The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
James Joyce

The descent to the infernal regions is easy enough, but to retrace one's steps, and reach the air above, there's the rub.
Virgil

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.
Charles Horton Cooley

I want to live perfectly above the law, and make it my servant instead of my master.
Brigham Young

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.
Anatole France

That which the Fascists hate above all else, is intelligence.
Miguel de Unamuno

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.
Miguel de Unamuno

Human nature is above all things lazy.
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever.
Jose Marti

After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
Black Elk

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
Vladimir Nabokov

Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other.
Albert Pike

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
Dante Alighieri

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.
David Foster Wallace

Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
John Milton

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.
Pat Riley

There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.
Pat Riley

Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.
Miguel de Cervantes