A Fine Line Between...

"There is ... a fine line between the degree of mystery that stimulates the judgment of the audience members and that which renders the speaker's meaning unintelligible." —Marc Hanvelt, The Politics of Eloquence: David Hume's Polite Rhetoric (2012)

There has always been a fine line between stage magic and occultism.  Here's a poorly-rehearsed stage magician who mangles his magic words and conjures up a demon, from Punch, 1908.  The caption reads, "An unrehearsed effect."

"Selfish or noble — it's always a fine line."
—Nicola Upson, Fear in the Sunlight (a mystery novel set in our favorite haunt, Portmeirion)

"There is a fine line between showing off and displaying a mental ability that is interesting and entertaining." —Chuck Hickok, Mentalism, Incorporated

There's a thin line between slapstick and tragedy, says thinker's comedian Stewart Lee in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.

"There is a fine line between success and failure in fashion innovation."
—Lucy Montgomery

There's a fine line between the Atlantic and the Pacific:

There is "the finest line between unique and odd" (Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, 2008).

"Chekhov's stories tread the finest line between a newspaper account and a fairy tale.  Inferior writers step over the line one way or the other." —Howard Moss, Minor Monuments (1986)

"There is only the finest line between collecting and compulsion.  More than half the people you see shopping at flea markets have serious psychiatric disorders and don't even know it." —Matt Maranian, Pad: The Guide to Ultra-Living (2000)

"There is only the finest line between 'I am dreaming' and 'I am in a dream,' since the brain creates both states.  Why not cross the line?"  —Deepak Chopra, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul (2009)

"It's a fine line between standing along the shore like an idiot with a stick in your hands and going fishing."
—Ethan Wolff, Frommer's NYC Free & Dirt Cheap

Our friend Teresa at Frog Blog posts about the fine line between giving up and seeing how much more one can take.

We've previously noted that even a squiggle isn’t immune to the corruption inherent in transliteration.  Here's our newly updated pictorial study of how Laurence Sterne's elegant and eloquent squiggle (d)evolved through various editions of Tristram Shandy.  We call it "Lost in Transliteration."  We're proud to be the only place on the Internet that compares Dutch, French, Spanish, German, and English squiggles from literature.