Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art
English Prose Style (1928)
Literary Quotes
“A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.”
Entry (1954)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, howe…" by Eric Hoffer?
Eric Hoffer240
American philosopher 1898–1983Related quotes
“Through words to the meaning of thoughts with no words.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
“Hidden Words,” p. 58
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Stone and a Word”
“All human thought proceeds through words, so if words are askew, thought cannot proceed aright.”
Huston Smith book The World's Religions
On Confucian values.
The World's Religions (1991)
Context: All human thought proceeds through words, so if words are askew, thought cannot proceed aright. When Confucius says that nothing is more important than that a father be a father, that a ruler be a ruler, he is saying that we must know what we mean when we use those words. But equally important, the words must mean the right things. Rectification of Names is the call for a normative semantics--the creation of a language in which key nouns carry the meanings they should carry if life is to be well ordered.
“They borrow words for thoughts they cannot feel”
Jones Very (1813–1880) American poet and essayist
From The Dead
Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846) Swedish poet, professor and bishop
"Epilog vid Magisterpromotionen i Lund 1820".
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader
Narada Bhakti Sutras (2001)
Context: A million words cannot express what a glance can convey, and a million glances cannot express what a moment of silence can. A moment of silence conveys so much more than any other expression. Still, love is beyond silence too. You can describe silence to some extent, but that which is beyond silence cannot be expressed. You give, you hug... but still something remains unexpressed.
Evgeny Baratynsky (1800–1844) Russian poet
1840 <br class="br"> From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry, http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/mdenner/Demo/texts/thoughts_more_thoughts.html Northwestern University (2001)
“Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Ferdinand de Saussure book Course in General Linguistics
Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 111-112
Source: Course in General Linguistics
Context: Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula. here are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language.