Skip to content

One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.

— Norman Maclean A River Runs Through It (1976)

Another quote →

Topics

Beauty

More quotes by Norman Maclean

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

A River Runs Through It (1976)

The brain gives up a lot less easily than the body.

A River Runs Through It (1976)

A mystery of the universe is how it has managed to survive with so much volunteer help.

Young Men and Fire (1992)

"It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us."

A River Runs Through It (1976)

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.

A River Runs Through It (1976)

All Norman Maclean quotes →

You may also like

Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.

Democritus Freeman (1948)

True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.

William Wordsworth

The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?

André Gide The Immoralist (1902)

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator.

William Shakespeare The Rape of Lucrece (1594)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Norman Maclean (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.