“They say that nameless things change constantly -that names fix them in place like pins. But without a name, a thing isn't quite real either.”

—  Holly Black

Source: Ironside

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "They say that nameless things change constantly -that names fix them in place like pins. But without a name, a thing is…" by Holly Black?
Holly Black photo
Holly Black 160
American children's fiction writer 1971

Related quotes

Holly Black photo

“They say that nameless things change constantly—that names fix them in place like pins.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Ironside

Jordan Peterson photo

“A thing isn't quite real until you name it.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"

Laozi photo

“The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things.”

Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as interpreted by Ursula K. LeGuin (1998)
Context: The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things.
So the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.

Marilyn Manson photo

“Name is a fence and within it you are nameless.”

Samuli Paronen (1917–1974)

Samuli Paronen, quoted in: M.kumar. Dictionary of Quotations, APH Publishing, 2008. p. 168

Mercedes Lackey photo
Paddy Chayefsky photo

“In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion!”

Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981) American playwright, screenwriter and novelist

Network (1976)
Context: You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion!

Laozi photo

“The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.”

Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html [Public domain translation]
Context: The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.

Gertrude Stein photo

Related topics