“Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.”
José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist
"Los Viajes"
“The pretence that numbers are not the humble creation of man, but are the exacting language of the Universe and therefore possess the secret of all things, is comforting, terrifying and mesmeric.”
Fear of Drowning By Numbers
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Peter Greenaway266
British film director 1942Related quotes
Paul Carus (1852–1919) American philosopher
"Reflections on Magic Squares" in The Monist, Vol. 16 (1906), p. 139
“Numbers constitute the only universal language.”
Nathanael West (1903–1940) American writer
John Leonard (1939–2008) American critic, writer, and commentator
"Books of the Times" in The New York Times (6 July 1981)
Context: For every wicked witch there is, in our culture, a black magician, an alchemist, a Flying Dutchman, a Doctor Strangelove, a Vincent Price. The scientist, like the magician, possesses secrets. A secret — expertise — is somehow perceived as antidemocratic, and therefore ought to be unnatural. We have come a long way from Prometheus to Faust to Frankenstein. And even Frankenstein's monster is now a joke. Mr. Barnouw reminds us of "The Four Troublesome Heads" (1898), in which a conjuror punishes three of his own severed heads because they sing out of tune; he hits them with a banjo.
This book, at once scrupulous and provocative, reminds us of two habits of mind we seem to have misplace — innocent wonder and an appreciation of practical brain power. Peeled grapes are out and LSD is in. (Again, alas.) If we laugh at Frankenstein, we also laugh at Bambi. We are more inclined to shrug than we are to gasp. Isn't everything a trick? Am I putting you on? Of course not; you wouldn't fit. Hit me with a banjo.
“A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.”
Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks
Source: Black Skin, White Masks
“The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested”
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) author, critic and playwright from the United States
Literary Friends and Acquaintance : A Personal Retrospect of American Authorship (1900) http://archive.org/stream/oliverwendellhol03395gut/old/whowh10.txt <br class="br">Context: The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested, and this was, above all, the secret of the charm that Doctor Holmes had for every one. No doubt he knew it, for what that most alert intelligence did not know of itself was scarcely worth knowing. This knowledge was one of his chief pleasures, I fancy; he rejoiced in the consciousness which is one of the highest attributes of the highly organized man, and he did not care for the consequences in your mind, if you were so stupid as not to take him aright.
Hugo Munsterberg (1863–1916) German-American psychologist, philosopher and agitator
Source: Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1913), p. 18-19
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
Profiles of the Future (1962)
1960s