Expression quotes
3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside expression — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of the artist's mood. But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his happiest paintings."
"In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence"
"It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse-the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene."
"Can you also, Lucullus, affirm that there is any power united with wisdom and prudence which has made, or, to use your own expression, manufactured man? What sort of a manufacture is that? Where is it exercised? when? why? how?"
"Some suggested over the weekend that it is wrong to expect Elian Gonzalez to live in a place that tolerates no dissent or freedom of political expression. They were talking about Miami."
"We cannot have expression till there is something to be expressed."
"All great expression, which on a superficial survey seems so easy as well as so simple, furnishes after a while, to the faithful observer, its own standard by which to appreciate it."
"Some degree of expression is necessary for growth, but it should be little in proportion to the full life."
"Abstract expression is so solid, so successful and recognizable, but there's a mystery about the artists that goes into it, a fetishism about the artists themselves and who they were."
"It was around the age of 18 when I started to feel like I had learned everything I could learn from being a model - modeling is a really incredible form of expression, but I got into modeling because I loved fashion so much and I really loved photography."
"I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized."
"The happiness of people who are in love and who are loved shows in their faces. They have an expression that's at once very far away and very much part of the present."
"It is recorded how towards the end of the eighteenth century a Muslim visitor to England was taken to see the House of Commons at work. He later wrote of his astonishment at finding the that the British Parliament actually made laws and fixed punishments for their infraction - because unlike Muslims the English had not accepted a divine law revealed from heaven and therefore had to resort to such unsatisfactory expedients. Muslims still understand the expression 'the rule of law' very differently than do most Westerners."
"Bloggers intent on self-expression which renders no service to readers don't get read."
"I think self-expression is present at all times, and whether or not you're talking about the outside world or your responses to it depends on the moment and the subject."
"in certain crises direct expression of sympathy is the least possible to those who most feel sympathy."
"Abduction is a romantic expression of passion."
"It's easier to tell a lie, than to tell the truth. It's easier to kill a fly, than it is to turn it loose."
"Everything is Dinky Doo."
"Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the relation that exists between the expression of someone's will and the execution of that will by others."
