“To see evil and call it good, mocks God. Worse, it makes goodness meaningless. A word without meaning is an abomination, for when the word passes beyond understanding the very thing the word stands for passes out of the world and cannot be recalled.”
Source: Arthur
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Stephen R. Lawhead46
American writer 1950Related quotes
Howard Thurman (1899–1981) American writer
The Search For Common Ground : An Inquiry Into The Basis Of Man's Experience Of Community (1971), p. 6
Context: In the conflicts between man and man, between group and group, between nation and nation, the loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable. The radical tension between good and evil, as man sees it and feels it, does not have the last word about the meaning of life and the nature of existence. There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste. Always he must know that the contradictions of life are not final or ultimate; he must distinguish between failure and a many-sided awareness so that he will not mistake conformity for harmony, uniformity for synthesis. He will know that for all men to be alike is the death of life in man, and yet perceive harmony that transcends all diversities and in which diversity finds its richness and significance.
Poul Anderson book Three Hearts and Three Lions
Source: Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961), Chapter 12 (p. 102)
“Almost without words, you’ve come to this world, which understands nothing without words.”
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Has venido a este mundo que no entiende nada sin palabras, casi sin palabras.
Voces (1943)
Richard M. Weaver (1910–1963) American scholar
“Relativism and the Use of Language,” p. 121.
Language is Sermonic (1970)
Steven Erikson book Reaper's Gale
Reaper's Gale (2007)
Context: For Hood's sake,' the foreigner muttered. 'What's wrong with words?'
'With words,' said Redmask, turning away, 'meanings change.'
'Well,' Anaster Toc said, following as Redmask made his way back to his army's camp, 'that is precisely the point. That's their value — their ability to adapt -'
'Grow corrupt, you mean. The Letheri are masters at corrupting words, their meanings. They call war peace, they call tyranny liberty. On which side of the shadow you stand decides a word's meaning. Words are the weapons used by those who see others with contempt. A contempt which only deepens when they see how those others are deceived and made into fools because they choose to believe. Because in their naivety they thought the meaning of a word was fixed, immune to abuse.
W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer
St. 1 <br class="br">Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
Jeremy Bentham book An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Source: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789; 1823), Ch. 10: Of Motives