“Even if mankind had any desire to rid itself of the Seven Deadly Sins, Greed had been assured of a place in our hearts by virtue of time. By writing it down on a piece of paper and parading it as law and belief, Greed could be resurrected at a moment's notice.
That was the beauty of the written word. It was invariably taken at face value and granted permit to be spoken as the truth. It lived longer than the man.
And wreaked havoc in the process.”
Decipher, The First Time, p. 7 (2001).
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Stel Pavlou 1
British writer 1970Related quotes

An Outline of Philosophy Ch.4 Language (1927)
1920s
Context: Written words differ from spoken words in being material structures. A spoken word is a process in the physical world, having an essential time-order; a written word is a series of pieces of matter, having an essential space-order.
“Capitalism: Nothing so mean could be right. Greed is the ugliest of the capital sins.”
Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100
Source: Dragon Magic (1972), Chapter 3, “Sirrush-Lau” (p. 64)

“(Singapore) is not even a place where a white man is permitted to go to pieces….”
"Tanah Melayu".
Non-Fiction, Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (1986)
Source: Introduction to Waterwise in Marion Zimmer Bradley (ed.), Sword and Sorceress 7 (1990), p. 199