A Quote by Sergio Troncoso

Rich people don't have to have a life-and-death relationship with the truth and its questions; they can ignore the truth and still thrive materially. I am not surprised many of them understand literature only as an ornament. Life is an ornament to them, relationships are ornaments, their “work” is but a flimsy, pretty ornament meant to momentarily thrill and capture attention. Why didn't I reread my F. Scott Fitzgerald sooner? I might have saved myself some time.

Sergio Troncoso

Quote Topics

Am Attention Capture Death Fitzgerald Ignore Life Life Is Life Is A Literature Many Meant Might Myself Only Ornament Ornaments People Pretty Questions Relationship Relationships Rich Rich People Saved Scott Scott Fitzgerald Some Sooner Still Surprised Them Thrill Thrive Time Truth Understand Why Work

Quote Author

Sergio Troncoso
American - Author
Born: 1961

I try to teach my students style, but always as a part of life, not as ornament. Style has to come out of communicating coherent thought, not in sticking little flowers on speeches. Style and substance and a sense of life are the things literature is composed of. One must use one's own personality in relationship to life and language, of course, and everyone has such a relationship. Some people find it, some don't find it, but it's there.

Marguerite Young

So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

William Shakespeare

One of the first principles of decorative art is that in all manufactures ornament must hold a place subordinate to that of utility; and when, by its exuberance, ornament interferes with utility, it is misplaced and vulgar.

George Mason

I like ornament at the right time, but I don't want a poem to be made out of decoration ... When I read the poems that matter to me, it stuns me how much the presence of the heart-in all its forms-is endlessly available there. To experience ourselves in an important way just knocks me out. It puzzles me why people have given that up for cleverness. Some of them are ingenious, more ingenious than I am, but so many of them aren't any good at being alive.

Jack Gilbert

I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power.

Andrew Solomon

They are done merely for ornament. ... the common people regard them as supernatural.

Xunzi

I am a pretty, useless ornament who always believed she'd have a man to take care of her.

Virginia C. Andrews

Truth is not only a man's ornament but his instrument; it is the great man's glory, and the poor man's stock: a man's truth is his livelihood, his recommendation, his letters of credit.

Benjamin Whichcote

How much more doth beauty beauteous seem by that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

William Shakespeare

He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society.

Charles Lamb

No ornament of a house can compare with books; they are constant company in a room, even when you are not reading them.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich.

Diogenes

A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar; it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account.