Famous quotes containing the word mere:
“Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant
Theres nothing serious in mortality.
All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.”
—Oscar Wilde (18541900)
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instanceits subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picturethe actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscapeshould be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.”
—Walter Pater (18391894)