Variant: What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness.
“There is a rhetoric of knowledge, a characteristic way in which arguments, proofs, speculations, experiments, polemics, even humor are expressed. …speaking or writing a subject is a performing art, and each subject requires a somewhat different kind of performance from every other. Historians, for example, do not speak or write history in the same way biologists speak or write biology. …it is worth remembering that some scholars-one thinks of Veblen in sociology, Freud in psychology, Galbraith in economics - have exerted influence as much through their manner as their matter. The point is that knowledge is a form of literature, and the various styles of knowledge ought to be studied and discussed.”
Language Education in a Knowledge Context (1980)
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Neil Postman 106
American writer and academic 1931–2003Related quotes
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 476.
Statement in an interview of 1990, as quoted in "Harlan Ellison dies at 84; acclaimed science fiction writer was known for combative style" in The Los Angeles Times (28 June 2018) http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-harlan-ellison-20180628-story.html
"To the Public", No. 1 (1 January 1831) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2928t.html
The Liberator (1831 - 1866)
Context: I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
“No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.”
Source: The Art of Literature
“Writing is closer to thinking than to speaking.”
“Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.”