“English is the product of a Norman warrior trying to make a date with an Anglo-saxon bar-maid, and as such is no more legitimate than any of the other products of that conversation.”

— H. Beam Piper

Source: Fuzzy Sapiens (1964)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "English is the product of a Norman warrior trying to make a date with an Anglo-saxon bar-maid, and as such is no more l…" by H. Beam Piper?

H. Beam Piper 11

American science fiction writer 1904–1964

Related quotes

“Of course most people underestimate the warrior characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman peoples anyway. It takes a heap of piety to keep a Viking from wanting to go sack a city.”

Jerry Pournelle (1933–2017) American science fiction writer and journalist

Reply to reader email http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail141.html#competent2 in Chaos Manor Mail 141, February 19-25, 2001
Assorted

“A Warrior so bold, and a Virgin so bright
Conversed, as They sat on the green:
They gazed on each other with tender delight;
Alonzo the Brave was the name of the Knight,
The Maid's was the Fair Imogine.”

Matthew Lewis (writer) book The Monk

Page 313; "Alonzo the Brave, and Fair Imogine", line 1.
The Monk (1796)

“It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

"Will, Freedom”
Elements of Physiology (1875)

“I do not know a poet in the Anglo-Saxon world who makes his living by poetry. Every single one of them makes his living in some other way.”

Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) American poet

What It Means to Be a Poet in America (1926)
Context: Most of the good poetry, as I have said, has appeared in pamphlet form before the poet was known to the public. It is utterly impossible to make an income from verse, and one must win his worldly standing, and earn his living some other way. One of the most distinguished of the Middle Western poets supports himself by writing a movie column once a day. I do not know a poet in the Anglo-Saxon world who makes his living by poetry. Every single one of them makes his living in some other way.

“…if you increase living standards you make labor more productive. This is why Asia today is becoming more productive than the United States.”

Michael Hudson (economist) (1939) American economist

" "Higher Taxes on Top 1% Equals Higher Productivity http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6000", Video Interview (13:28), The Real News Network (TRNN) (January 1, 2011)

“Man is not the creature and product of Mechanism; but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer: it is the noble People that makes the noble Government; rather than conversely.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1820s, Signs of the Times (1829)

“Software production is unlike any other production that preceded it. No raw materials are required, no time is required, and no effort is required. You can make a million copies of a piece of software instantaneously for free. It's a totally new paradigm of production.”

John McAfee (1945) American computer programmer and businessman

"Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History of the Internet", Part 3

“I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.”

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur

“If these Mount Everests of the financial world are going to labor and bring forth still more pictures with people being blown to bits with bazookas and automatic assault rifles with no gory detail left unexploited, if they are going to encourage anxious, ambitious actors, directors, writers and producers to continue their assault on the English language by reducing the vocabularies of their characters to half a dozen words, with one colorful but overused Anglo-Saxon verb and one unbeautiful Anglo-Saxon noun covering just about every situation, then I would like to suggest that they stop and think about this: making millions is not the whole ball game, fellows. Pride of workmanship is worth more. Artistry is worth more.”

Gregory Peck (1916–2003) American actor

Acceptance speech on receiving the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1989, as quoted in "Gregory Peck, a Star of Quiet Dignity, Dies at 87" by William Grimes in The New York Times (13 June 2003)

“I had a productive day, without the distraction of conversation.”

Kage Baker book Mendoza in Hollywood

Part 1 “Establishing Shot” Chapter 8 (p. 105)
Mendoza in Hollywood (2000)

“English is the product of a Norman warrior trying to make a date with an Anglo-saxon bar-maid, and as such is no more legitimate than any of the other products of that conversation.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

H. Beam Piper 11

Related quotes

Related topics