“I had no idea Gwendolen knew any foreign languages, and I am not sure that I approve. It's the sort of thing that can only broaden a girl's mind.”

—  Tom Stoppard, Travesties

Carr, Act I
Travesties (1974)

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 "I had no idea Gwendolen knew any foreign languages, and I am not sure that I approve. It's the sort of thing that can o…" by Tom Stoppard?
Tom Stoppard photo
Tom Stoppard116
British playwright 1937

Related quotes

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo

“God is only an idea in your mind. The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and now I am.’ Remove the ’here and now’ the ‘I am’ remains, unassailable. (…). All I can say truly is: ‘I am,’ all else is inference (…). The sense ‘I am’ is the manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may call self, God, Reality or by any other name. (…).”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

God
Source: I am That, P.199.

Jamaica Kincaid photo

“I was a new person then, I knew things I had not known before, I knew things that you can know only if you have been through what I had just been through.”

Jamaica Kincaid (1949) Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer

Source: The Autobiography of My Mother

Anthony Trollope photo

“I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover's mind if she knew the whole of it.”

Anthony Trollope book The Small House at Allington

Source: The Small House at Allington (1864), Ch. 4

Isaac Asimov photo

“Surely there is no language more majestic than that of Shakespeare, Milton, and the King James Bible, and if I am to have one language that I know as only a native can know it, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate that it is English.”

Isaac Asimov book Before the Golden Age

Before the Golden Age (1974), Vol. 1, p. 5 of the 1975 Orbit edition
General sources

George Eliot photo

“An accomplished woman almost always knows more than we men, though her knowledge is of a different sort. I am sure you could teach me a thousand things--as an exquisite bird could teach a bear if there were any common language between them. Happily, there is a common language between women and men, and so the bears can get taught.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Middlemarch (1871)

Jet Li photo

“Speaking English dialogue is not easy for me. I am too lazy to learn English or speak any foreign language, so I am very grateful to my dialogue coach for helping me a lot.”

Jet Li (1963) Chinese martial artist and actor

As quoted in Actor Jet Li Agreed To Star In ‘Mulan’ For His Daughter https://in.news.yahoo.com/actor-jet-li-agreed-star-045050431.html in Yahoo News (September 7, 2020)

“But I do like this language -- wheat and chaff -- with its widening pool of foreign genes, and since I never have had any occasion to say “comestible,” it was pleasurable to think it.”

Grace Paley (1922–2007) American writer and activist

"The Story Hearer"

Tanith Lee photo

“I should have felt pity, but I felt only contempt. I knew had it been a girl she would have mourned less, and it angered me.”

Tanith Lee book The Birthgrave

Book Two, Part II “The Water”, Chapter 1 (p. 173)
The Birthgrave (1975)

Ramakrishna photo

“In this state of mind it is not proper for him to say: "I am He". When a man does all sorts of worldly things, he should not say, "I am Brahman".”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

As quoted in Ramakrishna : Prophet of New India (1948) by Swami Nikhilananda, p. 77
Context: In the Kaliyuga, man, being totally dependent on food for life, cannot altogether shake off the idea that he is the body. In this state of mind it is not proper for him to say: "I am He". When a man does all sorts of worldly things, he should not say, "I am Brahman". Those who cannot give up attachment to worldly things, and who find no means to shake off the feeling of "I", should rather cherish the idea, "I am God's servant; I am His devotee."

David Levithan photo

“I am proud that I defy your categories. I am proud that I don't fit easily into any box. I am proud of all the things I am and all the things i can be. Question yourself every time you think you only see one thing in me.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

Related topics