Illumination: Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.—Thomas Aquinas
Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly; Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,Stains the white radiance of Eternity.—Percy Shelley
‘What is this’, and ‘How is this done?’ are the first two questions to ask of any work of art. The second question immediately illuminates the first, but it often doesn’t get asked. Perhaps it sounds too technical. Perhaps it sounds pedestrian.—James Fenton
To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I’ve always wanted to do.—Robert Harris
It’s what Shakespeare’s mission was—to illuminate our thoughts and struggles and bring about the possibility of getting the most we can out of a day as opposed to least in this brief moment we’re here.—Mandy Patinkin
We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world.—Rene Magritte
To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.—Paul Rand
From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine light is within each of us.—Pope Francis
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.—Gore Vidal
To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Analogies, in particular, can illuminate, but they can also obscure and confuse. They need to be handled carefully, like rhetorical high explosives.—Max Boot
Supreme serenity still remains the Ideal of great Art. The shapes and transitory forms of life are but stages toward this Ideal, which Christ’s religion illuminates with His divine light.—Franz Liszt
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.—James Baldwin
This illuminates not only fans’ interest in major league teams but also the minors and even Little League.—John Thorn
I think a sequel is a waste of money and time. I think movies should illuminate new stories.—Francis Ford Coppola
The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.—Ernest Dimnet
Scientists tend to come in two stripes: those who have tremendous appetite and aptitude for the details, and those who illuminate the big picture. Sagan was definitely in the latter category, and he was profoundly good at it. He made connections that others did not have the intellectual breadth or courage to make.—Carolyn Porco
My whole reason for creating a network is literally to bring little pieces of light. It’s to continue to spread little pieces of light in the world, to illuminate the possibility of the human spirit.—Oprah Winfrey
I can’t speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn’t yet been explored.—Walter Jon Williams
I look for two things when I am about to launch into a book. First, there has to be a dramatic arc to the story itself that will carry me, and the reader, from beginning to end. Second, the story has to weave through larger themes that can illuminate the world of the subject.—David Maraniss
I know that plenty of folks have issues with Social Security, but I’d urge them to confront it on its own terms. Calling it a Ponzi scheme is misleading and does more to cloud the issue than it does to illuminate it. And yes, I do know that unless changes are made, the current system is unsustainable. But that doesn’t mean it’s fraud.—Mitchell Zuckoff
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.—Louis Pasteur
I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.—David Maraniss
There are two kinds of light—the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.—James Thurber
It may be that our cosmic curiosity... is a genetically-encoded force that we illuminate when we look up and wonder.—Neil deGrasse Tyson
Criticism is the windows and chandeliers of art: it illuminates the enveloping darkness in which art might otherwise rest only vaguely discernible, and perhaps altogether unseen.—George Jean Nathan
We really have the power to illuminate all negative things in our life, but we have to find that light source inside of us and really tap in with it and reconnect with it.—Kyle
Any great art is meant to illuminate the human condition.—Sterling K. Brown
The great poets have sympathized with the people. They have uttered in all ages the human cry. Unbought by gold, unawed by power, they have lifted high the torch that illuminates the world.—Robert Green Ingersoll
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.—Louis Pasteur
Life is a lot more interesting if you are interested in the people and the places around you. So, illuminate your little patch of ground, the people that you know, the things that you want to commemorate. Light them up with your art, with your music, with your writing, with whatever it is that you do.—Alan Moore
The more accurately one can illuminate a particular human experience, the better the work of art.—Claire Messud
All nonmimetic fiction is a balancing act between ‘reality’ and the obviously unreal, with no attempt by the author to make the latter seem like the former. Sometimes it’s not an easy tightrope to walk. But when it succeeds, such fiction can brilliantly illuminate the human condition.—Nancy Kress
Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties.—Emil Nolde
What is new is that environmentalism intensely illuminates the need to confront the corporate domain at its most powerful and guarded point—the exclusive right to govern the systems of production.—Barry Commoner
I usually feel like the role comes to you to sort of illuminate some piece of where you are in your life. I feel like I myself am a single woman and I’m childless—by choice—at this point, and I don’t know what will happen.—Sarah Paulson
I don’t find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly. You could sum it up in a few words or sentences really: came from nothing. Self-educated. Luck. Energy. Curiosity. Ambition. That’s it. Nothing at all can illuminate the work as far as I can tell.—Peter Ackroyd
Life isn’t about the final moments, it’s about the journey, it’s about process. What makes ‘Rocky’ work as a movie is seeing him working his way up from the streets to the arena and the fight of his life. You could just show that fight, and it would be great, but seeing that journey illuminates that fight and adds profound meaning to it.—J. Michael Straczynski
I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other. We’re all cruel, aren’t we? We are all extreme in one way or another at times and that’s what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with.—Martin McDonagh
Science is like a flashlight in the hands of people living in a huge balloon. They can illuminate anything in the balloon, but cannot shine it outside the balloon to see where it is floating—or if it is floating at all.—Huston Smith
What I like to do when I get to a new place is buy local music early on and listen to it while we’re driving around. I think it helps explain and illuminate the culture of where you are if local music is playing.—Chris Hadfield
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.—Alexis de Tocqueville
Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate.—Harvey Fierstein
To be a Miss World is to carry a burning torch. It is like action carried out by one to illuminate the lives of many.—Catriona Gray
I’ve trained myself to illuminate the things in my personality that are likable and to hide and protect the things that are less likeable.—Will Smith
It is a great blessing to have light in our lives—a light that helps us see things as they really are, light that illuminates our understanding, light we can follow with confidence and perfect trust.—Margaret D. Nadauld
I like the way that psychological extremity can illuminate more ‘normal’ characters by forcing a comparison.—Antonya Nelson
Financial crises are like fireworks: they illuminate the sky even as they go pop.—James Buchan
Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.—Ambrose Bierce
I was amazed and upset by the looks I got just walking around the studio... It illuminates the ugliness and the beauty that exists within each of us, and that’s what this story represents to me.—Gerard Butler
Group personification obscures, rather than illuminates, important political questions.—Tom G. Palmer
I don’t believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together.—Barry Commoner
An adaptation leads the cinema-goer to the original to find out what they’re missing and if they already know the book, it can still illuminate a theme, a character, an idea.—David Nicholls
I think a biography is only as interesting as the lives and times it illuminates.—A. Scott Berg
For millions of women and men around the world, the playwright Eve Ensler is a beloved figure. She represents the epitome of the politically engaged artist, someone who uses her creative brilliance to illuminate injustice and give voice to the voiceless.—Jackson Katz
That’s part of the requirement for me to be an artist is that you’re trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life.—Francis Ford Coppola
There’s no reason that there has to be a fringe network that illuminates an urban or a multiethnic experience.—Warren Littlefield
I really have to be in a specific headspace to even begin to illuminate an idea that would create another Bon Iver record, and I’m just not there.—Justin Vernon
Strip makeup lights just don’t give you a fighting chance no matter how good looking you are. Light sconces that flank the mirror illuminate your entire face evenly.—Candice Olson
I read novels for entertainment rather than for edification, so I tend not to read the sort of novels that are said to illuminate the human condition.—Richard Dawkins