Source: A Time of Changes (1971), Chapter 27 (p. 89)
“It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper”
Kabir (1440–1518) Indian mystic poet
Songs of Kabîr (1915)
Context: He comes to the Path of the Infinite on whom the grace of the Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains to Him.
Kabîr says: "It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper: It is like a dumb person who tastes a sweet thing — how shall it be explained?"
Alan Simpson (1931) American politician
Alan Simpson (b. 1912), on becoming president of Vassar College, as quoted in Newsweek (1 July 1963)
Misattributed
Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871) British mathematician, philosopher and university teacher (1806-1871)
Preface, p. v
The Differential and Integral Calculus (1836)
“He [in general] has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise, i. e., cannot do something else.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter
Diary entry (Munich, 1908), # 825, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 227
1903 - 1910
John Prescott (1938) Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007)
Statement in the House of Commons (29 November 2006)
Ray Kroc (1902–1984) American businessman
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history/the_ray_kroc_story.html
“I seek a form that my style cannot discover,
a bud of thought that wants to be a rose.”
Rubén Darío (1867–1916) Nicaraguan poet and writer
Prosas Profanas y Otros Poemas (Profane Hymns and Other Poems). I Seek a Form (1896).
“A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) American film producer (1879-1974).
A misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on". The identity of the colleague is variously reported as Joseph M. Schenk in Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It (1990), p. 42, or as Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Carol Easton, The Search for Sam Goldwyn (1976). Goldwyn himself was reportedly aware of - and pleased by - the misattribution.
Misattributed
Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician
Interview with Annabel Crabb, Kitchen Cabinet, ABC Television 4 September 2013.
Leader of the Opposition (2009-2015)
Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher
Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 73
