Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the L God had made.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDGenesis 3:1.

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad, and then made aneven moreterrifying discoveryöthe difference between very good writing and true art: it is subtle, but savage.

-Capote,Truman
  In Vogue, Dec.

Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist er nicht. God is subtle, but he is not malicious.

-Einstein, Albert
Saidon a visit to Princeton University, May, and later carved above a fireplace there.

If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. See Lang 488:90.

-Emerson, RalphWaldo
  'Brahma'. Collected in May Day (1867).

Unlearn'd, he knew no schoolman's subtle art, No language, but the language of the heart.

-Pope, Alexander
  Of Pope's father.'An Epistle to DrArbuthnot', l.398^9.

Johnson's aesthetic judgements are almost invariably subtle, or solid, or bold; they have always some good quality to recommend themöexcept one: theyare never right.

-Strachey, (Giles) Lytton
  On SamuelJohnson. Books and Characters,'Lives of the Poets'.