“In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry.”

— Jorge Luis Borges , book Other Inquisitions

"Kafka and His Precursors" ["Kafka y sus precursores"], as translated in Labyrinths (1964)
Variant translation: The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future.
Other Inquisitions (1952)
Context: In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of pol…" by Jorge Luis Borges?

Jorge Luis Borges 213

Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

Philip Selznick (1919–2010) American sociologist

Source: Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, 1957, p. 48

“Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.”

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American teacher and writer

Misattributed
Source: Concord Days

“Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Amos Bronson Alcott, her father, in Concord Days (1872), p. 124 : "Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary. But if one does not stay while staying, better let him go where he is gone the while."
Misattributed

“The word "philosophy" carries unfortunate connotations: impractical, unworldly, weird.”

Simon Blackburn (1944) British academic philosopher

Introduction, p. 1
Think (1999)

“Of course many people will have much to say.
We should listen. But we won't be deceived
by words such as Indispensable, Unique, and Great.”

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933) Greek poet

Collected Poems (1992), When the Watchman Saw the Light (1900)
Context: Of course many people will have much to say.
We should listen. But we won't be deceived
by words such as Indispensable, Unique, and Great.
Someone else indispensable and unique and great
can always be found at a moment's notice.

“Erasmus dramatizes a well-established political position: that of the fool who claims license to criticize all and sundry without reprisal, since his madness defines him as not fully a person and therefore not a political being with political desires and ambitions. The Praise of Folly, therefore sketches the possibility of a position for the critic of the scene of political rivalry, a position not simply impartial between the rivals but also, by self-definition, off the stage of rivalry altogether.”

J.M. Coetzee (1940) South African writer

“Erasmus’s Praise of Folly: Rivalry and Madness,” Neophilologus 76 (1992), p. 1

“Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 4, Section IV, p. 45

“If you're not ready to die for it, take the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Chicago Defender (28 November 1962).
Attributed
Variant: It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you’re not ready to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.

“Conservatives were planning before the word entered the vocabulary of political jargon.”

Rab Butler (1902–1982) British politician

About the Industrial Charter (Conservative Political Centre, 1947), pp. 6-7.

“All critics should be assassinated.”

Man Ray (1890–1976) American artist and photographer

As quoted in Bartlett's Unfamiliar Quotations (1971) edited by Leonard Louis Levinson

“In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Jorge Luis Borges 213

Related quotes

Related topics