Quotes about communication
page 27

Albert Einstein photo
John Gray photo
Bill Downs photo
Marcel Marceau photo

“To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man.”

Marcel Marceau (1923–2007) French mime and actor

US News & World Report (23 February 1987)

Enoch Powell photo

“What happens then when majorities in the directly elected European Assembly take decisions, or approve policies, or vote budgets which are regarded by the British electorate or by the electorate of some of the mammoth constituencies as highly offensive and prejudicial to their interests? What do the European MPs say to their constituents? They say: “Don't blame me; I had no say, nor did I and my Labour (or Conservative) colleagues, have any say in the framing of these policies”. He will then either add: “Anyhow, I voted against”; or alternatively he will add: “And don't misunderstand if I voted for this along with my German, French, and Italian pals, because if I don't help roll their logs, I shall never get them to roll any of mine”. What these pseudo-MPs will not be able to say is what any MP in a democracy must be able to say, namely, either “I voted against this, and if the majority of my party are elected next time, we will put it right”, or alternatively, “I supported this because it is part of the policy and programme for which a majority in this constituency and in the country voted at the last election and which we shall be proud to defend at the next election”. Direct elections to the European Assembly, so far from introducing democracy and democratic control, will strengthen the arbitrary and bureaucratic nature of the Community by giving a fallacious garb of elective authority to the exercise of supranational powers by institutions and persons who are – in the literal, not the abusive, sense of the word – irresponsible.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech in Brighton (24 October 1977), from Enoch Powell on 1992 (Anaya, 1989), pp. 19-20.
1970s

Benjamin Boretz photo
Jacob Bekenstein photo
Peter Kropotkin photo
Adolfo Bioy Casares photo

“He thought he understood for the first time why some said life is a dream: If one lives long enough, facts about your life, just like your dreams, become impossible to communicate, because nobody cares about them.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) Argentine novelist

"Creyó por primera vez entender porqué se decía que la vida es sueño: si uno vive bastante, los hechos de su vida, como los de un sueño, su vuelven incomunicables porque a nadie interesan."
Diario de la Guerra del Cerdo, 1969.

Derren Brown photo
Mahinda Rajapaksa photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Thomas Young (scientist) photo
Leszek Kolakowski photo
Baruch Spinoza photo
Roberto Mangabeira Unger photo
David Graeber photo

“In fact, communism is the foundation of all human sociability. It is what makes society possible.”

David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist

Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Five, "A Brief Treatise on the Moral Grounds of Moral Relations", p. 96

Antonie Pannekoek photo
Richard Pipes photo
Benjamin Harrison photo

“The colored people did not intrude themselves upon us. They were brought here in chains and held in the communities where they are now chiefly found by a cruel slave code. Happily for both races, they are now free. They have from a standpoint of ignorance and poverty—which was our shame, not theirs—made remarkable advances in education and in the acquisition of property. They have as a people shown themselves to be friendly and faithful toward the white race under temptations of tremendous strength. They have their representatives in the national cemeteries, where a grateful Government has gathered the ashes of those who died in its defense. They have furnished to our Regular Army regiments that have won high praise from their commanding officers for courage and soldierly qualities and for fidelity to the enlistment oath. In civil life they are now the toilers of their communities, making their full contribution to the widening streams of prosperity which these communities are receiving. Their sudden withdrawal would stop production and bring disorder into the household as well as the shop. Generally they do not desire to quit their homes, and their employers resent the interference of the emigration agents who seek to stimulate such a desire.”

Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) American politician, 23rd President of the United States (in office from 1889 to 1893)

First State of the Union Address (1889)

Winston S. Churchill photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Heather Brooke photo
Xiaolu Guo photo
Joseph E. Stiglitz photo

“The fall of Wall Street is for market fundamentalism what the fall of the Berlin Wall was for communism.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz (1943) American economist and professor, born 1943.

Interview with Nathan Gardels, The Huffington Post, September 16th 2008 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/stiglitz-the-fall-of-wall_b_126911.html?show_comment_id=15934161

Giovanni Sartori photo
Fatimah photo
Robert M. La Follette Sr. photo

“As we survey the various stages of evolution, from the simplest one-cell creatures up to man. we see a steady improvement in the methods of learning and adaptation to a hostile world. Each step in learning ability gives better adaptation and greater chance of survival. We are carried a long way up the scale by innate reflexes and rudimentary muscular learning faculties. Habits indeed, not rational thought, assist us to surmount most of life's obstacles. Most, but by no means all; for learning in the high mammals exhibits the unexplained phenomenon of "insight," which shows itself by sudden changes in behavior in learning situations -- in sudden departures from one method of organizing a task, or solving a problem, to another. Insight, expectancy, set, are the essentially "mind-like" attributes of communication, and it is these, together with the representation of concepts, which require physiological explanation. At the higher end of the scale of evolution, this quality we call "mind" appears more and more prominently, but it is at our own level that learning of a radically new type has developed -- through our powers of organizing thoughts, comparing and setting them into relationship, especially with the use of language. We have a remarkable faculty of forming generalizations, of recognizing universals, of associating and developing them. It is our multitude of general concepts, and our powers of organizing them with the aid of language in varied ways, which forms the backbone of human communication, and which distinguises us from the animals.”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: Hebb, D. O., The Organization of Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1949.
Source: On Human Communication (1957), On Cognition and Recognition, p. 304

