“We don't know who discovered water, but we know it wasn't the fish.”

— Marshall McLuhan

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Marshall McLuhan416

Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor … 1911–1980

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“I don't believe in this nonsense about time. Time is just common, it's like water for a fish. Everybody's in this water, nobody gets out of it, or if he does the same thing happens to him that happens to the fish, he dies. And you know what happens in this water, time? The big fish eat the little fish. That's all. The big fish eat the little fish and the ocean doesn't care.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Pt. 1, Ch. 2 - p.31
Giovanni's Room (1956)

“Living mythical-political systems are invisible to those who live within them. The problem of myth and consciousness is reflected in the old saying: We don’t know who discovered water, but it certainly wasn’t a fish. Myth is the sea of commonly accepted assumptions that are not questioned by the majority of those living within a system. To the average, normal member of society, the myth is what is natural and obvious.”

Sam Keen (1931) author, professor, and philosopher

Source: The Passionate Life (1983), p. 99

“Like fish who do not know they swim in water, we are seldom aware of the atmosphere of the times through which we move, how strange and singular they are. But when we approach another age, its alienness stands out before us, almost as if that were its most obvious quality…”

Thomas Cahill (1940) American scholar and writer

Introduction
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (2003)

“When there are fish heads and blood in the water, you don’t need to see the silverpike to know they are there.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Siuan Sanche
(15 October 1991)

“I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes.
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows.
They say these waters aren't what they used to be.
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Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

The Downeaster Alexa.
Song lyrics, Storm Front (1989)

“You are a man now, and to be un hombre, a man must not only know right from wrong, he must also know who he is and who he isn’t. Because if a man doesn’t know who he is and who he isn’t, then no matter how much he knows about right and wrong, he will always be like a fish out of water.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

“Gene Ray: Another thing, did you know your father is a fish?
Interviewer: No, I did not know my… [laughter]
Gene Ray: You know how salmon swim upstream, the male fertilizes the female eggs laid in the water?
Interviewer: Yes.
Gene Ray: The sperm fish swims upstream just like the salmon fertilizes female eggs laid in the water.”

Gene Ray (1927)

Radio KoL interview, April 9, 2004

“We live invested in an electric information environment that is quite as imperceptible to us as water is to fish.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1960s, Counterblast (1969), p. 5

“All the things we hide in water
Hoping we won't see them go.
Forests growing under water
Press against the ones we know.”

Annie Finch (1956) American poet

From Landing Under Water, I See Roots, from Calendars (2003)

“5451. We never know the Worth of Water, till the Well is dry.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

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