subject

   I have always wanted to develop a way of writing that was irrevocably black. I don't have the resources of a musician but I thought that if it was truly black literature, it would not be black because Iwas, it would notevenbe black because of its subject matter. It would be something intrinsic, indigenous, something in the way it was put togetheröthe sentences, the structure, texture and toneöso that anyone who read it would realize.

—Morrison,Toni Chloe Anthony ne¤  e Wofford

I therefore fearlessly challenge the verdict which this house†is to give on the question now brought before it†whether, as the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity, when he could say Civis Romanus sum; so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong.

—Palmerston, HenryJohnTemple, 3rd Viscount

The most important thing about photographing people isnot clicking the shutter†it is clicking with the subject.

—Eisenstaedt, Alfred

The discussion of any subject is a right that you have brought into the world with your heart and tongue. Resign your heart's blood before you part with this inestimable privilege of man.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

It is essential to do the same subject over again, ten times, a hundred times.

—Degas, (Hilaire Germain) Edgar

A propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms, thought and words elegantly adapted to the subject.

—Dryden,John

Certes, c'est un sujet merveilleusement vain, divers et ondoyant, que l'homme. Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject.

—Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de

In this country, my Lords†the individual subject†has nothing to do with the laws but to obey them.

—Horsley, Samuel

Jamais je ne m'assujettis aux heures: les heures sont faites pour l'homme, et non l'homme pour les heures. I never subject myself to hours: hours are made for men; men are not made for hours.

—Rabelais, Fran c° ois

Nothing is so poor and melancholy as an art that is interested in itself and not in its subject.

—Sandys, George

If you are ever at a loss to support a flagging conversation, introduce the subject of eating.

—Hunt, (James Henry) Leigh

   Knowledge is oftwo kinds.We knowa subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

—Dal|¤  , Salvador

Math was my worst subject because I could never persuade the teacher that my answers were meant ironically.

—Trillin, Calvin Marshall

The spirit that now resists your taxation in America is†the same spirit that established the great fundamental, essential maxim of your libertiesöthat no subject of England shall betaxed but byhis ownconsent. The glorious spirit of Whiggismanimates three million in America, who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains and sordid affluence; and who will die in defence of their rights as men, as free men.

—Pitt,William, 1st Earl of Chatham known as  the Elder

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

—Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

Nothing has raised more questioning among my critics thanthese wordsönoble, thegrand style† Ithink it will be found that the grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject.

—Arnold, Matthew

Spare the poet for his subject's sake.

—Cowper,William

Rem tene, verba sequentur. Stick to your subject, and words will follow.

—'the Censor'

The grand manner consists of four elements: subject or theme, concept, structure, and style. The first requirement, fundamental to all the others, is that the subject and the narrative be grandiose, such as battles, heroic actions, and religious themes.

—Poussin, Nicolas

L'homme n'est qu'un sujet plein d'erreur, naturelle et ineffa c° able sans la gra"  ce. Man is nothing but a subject full of natural error that cannot be eradicated except through grace.

—Pascal, Blaise

   The subject is to the painter what the rails are to a locomotive. He cannot do without it.

—Rivera, Diego

   The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

—Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills

A libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen bya man who should never have attempted it.

—Thomson,Virgil

   Was man scheint, Hat jedermann zum Richter; was man ist, hat keine. What we appear to be is subject to the judgement Of all mankind, and what we truly are, of no one.

—Schiller, Friedrich

Happily, there is nothing in the laws of value which remains for the present or any future writer to clear up; the theory of the subject is complete.

—Mill,John Stuart

   My celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse: Since first this subject for heroic song Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late.

—Milton,John

The Old Testament makes woman a mere after-thought in creation; the author of evil; cursed in her maternity; a subject in marriage; and all female life, animal and human, unclean.

—Stanton, Elizabeth ne¤  e  Cady

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and who manages to avoid them.

—Heisenberg,Werner