“The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.”
Also quoted in "Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde by Charles Juliet" by Nicholas Lezard, in The Guardian (23 January 2010) http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/23/conversations-samuel-beckett-van-velde <br class="br">Three Dialogues (1949)
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Samuel Beckett122
Irish novelist, playwright, and poet 1906–1989Related quotes
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer
As quoted in Debussy (1989) by Paul Holmes, p. 36
Context: Music would take over at the point at which words become powerless, with the one and only object of expressing that which nothing but music could express. For this, I need a text by a poet who, resorting to discreet suggestion rather than full statement, will enable me to graft my dream upon his dream — who will give me plain human beings in a setting belonging to no particular period or country. … Then I do not wish my music to drown the words, nor to delay the course of the action. I want no purely musical developments which are not called for inevitably by the text. In opera there is always too much singing. Music should be as swift and mobile as the words themselves.
Alice Meynell (1847–1922) English publisher, editor, writer, poet, activist
"Eyes", pp. 98–99
The Colour of Life and Other Essays (1896)
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
Psychology and Poetry (June 1930)
Edward Nelson (1932–2014) American mathematical physicist and logician
[Nelson, E., Predicative Arithmetic, 1986, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 0-691-08455-6, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pvr_AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false, 86018730, 14001745, 173, harv]
“There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression.”
Marshall McLuhan book The Gutenberg Galaxy
Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 216; this paragraph was quoted as "context (0) - THE INNIS MODE" by John Brunner, the epigraph or first chapter in his novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression. Were it to be translated into perspective prose, it would not only require huge space, but the insight into the modes of interplay among forms of organisation would also be lost. Innis sacrificed point of view and prestige to his sense of the urgent need for insight. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. As Innis got more insight he abandoned any mere point of view in his presentation of knowledge. When he interrelates the development of the steam press with 'the consolidation of the vernaculars' and the rise of nationalism and revolution he is not reporting anybody's point of view, least of all his own. He is setting up a mosaic configuration or galaxy for insight … Innis makes no effort to "spell out" the interrelations between the components in his galaxy. He offers no consumer packages in his later work, but only do-it-yourself kits...
Anish Kapoor (1954) British contemporary artist of Indian birth
Anish kapoor in conversation with Homi K. Bhabha in 1998. Quoted in pdf, Anish Kapoor, 18 December 2013, Royal Academy Organization http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/files/anish-kapoor-education-guide-558.pdf,
“Many an attack of depression is nothing but the expression of regret at having to be virtuous.”
Wilhelm Stekel (1868–1940) Austrian physician and psychologist
As quoted in Sigmund Says : And Other Psychotherapists' Quotes (2006) by Bernard Nisenholz, p. 94
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) Dutch architect, painter, draughtsman and writer
Quote from Dutch art-magazine: 'Eenheid' (Dutch, for Unity) no. 127, 9 November 1912; as cited in Theo van Doesburg, Joost Baljeu, Studio Vista, London 1974, p. 16
1912 – 1919
“Of every noble work the silent part is best,
Of all expression that which can not be expressed.”
William Wetmore Story (1819–1895) American sculptor, art critic, poet, translator and editor
The Unexpressed.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)