“I speak a language full and intelligible. I deal not in hints and intimations. [...] First, that I may be clearly understood. Secondly, that it may be seen I am in earnest; and, thirdly, because it is an affront to truth to treat falsehood with complaisance.”
1790s, The Age of Reason, Part III (1807)
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Thomas Paine262
English and American political activist 1737–1809Related quotes
“If I do not speak in a language that can be understood there is little chance for a dialogue.”
Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist
José María Aznar (1953) Spanish President from 1996 to 2004
On an interview with the Catalan Autonomous Television, just before politically coallitioning with Catalan, Canarian and Basque nationalists <br class="br">Source: L' Aznar destrossant la llengua catalana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m95BZOKDPs, December 2006.
Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.56
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist
"To the Public", No. 1 (1 January 1831) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2928t.html <br class="br">The Liberator (1831 - 1866) <br class="br">Context: I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
