Quotes about expression
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Source: Sorceress of Darshiva
Source: Your God Is Too Safe
Source: Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living
"On Freedom" (1940), p. 13 http://books.google.com/books?id=Q1UxYzuI2oQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false
1950s, Out of My Later Years (1950)
Context: This freedom of communication is indispensable for the development and extension of scientific knowledge, a consideration of much practical import. In the first instance it must be guaranteed by law. But laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man may present his views without penalty there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population. Such an ideal of external liberty can never be fully attained but must be sought unremittingly if scientific thought, and philosophical and creative thinking in general, are to be advanced as far as possible.
Source: Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals, 1934-1939
Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
“To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.”
Source: The Stones of Venice
As quoted in The Life and Work of Martha Graham (1991) by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, <!-- de Mille precedes the Graham quotation with: "The greatest thing she ever said to me was in 1943 after the opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft's restaurant over a soda. I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly, ... " -->
Context: There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
"Mr. Chesterton in Hysterics," in The Clarion, (14 November 1913), re-published in The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17 (1982), p. 219.
Variant: I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
Source: Young Rebecca: Writings, 1911-1917
Das Naturgesetz und die Struktur der Materie (1967), as translated in Natural Law and the Structure of Matter (1981), p. 34
Source: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
“I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of mankind — the landscape of the human soul.”
I Am A Dancer (1952)
Source: Blood Memory
Context: I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of mankind — the landscape of the human soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human being can be.
“Expressing yourself when he takes for granted doesn't work.”
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
“I may not feel significant until someone expresses love to me.”
The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
"Proclamation 3560 — Thanksgiving Day, 1963" (5 November 1963) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9511<!-- Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project -->
1963
Context: Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers — for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.
Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings — let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.
“The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it”
JMSNews (31 January 2008) http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17708&topic=Spiderman.
Context: The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it:
Will you go out with me?
I think I like you.
I care for you.
I love you.
Marry me.
Goodbye.
“If you wake up feeling no pain, you know you're dead. (Russian expression)”
Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage
“Beauty without expression is boring.”
Source: Miss Lonelyhearts and A Cool Million
“Perfect love is the most beautiful of all frustrations because it is more than one can express.”
" … and God wept", I believe is the next part of that story.
Chicago '91 (1991)
Source: Closer
Source: Beverley Nichols' Cats' A Z
Part 2: The Mystique of Enlightenment
The Mystique of Enlightenment (1982)
Source: The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U.G. Krishnamurti
“I hate Dr Phil. Dr Phil told me to express my feelings, so I'm expressing them.”
Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
“After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
"The Rest is Silence"
Source: Music at Night and Other Essays (1931)
“Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.”
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.
Source: Society of the Spectacle (1967), Ch. 8, sct. 207 (confer Comte de Lautréamont, Poésies II, 1870).
“If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good”