvings. In much the same way, the beautiful furs from leopard, jaguar, Snow leopard, Clouded leopard and so on, are used to clad the inelegant bodies of thoughtless and, for the most part, ugly women. I wonder how many would buy these furs if they knew that on their bodies they wore the skin of an animal that, when captured, was killed by the medieval and agonizing method of having a red-hot rod inserted up its rectum so as not to mark the skin. — Gerald Durrell

What is especially striking and remarkable is that in fundamental physics a beautiful or elegant theory is more likely to be right than a theory that is inelegant. — Murray Gell-Mann

I snorted a surprised laugh and then covered my mouth with the hand that wasn't currently touching his hip.
His answering laugh - a shocked bark likely caused by the sound of my inelegant snort - made me laugh even harder.
"What is that sound? Are you snorting?" He squeezed my shoulders as we crossed the street, his voice thick with amusement.
I snorted again - because when I laugh, I snort like the love child of a pig and an alligator unless I hold my nose, in which case I sound like I've got a terrible case of the hiccups - which made him laugh even harder. — L. H. Cosway

The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire. — Idries Shah

The refutation of suicide: is it not inelegant to abandon a world which has so willingly put itself at the service of our melancholy? — Emile M. Cioran

Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it's stupid. Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more. Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn't sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes - and it will - it'll hit that much harder. Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions. — Jason Fried

In fact, biology is chaos. Biological systems are the product not of logic but of evolution, an inelegant process. Life does not choose the logically best design to meet a new situation. It adapts what already exists...The result, unlike the clean straight lines of logic, is often irregular, messy. — John M Barry

Awash in sensation, it took several moments for Charlotte to come to her senses. She slowly pulled away from him and pressed her fingers to her lips. She desperately wanted to stay with him.

Forever.

But since that wasn't possible, she needed to leave before they went too far. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but he was so close. Her pulse raced, and she couldn't seem to catch her breath. Words were beyond her capabilities.

Until voices sounded outside the door and a very inelegant word escaped her mouth.

Charlotte — Ally Broadfield