That which is becoming or decorous.
A merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal,
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest. [ William Shakespeare ]
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness and for show. [ Pope ]
One always wishes to be happy before becoming wise. [ Mme. Necker ]
The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
The king-becoming graces - devotion, patience, courage, fortitude. [ William Shakespeare ]
Bashfulness is not becoming to maidenhood, though modesty always is. [ Marguerite de Valois ]
When a soldier is hit by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as purple. [ Thoreau ]
What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming. [ Cicero ]
Of gifts, there seems none more becoming to offer a friend than a beautiful book. [ Amos Bronson Alcott ]
Cultivate habits of neatness, and let your attire be simple, modest, and becoming. [ Mrs. Willard ]
Silence and discretion are specially becoming in a woman, and to remain quietly at home. [ Euripides ]
There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. [ Colton ]
Literature is fast becoming all in all to us - our church, our senate, our whole social constitution. [ Carlyle ]
Modern women find a new scandal as becoming as a new bonnet, and air them both in the Park every afternoon. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]
Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul. [ Montaigne ]
Earnestness is the best gift of mental power, and deficiency of heart is the cause of many men never becoming great. [ Bulwer ]
Some people habitually wear sadness, like a garment, and think it a becoming grace. God loves a cheerful worshipper. [ Chapin ]
I hope you are becoming more and more interested in making those around you happy. That is the true way to secure your own happiness. [ Robert E. Lee ]
I must do something to keep my thoughts fresh and growing. I dread nothing so much as falling into a rut and feeling myself becoming a fossil. [ James A. Garfield ]
Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to commonsense, and in lending one's self to the universal delusion without becoming its dupe. [ Amiel ]
Of all pure things, purity in the acquisition of riches is the best. He who preserves purity in becoming rich is really pure, not he who is purified by water. [ Manu ]
The same conditions should be made in marriage that are made in the case of houses that one rents for a term of three, six, or nine years, with the privilege of becoming the purchaser if the house suits. [ Hegesippe Moreau ]
Like everything else in nature, music is a becoming, and it becomes its full self when its sounds and laws are used by intelligent man for the production of harmony, and so made the vehicle of emotion and thought. [ Theodore T. Munger ]
A friend whom you have been gaining during your whole life, you ought not to be displeased with in a moment. A stone is many years becoming a ruby; take care that you do not destroy it in an instant against another stone. [ Saadi ]
Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at pace, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant finish by becoming themselves its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence. [ Colton ]
Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there. That is the reason why people who live out of town are so uncivilized. There are only two ways of becoming civilized. One is by being cultured, the other is by being corrupt. Country people have no opportunity of being either, so they stagnate. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]
Never teach false modesty. How exquisitely absurd to teach a girl that beauty is of no value, dress of no use! Beauty is of value; her whole prospects and happiness in life may often depend upon a new gown or a becoming bonnet; if she has five grains of commonsense she will find this out. The great thing is to teach her their proper value. [ Sydney Smith ]
Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have received what I suppose is a taste for them, or religion has refined my mind and made it susceptible of impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O, how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God, by their becoming a source of pride! [ Henry Martyn ]