Alan Moore photo
Vladimir Putin photo

“As for some countries’ concerns about Russia's possible aggressive actions, I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid. Therefore, it is pointless to support this idea; it is absolutely groundless. But some may be interested in fostering such fears. I can only make a conjecture.

For example, the Americans do not want Russia's rapprochement with Europe. I am not asserting this, it is just a hypothesis. Let’s suppose that the United States would like to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. It needs an external threat, an external enemy to ensure this leadership. Iran is clearly not enough – this threat is not very scary or big enough. Who can be frightening? And then suddenly this crisis unfolds in Ukraine. Russia is forced to respond. Perhaps, it was engineered on purpose, I don’t know. But it was not our doing.

Let me tell you something – there is no need to fear Russia. The world has changed so drastically that people with some common sense cannot even imagine such a large-scale military conflict today. We have other things to think about, I assure you.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

2015-06-06, Interview to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/49629
2011 - 2015

Jonathan Safran Foer photo
Ward Cunningham photo

“A wiki is a work sustained by a community.”

Ward Cunningham (1949) American computer programmer who developed the first wiki

Crucible of Creativity (2005)

P. W. Botha photo

“There is not an Indian community in the world that is better off than the Indians in South Africa. That is the type of apartheid that I stand for. That is the type of apartheid that is not dead.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As prime minister in the House of Assembly, 23 April 1979, as cited in PW Botha in his own words, Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1987, p. 40

Rupert Boneham photo
Maddox photo
Kátya Chamma photo

“The Internet is the great highway of the modern communication, free and independent.”

Kátya Chamma (1961) Brazilian singer and writer

Source: Interview at Recanto das Letras http://recantodasletras.com.br/entrevistas/625556, 2007.

Vladimir Lenin photo

“For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Source: (1917), Ch. 3

Hermann Cohen photo
George S. Patton IV photo
Dorothy L. Sayers photo
Bernard Lewis photo
Alan Keyes photo

“Freedom does not mean doing what you can get away with, doing what you please. It means, instead, having the opportunity to do what you ought to do--for family and for community and for humanity as a whole.”

Alan Keyes (1950) American politician

Speech at Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, March 4, 2000. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/00_03_04fairmont.htm.
2000

Margaret Mead photo

“p. 14-15 as cited in: Theodore Schwartz (1979) Socialization As Cultural Communication.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1970s, Culture and commitment, 1970, p. 14-15

Jennifer Beals photo

“The advent of modern communication technology has simply facilitated the rapid dissemination of increasingly trivial information.”

William J. Bernstein (1948) economist

Source: The Four Pillars of Investing (2002), Chapter 5, Tops: A History Of Manias, p. 131

Roger Lea MacBride photo
John P. Kotter photo

“Great vision communication usually means heartfelt messages are coming from real human beings.”

John P. Kotter (1947) author of The heart of Change

Step 4, p. 95
The Heart of Change, (2002)

Michael J. Sandel photo
John D. Carmack photo
Ellen Willis photo
David Kurten photo

“The self-righteous inhabitants of the out-of-touch London political-media bubble are still Pharisaical in their own sense of moral superiority, yet to those living in communities ripped apart by massive immigration and rapid destabilising cultural change, they are despicable in their hypocrisy.”

David Kurten (1971) British politician

Left Rages Against Trump Tweets While Embracing Muslim MP Who Tweeted Grooming Victims Should ‘Shut Up for the Sake of Diversity’ http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/06/left-rages-against-trump-tweets-embracing-politicians-grooming-victims-shut-up/ (December 6, 2017)

Hayley Jensen photo
Marine Le Pen photo

“The immigrationist religion is an insult for human beings, whose integrity is always bound to one national community, one language, one culture.”

Marine Le Pen (1968) French lawyer and politician

Speech of Marine Le Pen at the summer festival of Frejus, Front National (September 2016) http://www.frontnational.com/videos/discours-de-marine-le-pen-aux-estivales-de-frejus/

“The aim of Satanic power is to cut off communication with God. To accomplish this aim he deludes the soul with a sense of defeat, covers him with a thick cloud of darkness, depresses and oppresses the spirit, which in turn hinders prayer and leads to unbelief – thus destroying all power.”

