“I’ve heard it said: ‘By his home you shall know him’; and we all know that we must pay attention to anyone who reverses the subject and auxiliary verb in his sentence.”

—  Steven Brust , book Issola

Source: Issola

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’ve heard it said: ‘By his home you shall know him’; and we all know that we must pay attention to anyone who reverses…" by Steven Brust?
Steven Brust photo
Steven Brust 18
American fantasy and science fiction author 1955

Related quotes

Stendhal photo

“At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.”

Stendhal book The Charterhouse of Parma

De loin nous ne nous faisons pas d'idée de ce que c'est que l'autorité d'un despote qui connaît de vue tous ses sujets.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 16

Mark Twain photo

“Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”

Mark Twain book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), Ch. 22

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“We know that sacrifices lie before us and that we must pay a price for the heroic act of being a vanguard nation. We leaders know that we must pay a price for the right to say that we are at the head of a people, which is at the head of the Americas. Each and every one of us must pay his exact quota of sacrifice, conscious that he will get his reward in the satisfaction of fulfilling a duty, conscious that he will advance with all toward the image of the new man dimly visible on the horizon.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Man and Socialism in Cuba (1965)

“His sentences didn't seem to have any verbs, which was par for a politician. All nouns, no action.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Charlie All Night

Plato photo

“I shall argue that to seem to speak well of the gods to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men: for the inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers about any subject is a great assistance to him who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant we are concerning the gods.”

Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher

107b
Critias

Elias Canetti photo

“You can tirelessly keep on reading the same author, revere, admire, praise him, exalt him to the skies, know and recite each of his sentences by heart, and yet remain completely unaffected by him, as if he had never demanded anything of you and not said anything at all.”

Elias Canetti (1905–1994) Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer

J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 43
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)

“The writer serves his daemon and his subject. And the democracy that does not know that the daemon and the subject must be served is not, in any ideal sense of the word, a democracy at all.”

Lionel Trilling book The Liberal Imagination

The Function of the Little Magazine
The Liberal Imagination (1950)
Context: The writer must define his audience by its abilities, by its perfections, so far as he is gifted to conceive them. He does well, if he cannot see his right audience within immediate reach of his voice, to direct his words to his spiritual ancestors, or to posterity, or even, if need be, to a coterie. The writer serves his daemon and his subject. And the democracy that does not know that the daemon and the subject must be served is not, in any ideal sense of the word, a democracy at all.

Prevale photo

“Always choose people who know how to pay attention to details, who know how to be grateful for your attention, but above all choose people who know how to value your time and your person.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Scegli sempre persone che sappiano prestare attenzione ai dettagli, che sappiano essere grate per le tue attenzioni, ma soprattutto scegli persone che sappiano valorizzare il tuo tempo e la tua persona.
Source: prevale.net

“How shall we venture home?
How shall we tell each other of the poet?
How can we meet the judgment on the poet,
or his execution? How shall we free him? How shall we speak to the infant beginning to run?
All those beginning to run?”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

Source: The Gates (1976)

Lauren Bacall photo

“Well, his attention span was not long, shall we say.”

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American actress, model

Speaking of Frank Sinatra
Larry King interview (2005)

Related topics