It is that faculty by which we discover and enjoy the beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime in literature, art, and nature; which recognizes a noble thought, as a virtuous mind welcomes a pure sentiment by a involuntary glow of satisfaction. But while the principle of perception is inherent in the soul, it requires a certain amount of knowledge to draw out and direct it.
All the world over, the picturesque yields to the pocketesque.
The dirt is picturesque, so I don't mind.
Pictures must not be too picturesque.
In the vast archipelago of the east, where Borneo and Java and Sumatra lie, and the Molucca Islands, and the Philippines, the sea is often fanned only by the land and sea breezes, and is like a smooth bed, on which these islands seem to sleep in bliss,--islands in which the spice and perfume gardens of the world are embowered, and where the bird of paradise has its home, and the golden pheasant, and a hundred others of brilliant plumage, whose flight is among thickets so luxuriant, and scenery so picturesque, that European strangers find there the fairy land of their youthful dreams.
Poverty, to be picturesque, should be rural. Suburban misery is as hideous as it is pitiable.
Ye lover of the picturesque, if ye wish to drown your grief, take my advice and visit the ancient town of Crieff.
Modernized by tin roofs and T-shirts, Third World poverty is no longer picturesque.
The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.
I have a respect for family pride. If it be a prejudice, it is a prejudice in its most picturesque shape. But I hold it is connected with some of the noblest feelings in our nature.
It is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.
Literature, like a gypsy, to be picturesque, should be a little ragged.
I do not always find the streets interesting, so I wait until I see picturesque groups and those that compose well in relation to the whole.
Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.
I know exaggerators of both kinds: people whose lies are only picturesque adjectives, and people whose picturesque adjectives are only lies.
It is. . . treading on dangerous ground to paint the picturesque as I am at times doing.
We admire Chaucer for his sturdy English wit. . . . But though it is full of good sense and humanity, it is not transcendent poetry. For picturesque description of persons it is, perhaps, without a parallel in English poetry; yet it is essentially humorous, as the loftiest genius never is.
Rome is stately and impressive; Florence is all beauty and enchantment; Genoa is picturesque; Venice is a dream city; but Naples is simply -- fascinating.
In eighteenth-century England, there was a practice of hiring a picturesque hermit who would inhabit the beautiful ruin on your estate. To me it rhymes with certain kinds of pop-music entertainers and eccentrics - both touted and tolerated.