James O. Fraser (1886–1938) missionary to China, inventor of Tibeto-Burman Nosu alphabet

20 March 1916 Source: Geraldine Taylor. Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser. Singapore: OMF International (IHQ) Ltd., 1998, 157.

Gustave Courbet photo
Poul Anderson photo

“What I want is to commune with the land. In company I couldn’t admit that. It’d sound too pompous, as though I were from Greenpeace or the People’s Republic of Berkeley.”

Poul Anderson (1926–2001) American science fiction and fantasy writer

The Year of the Ransom (p. 643)
Time Patrol

Georg Simmel photo
Michel Foucault photo
Keith Ferrazzi photo
Amartya Sen photo

“People's identities as Indians, as Asians, or as members of the human race seemed to give way — quite suddenly — to sectarian identification with Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh communities.”

Amartya Sen (1933) Indian economist

Amartya Sen, Reason before Identitiy: The Romanes Lecture for 1998, Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 20
1990s

Antonio Negri photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“This State, this city, this campus, have stood long for both human rights and human enlightenment — and let that forever be true. This Nation is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. This Nation is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. That will go on, and those rights will expand until the standard first forged by the Nation's founders has been reached, and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law. But this Nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizens' rights. Equally important, though too often not discussed, is the citizen's responsibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other. I speak to you today, therefore, not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities. They are many in number and different in nature. They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. Equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others, by virtue of their public or their private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future, or their legacy from the past. Increased responsibility goes with increased ability, for "of those to whom much is given, much is required."”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, Address at Vanderbilt University

Koenraad Elst photo
Dana Gioia photo
Thorstein Veblen photo

“I believe creative work needs communication. So it’s extremely encouraging to be with a group of people who form a community and to know that you’re not isolated, although as individuals we must always work in an inner silence.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer

Source: Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations, 1951-1998, Conversation. Interview with Byron Dobell (1957), p. 34

Hillary Clinton photo

“When Rome fell, the Christian answer was, "Create our own communities."”

Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) American historian

Oscar Iden Lecture Series, Lecture 3: "The State of Individuals" (1976)

Amir Taheri photo
David Horowitz photo

“The black middle-class in America is a prosperous community that is now larger in absolute terms than the black underclass. Does its existence not suggest that economic adversity is the result of failures of individual character rather than the lingering after-effects of racial discrimination and a slave system that ceased to exist well over a century ago?”

David Horowitz (1939) Neoconservative activist, writer

[David, Horowitz, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1153, Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks - and Racist Too, FrontPageMagazine.com, January 3, 2001, 2007-02-17]
2001

“After being murdered at Stalin's orders, Lev Davidovich Bronstein, alias Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), lived on for decades as the unassailable hero of aesthetically minded progressives who wished to persuade themselves that there could be a vegetarian version of communism.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

'Leon Trotsky', p. 747
Essays and reviews, Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time (2007)

Eric Holder photo
Sam Harris photo

“The treatment of women in Muslim communities throughout the world is unconscionable.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris, "Bombing Our Illusions" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/bombing-our-illusions_b_8615.html (10 October 2005)
2000s

Warren Farrell photo

“In a Stage II world, in communities in which survival is mastered enough to create a balance with self-fulfillment, we have the option of “relationship language” that nourishes the soul.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 116.

“An earlier version of this volume was originally contracted for and produced as a monograph by Warner Modular Communications, Inc., a subsidiary member of the Warner communications and entertainment conglomerate. The publishing house had run a relatively independent operation up to the time of the controversy over this document. The editors and publisher were enthusiastic about the monograph and committed themselves to put it out quickly and to promote it with vigor. But just prior to publication, in the fall of 1973, officials of the parent company got wind of it, looked at it, and were horrified by its “unpatriotic” contents. Mr. William Sarnoff, a high officer of the parent company, for example, was deeply pained by our statement on page 7 of the original that the “leadership in the United States, as a result of its dominant position and wide-ranging counter-revolutionary efforts, has been the single most important instigator, administrator, and moral and material sustainer of serious bloodbaths in the years that followed World War II.” So pained were Sarnoff and his business associates, in fact, that they were quite prepared to violate a contractual obligation in order to assure that no such material would see the light of day. […] they decided to close down the publishing house […]. The history of the suppressed monograph is an authentic instance of private censorship of ideas per se. The uniqueness of the episode lies only in the manner of suppression. Usually, private intervention in the book market is anticipatory, with regrets that the manuscript is unacceptable, perhaps “unmarketable.””

Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) American journalist

Sometimes the latter contention is only an excuse for unwillingness to market, although it may sometimes reflect an accurate assessment of how the media and journals will receive books that are strongly critical of the established order.
Source: The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, with Noam Chomsky, 1979, pp. xiv-xvii.